Carlos Kalmar was appointed Music Director of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra in 2003, and is also the Principal Conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago. Until recently he was also Music Director of Vienna’s Tonkunstlerorchester. During his career, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Anhaltisches Theater in Dessau, Germany.

During the 2004-2005 season, Mr. Kalmar’s guest conducting engagements in North America include the Milwaukee Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Houston Symphony. Last season he was a guest conductor with the Saint Louis Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, and the New Jersey Symphony. He makes his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in 2005 at the Blossom Festival. His international conducting appearances have included the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Cincinnati Symphony, the ORT Orchestra of Florence, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, the Bournemouth Symphony, the Hamburg State Opera, the BBC Welsh, the Residentie Orkest, the Vienna State Opera, the Detroit Symphony and the Zurich Opera, among others.

Carlos Kalmar’s most recent recordings include the 2003 release of the Joachim and Brahms Violin Concertos featuring Rachel Barton and the Chicago Symphony, and American Works for Organ and Orchestra featuring David Schrader and the Grant Park Orchestra (2002), both on the Cedille Records label.

Carlos Kalmar was born in Uruguay in 1958 of Austrian parents. He showed an interest in music at an early age and began studying violin at age six. By age 15 his musical development led him to the Vienna Academy of Music where he studied conducting with Karl Osterreicher. He resides in Vienna with his wife and two daughters and has a home in Portland, Oregon.