conductor
Rafael Payare
Rafael Payare is music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2022 and of the San Diego Symphony since 2019. With both orchestras he recently performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the inaugural California Festival and at the Día de los Muertos Festival in Tijuana. In 2024 he reopened the Jacobs Music Center – the renovated home hall of the San Diego Symphony.
He is also principal conductor of Virginia’s Castleton Festival, a post he has held since 2015, and conductor laureate of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Orchestra, where he was music director from 2014 to 2019, making multiple appearances at London’s BBC Proms.
Rafael Payare is one of the best-known alumni of El Sistema, the renowned music education network in his native Venezuela. From 2001 to 2012 he served as principal horn of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, taking part in tours and recordings with Gustavo Dudamel and other eminent conductors including Giuseppe Sinopoli, who first inspired Payare to conduct himself. Receiving conducting training from El Sistema founder José Antonio Abreu and from subsequent mentors Lorin Maazel and Krzysztof Penderecki, Payare went on to lead all of Venezuela’s major orchestras.
Since winning first prize at Denmark’s Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2012, Payare has made debuts and forged longstanding relationships with many of the world’s preeminent orchestras. He also made a number of important opera debuts, at the Glyndebourne Festival and in the theaters of Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin and London.
Payare performed at The Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017, with the Ulster Orchestra in 2018 and with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in 2024. In the 2025-26 season Rafael Payare makes his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Rafael Payare is music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2022 and of the San Diego Symphony since 2019. With both orchestras he recently performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the inaugural California Festival and at the Día de los Muertos Festival in Tijuana. In 2024 he reopened the Jacobs Music Center – the renovated home hall of the San Diego Symphony.
He is also principal conductor of Virginia’s Castleton Festival, a post he has held since 2015, and conductor laureate of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Orchestra, where he was music director from 2014 to 2019, making multiple appearances at London’s BBC Proms.
Rafael Payare is one of the best-known alumni of El Sistema, the renowned music education network in his native Venezuela. From 2001 to 2012 he served as principal horn of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, taking part in tours and recordings with Gustavo Dudamel and other eminent conductors including Giuseppe Sinopoli, who first inspired Payare to conduct himself. Receiving conducting training from El Sistema founder José Antonio Abreu and from subsequent mentors Lorin Maazel and Krzysztof Penderecki, Payare went on to lead all of Venezuela’s major orchestras.
Since winning first prize at Denmark’s Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2012, Payare has made debuts and forged longstanding relationships with many of the world’s preeminent orchestras. He also made a number of important opera debuts, at the Glyndebourne Festival and in the theaters of Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin and London.
Payare performed at The Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017, with the Ulster Orchestra in 2018 and with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in 2024. In the 2025-26 season Rafael Payare makes his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Rafael Payare is music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal since 2022 and of the San Diego Symphony since 2019. With both orchestras he recently performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, at the inaugural California Festival and at the Día de los Muertos Festival in Tijuana. In 2024 he reopened the Jacobs Music Center – the renovated home hall of the San Diego Symphony.
He is also principal conductor of Virginia’s Castleton Festival, a post he has held since 2015, and conductor laureate of Northern Ireland’s Ulster Orchestra, where he was music director from 2014 to 2019, making multiple appearances at London’s BBC Proms.
Rafael Payare is one of the best-known alumni of El Sistema, the renowned music education network in his native Venezuela. From 2001 to 2012 he served as principal horn of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, taking part in tours and recordings with Gustavo Dudamel and other eminent conductors including Giuseppe Sinopoli, who first inspired Payare to conduct himself. Receiving conducting training from El Sistema founder José Antonio Abreu and from subsequent mentors Lorin Maazel and Krzysztof Penderecki, Payare went on to lead all of Venezuela’s major orchestras.
Since winning first prize at Denmark’s Malko Competition for Young Conductors in 2012, Payare has made debuts and forged longstanding relationships with many of the world’s preeminent orchestras. He also made a number of important opera debuts, at the Glyndebourne Festival and in the theaters of Stockholm, Copenhagen, Berlin and London.
Payare performed at The Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra in 2017, with the Ulster Orchestra in 2018 and with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal in 2024. In the 2025-26 season Rafael Payare makes his debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.