Rafael Payare

When Rafael Payare became music director of the San Diego Symphony in 2019, he said that his ambition was to think big—and his own career has been a case in point. He was born in Venezuela in 1980, where, as a young horn player in the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, he swiftly made the transition first to student conductor, and then winner of the 2012 international Malko Competition in Copenhagen for young conductors. As principal conductor from 2014 to 2019 of Belfast’s Ulster Orchestra, Payare combined his commitment to social engagement with invigorating, transformative musicmaking. His dynamism didn’t go unnoticed, and, in addition to his post in San Diego, Payare now serves (since 2015) as artistic director of the Castleton Festival and (since 2022) music director of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. Though the OSM is indisputably one of the world’s great orchestras, Payare is unfazed, approaching his new role with all the energy, idealism, and open-mindedness that have made him one of the 21st century’s most sought-after conductors.