Jorge Mester

orge Mester leads two major national and regional orchestras in the United States and Mexico and is an internationally sought-after guest conductor. According to the venerable Los Angeles Times Music Critic Martin Bernheimer, "Mester is a master." Indeed, throughout his 40-year career, Mester has brought excellence and prominence to each of the orchestras he has directed.

Since 1984, Mester has served as Music Director of The Pasadena Symphony. In 1998, Mester added Mexico City's leading orchestra to his dossier when he was named Music Director of the Mexico City Philharmonic.

In addition to these posts, Mester is in demand as a guest conductor and was invited to participate in the 1997 opening of the Getty Center in Los Angeles. Mester commanded world-wide attention when he conducted the opening ceremonies and subsequently served as Artistic Director of the Getty Center's first classical music series, "Beyond Beauty: Antiquities as Evidence."

In the summer of 1999, Mester returned to the Aspen Music Festival as guest conductor for its 50th Anniversary Celebration. Mester served as the Festival's Music Director for 21 years and currently holds the title of Conductor Laureate.

Among Mester's other distinguished accomplishments, he served as artistic director of the National Orchestral Association's New Music Project and enjoyed a seven-year tenure as music director of Puerto Rico's Festival Casals. He was also music director of the Louisville Orchestra for 12 years, during which time he made 72 recordings, a prolific achievement for both conductor and orchestra. In addition, he served as chief conductor of the West Australia Symphony Orchestra in Perth and was principal guest conductor of the Adelaide Symphony. A noted opera conductor as well, Mester has led numerous productions for the New York City Opera and the Sidney Opera, including Der Rosenkavalier, Cavalleria Rusticana, Pagliacci, La Bohème and The Marriage of Figaro. In the fall of 2000, Mester will conduct performances of Puccini's Madame Butterfly with the New York City Opera.

Throughout his career, he has given more than 60 world-premiere performances, including several with The Pasadena Symphony, with which he has also made two recordings for the AUracle label, one in 1993 featuring Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra and Saint-Saëns' Symphony #3 ("Organ") with organist Hector Olivera and the other in 1995 featuring Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances.

Mester has also taught some of the most gifted conductors working today, including James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, Andreas Delfs, JoAnn Falletta and John Nelson. In addition, he has championed and helped introduce to the public such artists as Midori, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, Matt Haimovitz, Renee Fleming, Cho-Liang Lin and Robert McDuffie.

Mester, who is of Hungarian descent, was born and raised in Mexico City. As a youth, he played the viola and was encouraged by Leonard Bernstein, with whom he studied as a high school student at Tanglewood and whom he considers a key mentor, and also by Gregor Piatigorsky. He graduated from Juilliard where he studied conducting with the esteemed Jean Morel, and subsequently directed the conducting program at Juilliard for a number of years.

Mester currently resides in Southern California.