Carlos Miguel Prieto

Carlos Miguel Prieto — Musical America’s 2019 Conductor of the Year — is known for his charismatic conducting and dynamic, expressive interpretations, which have led to major engagements and popular acclaim throughout North America, Europe and beyond.

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, Prieto is a highly influential cultural leader as well as the leading Mexican conductor of his generation. Prieto has been the Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México (OSN), the country’s most important orchestra, since 2007. In 2008, he was appointed Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, a hand-picked orchestra which performs a two-month-long series of summer programs in Mexico City. Having conducted over 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers, Prieto is renowned for championing and commissioning the music of Latin American composers. In November 2016, he led the OSN on a critically-acclaimed nine-concert tour of Germany and Austria performing the works of Mexican and Latin American composers in halls such as the Wiener Musikverein.

Following a summer leading Carnegie Hall’s first NYO2 tour and the invitation to lead NYO2 again in summer 2019, Maestro Prieto’s 2018/2019 season marks his thirteenth as Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). Since 2006, Prieto has been part of the cultural revitalization of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. On February 27, 2018, Prieto led the LPO in its Carnegie Hall debut in a concert celebrating the 80th birthday of composer Philip Glass.

Maestro Prieto began the 2018/2019 season conducting the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, made his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra in November, and returned to the Detroit Symphony in December. In spring 2019, Prieto makes return appearances with The Hallé, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and the Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa. In recent seasons, Prieto has appeared with orchestras across the United States and around the world, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Beijing Symphony, The Hallé, NDR Elbphilharmonie, and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

Prieto’s recent recordings include works by Bruch, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, with violinist Philippe Quint and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería on Avanticlassic, and Korngold’s Violin Concerto on Naxos, which received two Grammy nominations. In spring 2013, Prieto released a 12-DVD set of live recordings of the complete symphonies of Mahler as part of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería’s 35th Anniversary season.

A passionate proponent of music education, Prieto served as Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of the Americas from its inception until 2011 when he was appointed Music Director. In early 2010 he conducted the ensemble alongside Valery Gergiev on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Economic Forum at Carnegie Hall. In summer 2018, Prieto led the Orchestra of the Americas on its 2018 European tour with concerts from Lviv, Ukraine to Edinburgh, Scotland.

In April 2018, Prieto was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music by Loyola University New Orleans.