Giancarlo Guerrero Named Next Artistic Director of Chicago's Grant Park Music Festival

SIX-TIME GRAMMY® AWARD-WINNING AND INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED CONDUCTOR GIANCARLO GUERRERO NAMED NEXT ARTISTIC LEADER OF CHICAGO’S GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL

Guerrero Currently Developing Programming for Upcoming Summer Season

CHICAGO – The board of directors of the Grant Park Orchestral Association, producers of the annual Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park, today announced that Giancarlo Guerrero has been named the Festival’s Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. Guerrero, a six-time GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor, led the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus for three concerts during the 2024 season. He is currently completing a 16-year tenure as Music Director of the Nashville Symphony and is the Music Director Designate of Sarasota Orchestra. Guerrero will join the Festival effective immediately to program the concert schedule for the 10-week 2025 season in the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, and is slated to conduct for four weeks next summer. The Festival has presented free classical concerts since 1935, and attracts hundreds of thousands of Chicagoans and visitors each year.

“We are thrilled to welcome Giancarlo Guerrero to Chicago to lead what is regarded as the United States’ most important free classical music institution,” said Paul Winberg, President and CEO of the Grant Park Orchestral Association. “Giancarlo is not only a brilliant conductor with a stellar reputation; he has a history of curating programs that are exciting, surprising and inventive. It is also clear that our musicians are tremendously excited about working with him, and that his concerts last summer sparked palpable energy from our audiences. It is a joy to listen to the music he conducts. The Grant Park Music Festival is highly anticipated by Chicagoans each year; we are confident that our future is in excellent hands with Giancarlo at the podium.”

Praised for his “viscerally powerful performances” (Boston Globe) and described as “at once vigorous, passionate, and nuanced” (BachTrack), Guerrero is one of the most respected orchestra conductors in the world, and will be the eighth person to lead the Festival. He succeeds Carlos Kalmar, who served in the position for 25 seasons, and will now hold the title of conductor laureate. Having made his Festival debut in 2008 and having conducted multiple concerts since, Guerrero is also familiar to Chicago audiences through his frequent guest-conducting appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

“From the moment I first walked onto the stage of the glorious Pritzker Pavilion, and looked out at the sea of people – a snapshot of the entire city of Chicago – it was immediately apparent what a gift the Grant Park Music Festival is to the community. In the heart of this vibrant downtown, in one of the most exciting cities in the world, here is a festival dedicated to orchestral music and designed to be enjoyed by everyone. The mission of the Festival aligns closely with my philosophy that music is meant to be enjoyed by people from all walks of life, without boundaries,” said Guerrero. “I felt such a natural, easy connection with these incredible musicians – including both the stellar orchestra and the spectacular chorus. I recognized sparks flying, musically speaking, from my first interactions with them from the podium. These musicians, hailing from orchestras and opera companies from the region and throughout the world, are really the best of the best.”

This summer, Guerrero stood at the podium to conduct two programs: the first featuring Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 5” on July 10, and the second featuring Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto” and Maurice Duruflé's “Requiem” (performed by the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus) on July 12 and 13. Reviewing the Shostakovich program for the Chicago Tribune, Hannah Edgar praised Guerrero’s “curatorial and interpretive creativity” and added that his pre-performance remarks to the audience “provided context for both pieces… that mirrored his interpretation of the symphony: emphatic, practiced and assertive.” Recognizing that he might be a candidate to replace Kalmar, Edgar concluded that “Guerrero will have no problem leaving his mark.”

Festival concertmaster Jeremy Black also lauded Guerrero’s leadership of the orchestra, saying, “it was clear Giancarlo established a genuine rapport with the orchestra, and his energy and vision for the music was palpable on stage. I remember that one of my orchestra colleagues remarked, ‘he lit a fire under us!’ The musicians in the orchestra and chorus immediately knew that we were working with a superb musician who can inspire us to perform at the highest level.” 

“The Grant Park Music Festival attracted hundreds of thousands of guests during our recently concluded summer season,” added Adam Grais, Board Chair of the Grant Park Orchestral Association. “Not only do our concerts attract dedicated music lovers and introduce thousands of young people to classical music, we also present some of the world’s most esteemed musicians on the Pritzker Pavilion stage. Concertgoers tell me that the Festival is one of the things they most love about Chicago, and Giancarlo possesses the talent, relationships, vision and drive to lead our organization to even greater accomplishments in the future.”

The board of directors of the Grant Park Orchestral Association enthusiastically voted unanimously at a Sept. 23 meeting to name Guerrero to succeed Kalmar, who had announced in 2021 that he was stepping down as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor at the conclusion of the 2024 season. The search for Kalmar’s replacement was a three-year process undertaken by a search committee comprised of musicians, members of the Board of Directors and community leaders. Guerrero’s plans for the 2025 season will be announced in January.

About Giancarlo Guerrero 

In the current season, Guerrero completes a 16-year tenure as music director of the Nashville Symphony. Guerrero collaborated with the Nashville Symphony to premiere over two dozen new works and release 22 commercial albums. These definitive recordings garnered 13 GRAMMY® Award nominations and six GRAMMY® wins, cementing Guerrero and the Symphony’s international reputation as standard-bearers for recordings of contemporary American music. As part of his commitment to fostering the work of contemporary composers, Guerrero, together with composer Aaron Jay Kernis, also guided the creation of Nashville Symphony’s biannual Composer Lab & Workshop for young and emerging composers. 

Guerrero has collaborated throughout his career with leading ensembles in North America, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Internationally, he has maintained longstanding relationships with esteemed orchestras in Europe, Latin America and Australia/New Zealand. Guerrero also recently completed a six-season tenure as music director of the NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic in Poland. Guerrero previously held posts as the principal guest conductor of both the Cleveland Orchestra Miami Residency and the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, music director of the Eugene Symphony and associate conductor of the Minnesota Orchestra.

About the Grant Park Music Festival

For more than 90 years, the Grant Park Music Festival has been Chicago’s summer musical sensation, demonstrating that classical music performed by a world-class orchestra and chorus can have a transformative impact on the city. Showcased in the city’s most spectacular setting, the Festival continues to be the summer gathering place for all of Chicago. The Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park is the official home of the Grant Park Music Festival, with free seats available for every concert. The 2025 season will run from June 11 through August 16.

In addition to Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Giancarlo Guerrero, the Grant Park Music Festival is led by Grant Park Chorus Director Christopher Bell, Grant Park Orchestral Association President and CEO Paul Winberg, and Board Chair Adam Grais.

The Grant Park Music Festival is presented by the Grant Park Orchestral Association with key support from the Chicago Park District and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The Festival gratefully acknowledges the generosity of its major sponsors: AbelsonTaylor Group, Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Capital One, Epstein Becker Green, Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park, Jones Day, NASCAR's Chicago Street Race; and generous support from Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Julius N. Frankel Foundation, Sage Foundation, Smart Family Foundation, Illinois Arts Council and National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information about the Grant Park Music Festival, visit gpmf.org.