Oregon Symphony Conductor Bio
Carlos Kalmar
Oregon Symphony Music Director
Carlos Kalmar, now in his sixth season as Music Director of the Oregon Symphony, was first appointed to the post in 2003. He is also Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. During his career, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Vienna’s Tonkunstlerorchester, and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany.
Upcoming engagements include returns to the Saint Louis Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Residente Orchestre in the Netherlands, Czech Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National Orchestra and debut concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. During the past three seasons, Kalmar’s guest conducting engagements in North America have included subscription concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, New World Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Phoenix Symphony and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa.
His international conducting appearances have included the Prague Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, the National Orchestra of Spain, the ORT Orchestra of Florence, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Hamburg State Opera, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Residente, the Vienna State Opera, the Yomiuri Japan Orchestra, the Flemish Radio Orchestra and the Zurich Opera.
Kalmar’s most recent recordings include the 2006 release of the Szymanowski, Martinů and Bartók violin concertos with the Grant Park Orchestra and Jennifer Koh, as well as the 2003 releases of the Joachim and Brahms violin concertos featuring Rachel Barton and the Chicago Symphony and American Works for Organ and Orchestra featuring David Schrader and the Grant Park Orchestra (2002), both on the Cedille Records label. In the spring of 2008 Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra will be featured on two new Cedille Records releases – one of works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis and the other featuring the world-renowned mezzo soprano Jennifer Larmore.
Carlos Kalmar was born in Uruguay to Austrian parents. He showed an interest in music at an early age and began studying violin at age 6. By age 15 his musical development led him to the Vienna Academy of Music, where he studied conducting with Karl Osterreicher.
He lives in Portland and Vienna.