'El Jangueo': Houston Symphony Conductor Gonzalo Farias

Meet Gonzalo Farias | El Jangueo

Born in Santiago de Chile, Gonzalo Farias is an award-winning pianist, educator, and a conductor of the Houston Symphony, who uses music to foster respect, trust, and cooperation in the community.

HOUSTON - Gonzalo Farias, an engaging orchestral conductor, award-winning pianist, and passionate educator, currently serves as a conductor of the Houston Symphony.

‘It gave me the freedom’

The backstory:

Born in Santiago de Chile, Farias began his piano studies at age five. He earned his bachelor’s degree at the P.C. University of Chile and continued his graduate studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston as a full-scholarship student. He has won first prize at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition and received awards at the Maria Canals and Luis Sigall Piano Competitions.

As a conductor, Farias studied at the University of Illinois, the Peabody Conservatory, and worked privately with esteemed mentors.

"My real dream my whole life was to be a conductor, and it was hard because there's not an easy way. I was very lucky because I was young playing the piano and had a scholarship to come to the states and I moved to Boston," Farias said.

While no one in his family had prior music experience, he is now in Houston as a conductor.

"It gave me the freedom to really choose to do this [become a conductor]," Farias said.

Farias said he would practice 12–14 hours a day to be at the top of his craft, and it empowered him to like what he was doing.

"One of the reasons for music to exist is to heal. Music allows us to be able to come back to ourselves and be who we truly are," Farias said.

What we know:

In a world that is constantly evolving, Farias aims to use music as a tool for rethinking our societal roles, fostering respect, trust, and cooperation within the community.

Farias has an impressive track record, having previously held positions as the Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and the Jacksonville Symphony, as well as the Assistant Conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. He was also a Conducting Fellow at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

His style has been praised for its clarity and engaging nature, described as having a "lyrical, almost Zen-like quality."

As the former Music Director of the Joliet Symphony Orchestra, Farias connected with the city’s Hispanic residents through pre-concert lectures, Latin-based repertoire, and a unique bilingual narration of Bizet’s Carmen.

Recently, Farias was selected to conduct at the prestigious Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, a showcase for promising conductors in America, organized by the League of American Orchestras. His commitment to the future of American orchestras was further recognized when he was appointed by the National Endowment for the Arts as a reviewing member for the Grant for Art Projects, evaluating applications from diverse music institutions.

Farias has spent summers working with renowned conductors such as Jaap Van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, and Neeme and Paavo Järvi at the Pärnu Music Festival. In the U.S., he was a two-time recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Music Festival and was named "Emergent Conductor" by Victor Yampolsky at the Peninsula Music Festival. He also attended the Pierre Monteux Festival, receiving the Bernard Osher Scholar Prize. Out of 566 applicants from 78 countries, Farias was chosen as one of 24 finalists in the 2018 Malko Conducting Competition with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, earning acclaim from Gramophone magazine critics for his "fluent, honest, open-hearted and pointed performances."

Beyond his love of piano, chamber, and contemporary music, Farias is a proponent of second-order cybernetics, exploring how complex systems interconnect and communicate. His doctoral thesis, "Logical Predictions and Cybernetics," examines Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning to redefine music as a self-organized activity. His studies in Zen Buddhism have also significantly influenced his approach to music and life.