About Gonzalo Farias

An engaging orchestral conductor, award-winning pianist, and passionate educator, Gonzalo Farias is the Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony. In an ever-changing world, Gonzalo’s desire is to establish music-making as a way of rethinking our place in society by cultivating respect, trust, and cooperation among all people in our community.

Gonzalo Farias served previously as the Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony, the Associate Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony, the Assistant Conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Conducting Fellow at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Praised by his “clear, engaging” style “with a lyrical, almost Zen-like quality”, Farias has been established “as a focused, musical artist who knows what he wants and how to get it - with grace and substance.” As former Music Director of the Joliet Symphony Orchestra, Farias embraced the city of Joliet and its Hispanic residents of the greater Chicago area with pre-concert lectures, Latin-based repertoire, and a unique side-by-side bilingual narration of Bizet’s Carmen.

Farias was recently selected to conduct at the esteemed Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, the most important showcase for conductors in America. Designed by the League of American Orchestras, the National Conductor Preview chooses the most promising talents in the world for their podium gift and commitment to the future of American orchestras. Farias was also appointed by the National Endowment for the Arts as a reviewing member for the Grant for Art Projects, judging applications from diverse music institutions to support the latest and most important artistic endeavors in the US.

During the summers, Farias has worked with Jaap Van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland as well as with Neeme and Paavo Järvi at the Pärnu Music Festival. In the United States, he was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Bruno Walter Memorial Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Music Festival and named “Emergent Conductor” by Victor Yampolsky at the Peninsula Music Festival. He also attended the Pierre Monteux Festival where he received the Bernard Osher Scholar Prize. Out of 566 applicants and 78 countries, he was chosen as one of 24 finalists in the prestigious 2018 Malko Conducting Competition with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra. Hailed by the Gramophone magazine critics, Farias offered one the “most fluent, honest, open-hearted and pointed performances”.

Farias was born in Santiago de Chile, where he began his piano studies at age five. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the P.C. University of Chile and then continued his graduate piano studies at the New England Conservatory as a full-scholarship student of Wha-Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. He has won first prize at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition and awards at the Maria Canals and Luis Sigall Piano Competitions. As a conductor, Farias attended the University of Illinois working with Donald Schleicher, the Peabody Conservatory with Marin Alsop, and worked privately with Larry Rachleff and Otto-Werner Mueller.

Besides having a fond love for piano, chamber, and contemporary music, Farias is a passionate supporter of second-order cybernetics as a way to help understand communication and how complex systems organize, coordinate, and interconnect with one another. This includes the interdependent and recursive nature of musical experiences, in which performers and audiences alike interact, respond, and co-create each other’s space. His final Doctoral thesis “Logical Predictions and Cybernetics” explores the case of Cornelius Cardew’s “The Great Learning” to redefine music activity as a self-organized organization. In addition to that, he has a warm affection for his formal studies of Zen Buddhism, which has been a major influence on his approach to music and life.

About Josefina Maldonado

Dallas-born mezzo-soprano, Josefina Maldonado, has been critically acclaimed by The Texas Classical Review and Theater Jones as ‘vocally superb’ with a ‘remarkably rich timbre’. Ms. Maldonado was a young artist with The Dallas Opera Outreach Program in multiple roles in 2019. That year she also made her European debut as a principal artist in the modern-day premieres of two 17th century serenatas by Johannes Schmelzer: Le veglie ossequiose and Die sieben Alter stimmen zusammen, for the Olomouc’s Baroque Festival in the Czech Republic. In May 2002 she made her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the Cincinnati May Festival in John Adams’ El Niño, conducted by the composer, followed by her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in the same role in November 2022. She was reengaged by the Cleveland Orchestra to sing Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater March 21-23, 2024, conducted by Dalia Stasevska. Ms. Maldonado holds a B.M. from the University of North Texas where she was a frequently featured soloist with the UNT Symphony Orchestra. Her roles with UNT Opera included Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Siébel in Faust and Mother Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmélites.

About the Houston Symphony

Under the leadership of Music Director Juraj Valčuha, the Grammy Award-winning Houston Symphony continues to inspire and engage diverse audiences in Houston and beyond with exceptional musical performances and enduring community impact. The Symphony held its inaugural performance at The Majestic Theater in downtown Houston on June 21, 1913. Now in its second century as one of America’s premier orchestras, the Houston Symphony is one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Texas and remains a cultural cornerstone of the region.

With an annual operating budget of $40.7 million, the Symphony presents over 130 concerts each year, making it one of the largest performing arts organizations in Texas. Its reach extends far beyond the concert hall, delivering more than 600 performances annually at schools, community centers, hospitals, and other venues, engaging over 160,000 people throughout Greater Houston.

The Symphony's innovative response to the COVID-19 pandemic—completing its 2020-21 Season with in-person audiences and weekly livestreams—earned national recognition and the ASCAP Foundation’s Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Broadcast/Media Award. Its commitment to innovation continues, with its 2024-25 Season reaching audiences in over 45 countries and all 50 states via livestreaming, making it one of the few American orchestras to sustain such global digital engagement.

Renowned for its artistry, the Symphony has a distinguished recording legacy under prestigious labels, including Koch International Classics, Naxos, RCA Red Seal, and Pentatone. Highlights include a Grammy and ECHO Klassik Award-winning live recording of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck and recent releases such as Jimmy López Bellido’s Aurora and Ad Astra (2022) and Jennifer Higdon’s Duo Duel (2023).

The Symphony’s educational impact is equally remarkable, with its Harry and Cora Sue Mach Student Concert Series reaching over 50,000 students annually. Its In Harmony after-school program and partnerships with institutions like the Houston Methodist Hospital, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Texas Children’s Hospital further demonstrate the Symphony’s commitment to fostering community connections and accessibility to the arts.

With a vision centered on artistic excellence, community engagement, and accessibility, the Houston Symphony remains a cultural leader in Houston and a global ambassador for the transformative power of music.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Eric Skelly: eric.skelly@houstonsymphony.org

Jessica Henderson: jessica@theckpgroup.com