Oregon Symphony Conductor Bio

Carlos Kalmar

Oregon Symphony Music Director

Carlos Kalmar is in his eighth season as music director of the Oregon Symphony. He was first appointed to the post in 2003, and in 2008 his contract was extended until 2013. He is also principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, and in September 2011 Kalmar will take on additional duties as music director of the Spanish Radio/Television Orchestra in Madrid.

In the past, Kalmar has also served as music director of the Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Vienna’s Tonkunstlerorchester and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany. 

Outside of Portland, 2010/11 performances include Kalmar’s subscription debut with the San Francisco Symphony; concerts with the Cincinnati, St. Louis and Baltimore symphonies; and others across Europe and Asia. Last season he made his subscription debuts with the Boston Symphony and Chicago Symphony, and in recent years Kalmar also has performed as a guest with the Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, New World Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and other major ensembles in the United States and abroad.

Kalmar’s next recording will feature the Oregon Symphony with the popular Portland-based group Pink Martini, recorded together at live concerts in the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in spring of 2009. His most recent recordings on the Cedille label include two 2008 releases with the Grant Park Orchestra, one of works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis and one featuring mezzo soprano Jennifer Larmore. His 2006 release of the Szymanowski, Martinu and Bartok Violin Concertos with the Grant Park Orchestra and Jennifer Koh was highly acclaimed, as was the 2003 release of the Joachim and Brahms Violin Concertos featuring Rachel Barton and the Chicago Symphony, and American Works for Organ and Orchestra featuring David Schrader and the Grant Park Orchestra (2002).

Carlos Kalmar was born in Uruguay to Austrian parents. He showed an interest in music at an early age and began studying violin at age 6. By age 15 his musical development led him to the Vienna Academy of Music, where he studied conducting with Karl Osterreicher. He lives in Portland and Vienna.