Carlos Miguel Prieto

Carlos Miguel Prieto was born into a musical family of Spanish and French descent in Mexico City. His charismatic conducting is characterized by its dynamism and the expressivity of his interpretations. Prieto is recognized as a highly influential cultural leader and is the foremost Mexican conductor of his generation. He has been the Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, the country’s most important orchestra, since 2007. Prieto has also been Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) since 2006, where he has led the cultural renewal of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. 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 programmes in Mexico City.

Prieto’s 2018-19 season includes his debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Amongst other engagements, he returns to the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Hallé, Detroit Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Bilbao Symphony, and the Valencia Orchestra. He will also return to work with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Other recent highlights include his debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Los Angeles New Music Group and his returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic, and the Auckland Philharmonia. Prieto is in great demand as a guest conductor with many of the top North American orchestras including Cleveland, Dallas, Toronto, and Houston Symphony orchestras and has enjoyed a particularly close and successful relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Since 2002, alongside Gustavo Dudamel, Prieto has conducted the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, which draws young musicians from the entire American continent. A staunch proponent of music education, Prieto served as Principal Conductor of the YOA from its inception until 2011 when he was appointed Music Director. In early 2010 he conducted the YOA alongside Valery Gergiev on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Economic Forum at Carnegie Hall. In 2018 he conducted the orchestra on a tour of European summer festivals, which included performances at the Rheingau and Edinburgh festivals as well as Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie.

Prieto is renowned for championing Latin American music and has conducted over 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers, many of which were commissioned by him.

Prieto has an extensive discography that covers labels including Naxos and Sony. Recent Naxos recordings include Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No.2 & Études-tableaux Op.33, with Boris Giltburg and the RSNO, which won a 2018 Opus Klassik award and was listed as a Gramophone’s Critics’ Choice, 2017, and a recording of Korngold’s Violin Concerto, with violinist Philippe Quint and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, which received two Grammy nominations. His recording of the Elgar and Finzi Violin Concertos with Ning Feng will be released on Channel Classics in November 2018.

A graduate of Princeton and Harvard universities, Carlos Miguel Prieto studied conducting with Jorge Mester, Enrique Diemecke, Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo.