CARLOS KALMAR
has been Principal
Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival
since 2000, and was named Artistic Director
in 2011. Under Kalmar’s leadership, the
Grant Park Music Festival has become one
of the world’s preeminent classical music
festivals, and his role has been essential in
shaping its artistic vision.
In addition to serving as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Grant
Park Music Festival, Carlos Kalmar is in his twelfth season as Music Director of
the Oregon Symphony. He is also Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the
Spanish Radio/Television Symphony Orchestra and Choir in Madrid. In May, 2011
he made his New York debut at Carnegie Hall with the Oregon Symphony as part
of the inaugural
Spring For Music
festival. The recording of this performance
was nominated for two Grammy
®
Awards.
Carlos Kalmar was born in Montevideo, Uruguay to Austrian parents. He
showed an early interest in music and began violin studies at the age of six. By
the time he was 15, his musical promise was such that his family moved back
to Austria in order for him to study conducting with Karl Österreicher at the
Vienna Academy of Music. Kalmar served as Music Director for the Stuttgart
Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Anhaltisches
Theater in Dessau, Germany, and was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
for Vienna’s Tonkünstler-Orchester from 2000 to 2003.
A regular guest conductor with major orchestras in Europe, he has conducted
performances with the Prague Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra,
Czech Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, National Orchestra of Spain, ORT
Orchestra of Florence, Bournemouth Symphony, Hamburg State Opera, BBC
Welsh, Residentie Orkest, and the Vienna State Opera.
Kalmar recently made his subscription series debuts with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the San Francisco Symphony.
Past engagements in the United States have seen him on the podium with the
Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra,
and the New World Symphony.
2 0 1 5 G R AN T PA R K MU S I C F E S T I VA L
CARLOS
KALMAR
The position of Artistic Director and Principal Conductor is partially
underwritten by a generous gift from Sage Foundation.
12 | gpmf.org
