Around the Music Festival

Argentine conductor Pedro Ignacio Calderón passed away on July 13 at the age of 92. Having long served as music director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra and principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, he was a towering figure in the music world who made significant contributions to the development of musical culture.

He was born in Paraná, a river port city in east-central Argentina, northwest of the capital, Buenos Aires. After studying at a local music school, he served as the resident conductor of the National University of Tucumán Symphony Orchestra in Buenos Aires in 1958.

Subsequently, he studied in Italy—including at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome—and honed his craft under the guidance of Alberto Ginastera, Hermann Scherchen, and Fernando Previtali.

In 1963, he shared first prize with Claudio Abbado and Zdeněk Košler at the Dimitri Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition, organized by the New York Philharmonic, and subsequently served as Leonard Bernstein’s assistant at the orchestra for one year.

After returning to his home country, he served as music director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra for 25 years, notably realizing performances of the complete Mahler symphonies. Subsequently, he served as chief conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1994 to 2015, contributing significantly to raising the standard of South American orchestras through domestic and international tours.

Concurrently, he has intermittently held the positions of general director and artistic director for the orchestra of the Teatro Colón, one of South America’s premier opera houses.

PHOTO：La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional