Six-time Grammy Winner Conducts NZSO National Youth Orchestra

Six-time Grammy Award-winning conductor Giancarlo Guerrero leads the NZSO National Youth Orchestra for two unforgettable performances in Wellington and Auckland from 30 June.

Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero credit: Lukasz Rajchert

Maestro Guerrero, renowned Music Director of the Nashville Symphony, has worked with young musicians and training orchestras, along with championing new music, throughout his prestigious career.

His passion for inspiring young musicians is rooted in his own background.

“I was born in Nicaragua and grew up in Costa Rica — I came from a completely non-musical family. No one in my immediate family even knew how to read music. My father liked mariachi music, and my mother liked Julio Iglesias. So for us, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky was as alien as you can imagine,” he said in a 2019 interview.

“My father always thought I was able to carry a tune, and he saw an ad in the paper for youth orchestra auditions. I started playing percussion at around 12 or 13 years old. Some kids start at four years old — I started late, but it didn’t stop me.”

For NYO Enigma in association with the Adam Foundation, the National Youth Orchestra performs Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid: Suite, Edward Elgar’s haunting Enigma Variations and the world premiere of New Zealand composer Nathaniel Otley’s The Convergence of Oceans.

New Zealanders can also enjoy the Wellington performance on 30 June livestreamed via the Orchestra’s streaming platform NZSO+.

Nimrod from Enigma Variations was recently voted as the greatest piece of British classical music in a Classic FM poll. Two other works by Elgar (Land of Hope and Glory and Cello Concerto) also made the top 10 list.

Nathaniel Otley is the 2023 NYO Composer-in-Residence. Recipient of scholarships from both the Fulbright Foundation and Sydney Conservatorium, in 2019, he won the NZSO Todd Corporation Young Composer Award.

In September Maestro Guerrero returns to conduct the NZSO in Wellington and Auckland with Bernstein & Copland Til Time Shall End in association with Summerset Retirement Villages. The concerts feature celebrated pianist Joyce Yang.

Tickets to all concerts are available via Ticketmaster. For more information on NZSO+ go to nzso.co.nz

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