Fabio Mechetti
conductor
In 2008, Fabio Mechetti was appointed music director and principal conductor of the Orquestra Filarmônica de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, with the task of creating a brand-new, fully professional orchestra in Brazil’s third-largest city. Since then, the orchestra has become a leader in symphonic activities in Brazil, garnering praise and prizes for its outstanding growth and artistic progress. Besides positioning this orchestra as a leading organization in Brazil, its artistic results have prompted it to develop a recording partnership with Naxos. It was also nominated for a Latin GRAMMY® in 2021.
In 2015, he concluded a 14-year tenure with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, having now become its music director emeritus, and with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, as its principal conductor.
Mr. Mechetti has also held the post of music director of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra from 1993 to 2004. After eleven years of inspiring leadership, he was named music director laureate of that orchestra. He also led the Syracuse Symphony for ten seasons, beginning as associate conductor in 1989 and becoming music director in 1993. In addition to his Carnegie Hall debut with the New Jersey Symphony in 1993, Mr. Mechetti has appeared as guest conductor with the Quebec Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Buffalo and Rochester Philharmonics, Phoenix Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, and various orchestras in Mexico, Spain, Brazil, and Venezuela.
He traveled to New Zealand to lead the Auckland Philharmonia, to Scotland to conduct the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, to Finland to conduct the Tampere Philharmonic, to Italy to conduct the Rome Symphony, and to Madrid to lead the ORTVE. He has made several very successful tours of Japan that included concerts with the Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Sapporo Symphonies. Having made his European debut with the Danish Radio Orchestra in 1990, Mr. Mechetti is a frequent guest of Scandinavian orchestras. During the last few seasons, he made his first appearances with the Bogotá Philharmonic, the National Symphony of Colombia, and the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colón. Upcoming concerts include the Puerto Rico Symphony at the Casals Festival.
A highly acclaimed operatic conductor, Mr. Mechetti made his American debut with the Washington Opera in 1990 and has served as music director of the Theatro Municipal Opera House in Rio de Janeiro. He has directed opera productions of Tosca, Turandot, La bohème, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Così fan tutte, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville, Macbeth, Otello, and La traviata, among others.
Winner of the 1989 Malko International Conducting Competition in Denmark, Mr. Mechetti served as resident conductor of the San Diego Symphony in 1986 and associate conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1985 through 1989. During his years with the National Symphony, he led more than 75 concerts at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, also conducting performances on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol and at Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts. His children’s programs in Washington won the National Endowment for the Arts Award for Best Educational Programming in the United States in 1985.
He has worked with some of the greatest artists of several generations, including masters such as Mstislav Rostropovich, Alicia de Larrocha, Magda Tagliaferro, Nicanor Zabaleta, Frederica von Stade, Thomas Hampson, Kathleen Battle, Gil Shaham, Sarah Chang, Hilary Hahn, Arnaldo Cohen, Nelson Freire, and André Watts, among others.
Fabio Mechetti holds Master’s degrees in conducting and composition from The Juilliard School of Music.
