Artistic Leadership
Carlos Kalmar, Principal Conductor & Artistic Director
Carlos Kalmar, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor
Carlos Kalmar has been the Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival since 2000, and the Artistic Director of the Festival since 2011. Kalmar conducts over half of this summer’s programs (weeks 1-3 and 8-10) and plays a central role in shaping the Festival’s artistic vision.
Under Kalmar’s leadership the Festival moved to its new home in Millennium Park in 2004, has released eight highly-regarded CDs and continues to be one of the world’s preeminent classical music festivals.
In addition to serving as Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival, Kalmar is Music Director of the Oregon Symphony (which made its Carnegie Hall debut this spring). He recently became Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española in Madrid, Spain. In recent years Kalmar was also invited to conduct subscription series concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Kalmar was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, to Austrian parents. He studied conducting with Karl Österreicher at the College for Music in Vienna, and won First Prize at the Hans Swarowsky Conducting Competition in Vienna in June 1984. From 1987 to 1991 he was Chief Conductor of the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, and General Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra between 1991 and 1995.
From 1996 through 2000, Carlos Kalmar was the General Music Director of the Opera House and Philharmonic Orchestra in Dessau, Germany. Between 2000 and 2003, he was Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna. His international conducting appearances have included the Prague Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, the National Orchestra of Spain, the ORT Orchestra of Florence, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Hamburg State Opera, the BBC Welsh, the Residentie, the Vienna State Opera, the Yomiuri Japan Orchestra, the Flemish Radio, and the Zurich Opera. He also regularly conducts the Cleveland, Baltimore and St. Louis Orchestras.
International critics have called Carlos Kalmar “skillfully guiding and buoyant” (Chicago Tribune); “gutsy and precise” (Cincinnati Post); “graceful and intensely propulsive” (Portland Oregonian); “athletically vigorous” (Indianapolis Star); “crystal clear and transparent”; “stylistic feeling and musical fire” (Opernglas); “positively liberated” with “grit and propulsion.” (New York Post) He now lives in Vienna.
Christopher Bell, Chorus Director
Christopher Bell, Chorus Director
Christopher Bell has been the Chorus Director of the Grant Park Music Festival since 2001. Bell oversees a chorus of more than 100 singers plus the Apprentice Chorale made up of young singers from local universities, prepares the Festival’s six choral programs and also conducts the orchestra for several programs.
During his tenure he and the chorus have been recipients of the coveted Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence given by Chorus America as well as glowing reviews from both critics and audiences alike. This summer the Grant Park Chorus will also release its first CD, The Pulitzer Project which was recorded in 2010.
In addition to working with Grant Park, Christopher Bell is also the Chorus Master of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus, and the Belfast Philharmonic Choir. Largely responsible for the formation of the National Youth Choir of Scotland in 1996, he has been its Artistic Director ever since, conducting them in a highly successful BBC Proms debut in July 2006.
Born in Belfast, Mr. Bell was educated at Edinburgh University and held his first post as Associate Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony. Since then, he has worked with many of the major orchestras in the UK and Ireland, including the Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, BBC Scottish Symphony, Ulster Orchestra, Scottish Chamber, City of London Sinfonia London Concert, RTE National Symphony, RTE Concert and the Bournemouth Symphony. He conducted the Ulster Orchestra in a special program for BBC television, which was broadcast in the Spring of 2007.
Christopher Bell was Chorus Master of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra between 1989 and 2002 and was the first Artistic Director of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union. Further afield, he has conducted the Netherlands Radio Choir and the Opera Australia Melbourne Chorus, and last season he made his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
He is well-known for his abilities to work with young musicians. Before his current posts with the RSNO Junior Chorus and the National Youth Choir of Scotland, he was the founding conductor of the Ulster Youth Choir and director of the TOTAL Aberdeen Youth Choir for six years.
