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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, toAustrianparents.Hestudied
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, the ORT Orchestra 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.
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.
Carlos Kalmar
The position of Artistic Director
and Principal Conductor is partially
underwritten by a generous gift
from the Sage Foundation.
