Around the Music Festival

Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare has extended his contract with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra in the United States. Payare has been a music director since the 2019/20 season, and the extension of the contract will extend his term to the 2025/2026 season.

Payare is 40 years old born in Puerto La Cruz. He studied the French horn at the Venezuelan music education system “El Sistema” and became a member of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra. After that, in 2004, he officially began studying as a conductor under Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu.

After becoming a conductor, he worked as an assistant conductor for Claudio Abbado and Gustavo Dudamel before attending Bernard Haitink’s conducting masterclass in Lucerne. He won the 2012 Marco International Conductor Competition in Copenhagen.

After that, in 2014, he became the principal conductor and music director of the Ulster Orchestra in Northern Ireland (-2019). In 2015, he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in place of Lorin Maazel, who died the previous year, and became the principal conductor of the Castleton Music Festival held by Maazel.

Photo：Nordic Artists Management