image by Roland Lim Photography
An engaging orchestral conductor, award-winning pianist, and passionate educator, Gonzalo Farias is the Associate Conductor of the Houston Symphony. Praised for his “clear, engaging style with a lyrical, almost Zen-like quality,” he has been recognized as “a focused, musical artist who knows what he wants and how to get it—with grace and substance.” In his current role with the Houston Symphony, Farias has conducted five subscription concerts, including three performances on short notice, stepping in for Juanjo Mena to lead Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5 with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Falla’s The Three-Cornered Hat (complete ballet). In addition to these high-profile substitutions, he has led his own subscription programs, with interpretations noted for their “clarity of concept and elevated execution.” The orchestra responded with “exceptional engagement,” critics observed, concluding that not only Farias “proved his mettle,” but also that “for this young conductor, the future looks bright.”
In an ever-changing world, Farias is driven by a belief in music-making as a means of reexamining our place in society—cultivating respect, trust, and cooperation within and across communities. He previously served as Associate Conductor of the Kansas City Symphony and the Jacksonville Symphony, Assistant Conductor of the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and Conducting Fellow at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As former Music Director of the Joliet Symphony Orchestra, Farias forged meaningful connections with the city of Joliet and its Hispanic community through pre-concert lectures, Latin-based programming, and an innovative bilingual, side-by-side narration of Bizet’s Carmen. Recent and upcoming engagements include performances with the Nashville Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Tallahassee Symphony, as well as the world premiere of Arturo Márquez’s Guitar Concerto with soloist Pablo Sainz-Villegas and the Houston Symphony.
Farias was selected to participate in the Bruno Walter National Conductor Preview, the most significant conducting showcase in the United States, organized by the League of American Orchestras and dedicated to identifying artists of exceptional promise and commitment to the future of American orchestras. He was also appointed by the National Endowment for the Arts as a panelist for the Grants for Arts Projects program, reviewing applications from diverse music institutions nationwide.
Born in Santiago de Chile, Farias began his piano studies at the age of five. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and completed his graduate piano studies at the New England Conservatory as a full-scholarship student of Wha-Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. His honors include First Prize at the Claudio Arrau International Piano Competition, as well as special awards at the Maria Canals and Luis Sigall International Piano Competitions. His conducting studies include work at the University of Illinois with Donald Schleicher and the Peabody Conservatory with Marin Alsop, along with private study with Larry Rachleff and Otto-Werner Mueller.
His training and professional development include work with Jaap van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland, as well as with Neeme and Paavo Järvi at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia. In the United States, he was a two-time recipient of the Bruno Walter Memorial Conducting Scholarship at the Cabrillo Music Festival, named an “Emergent Conductor” by Victor Yampolsky at the Peninsula Music Festival, and received the Bernard Osher Scholar Prize at the Pierre Monteux School. Selected from 566 applicants across 78 countries, he was named one of 24 finalists in the 2018 Malko Conducting Competition with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, where Gramophone critics praised his performance as “one of the most fluent, honest, open-hearted, and pointed.”
Beyond performance, Farias maintains a strong intellectual engagement with contemporary thought. He is a committed advocate of second-order cybernetics as a framework for understanding communication and complex systems, particularly the recursive and interdependent relationships between performers and audiences. His doctoral dissertation, Logical Predictions and Cybernetics, examines Cornelius Cardew’s The Great Learning, proposing music-making as a form of self-organized social practice. He also draws lasting inspiration from his formal studies of Zen Buddhism, which have profoundly shaped his approach to music, leadership, and life.