Carlos Miguel Prieto’s charismatic conducting and expressive interpretations have led to major engagements and critical acclaim throughout the Americas, Europe, and internationally. Musical America recognized his artistic contributions by honoring him as 2019 Conductor of the Year.
The 2019/2020 season marks Prieto’s fourteenth season as Music Director of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), where he has been a part of the cultural revitalization of New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. On February 27, 2018, Prieto led the LPO in its Carnegie Hall debut in a concert celebrating the 80th birthday of composer Philip Glass.
Prieto’s 2019/2020 season includes his debut with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, returns to the NDR Elbphilharmonie, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Hawaii Symphony Orchestra,Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, as well as his first appearance with The Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall since his debut in 2017.
As a guest conductor, Prieto has worked extensively with leading international orchestras including the BBC National Orchestra of Wales,Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Detroit Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, The Hallé, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington DC), National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, Orquesta de Valencia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, RTE National Orchestra, and RTVE Symphony Orchestra.
A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, Prieto is a highly influential cultural leader as well as the foremost Mexican conductor of his generation. Prieto has been the Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México (OSN), the country’s most important orchestra, since 2007. In November 2016, he led the OSN on a critically-acclaimed nine-concert tour of Germany and Austria performing the works of Mexican and Latin American composers in halls such as the Wiener Musikverein. In 2008, he was appointed Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónicade Minería, a hand-picked orchestra which performs a two-month long series of summer programs in Mexico City.
Prieto is renowned for championing and commissioning the music of Latin American composers having conducted over 100 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers.
Prieto’s most recent recording with the Orchestra of the Americas for Linn Records was the critically-acclaimed Pan-American Reflections, with works by Copland and Chavez. Other recent recordings include Elgar and Finzi violin concertos with Ning Feng and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Rachmaninoff’s second and third piano concertos with Boris Giltburg and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, works by Bruch, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn with violinist Philippe Quint and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería on Avanticlassic, and Korngold’s Violin Concerto on Naxos, which received two Grammy nominations. In 2013, Prieto released a 12-DVD set of live recordings of the complete symphonies of Mahler as part of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería’s 35th Anniversary season.
A passionate proponent of music education, Prieto served as Principal Conductor of the Orchestra of the Americas (formerly Youth Orchestra of the Americas) from its inception in 2002 until 2011, when he was appointed Music Director. In 2010 he conducted the ensemble alongside Valery Gergiev on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the World Economic Forum at Carnegie Hall. In Summer 2019, Prieto led the Orchestra of the Americas on tour through his native Mexico and in summer 2020 will tour Russia and Panama with the ensemble. Prieto led Carnegie Hall’s NYO2 in 2018 and 2019, and in 2020 will return with the NYO-USA leading a performance at Carnegie Hall and a North American tour.
In April 2018, Prieto was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music by Loyola University New Orleans.