Carlos Kalmar
has been
Principal Conductor of the Grant
Park Music Festival since 2000, and
in 2011 was named Artistic Director
and Principal Conductor. Under
Kalmar’s leadership, the Grant Park
Music Festival has become one of the
world’s preeminent classical music
festivals, and he has played a central
role in shaping its artistic vision.
In addition to serving as Principal
Conductor of the Grant Park Music
Festival, Kalmar is Music Director of
the Oregon Symphony, which made
its Carnegie Hall debut in 2011,
and he recently became Principal
Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica
de Radio Televisión Española in
Madrid, Spain. In recent years
Kalmar was also invited to conduct
subscription series concerts with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra and
Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Kalmar was born in Montevideo,
Uruguay, to Austrian parents.
He studied conducting with Karl
Österreicher at the College for
Music in Vienna, and won First Prize
at the Hans Swarowsky Conducting
Competition in Vienna in June
1984.
From 1987 to 1991 he was
Chief Conductor of the Hamburg
Symphony Orchestra, and General
Music Director and Chief Conductor
of the Stuttgart Philharmonic
Orchestra between 1991 and 1995.
From 1996 through 2000, Carlos
Kalmar was the General Music
Director of the Opera House and
Philharmonic Orchestra in Dessau,
Germany. Between 2000 and 2003,
he was Artistic Director and Principal
Conductor of the Tonkünstler
Orchestra in Vienna. His international
conducting
appearances
have
included the Prague Symphony,
Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
Czech Philharmonic, Berlin Radio
Symphony, the National Orchestra of
Spain, theORTOrchestra of Florence,
the Bournemouth Symphony, the
Hamburg State Opera, the BBC
Welsh, the Residentie, the Vienna
State Opera, the Yomiuri Japan
Orchestra, the Flemish Radio, and
the Zurich Opera. He also regularly
conducts the Cleveland, Baltimore
and St. Louis Orchestras.
International critics have called
Carlos Kalmar “skillfully guiding
and buoyant” (Chicago Tribune);
“
gutsy and precise” (Cincinnati Post);
“
graceful and intensely propulsive”
(
Portland Oregonian); “athletically
vigorous” (Indianapolis Star); “crystal
clear and transparent”; “stylistic
feeling and musical fire” (Opernglas);
“
positively liberated with grit and
propulsion” (New York Post). He now
lives in Portland and Vienna.
8
gpmf.org
Photo: Norman Timonera
Carlos Kalmar
The position of Artistic Director
and Principal Conductor is partially
underwritten by a generous gift
from the Sage Foundation.
