Celebrating more than 30 years of professional conducting, Miguel Harth-Bedoya is a master of color, drawing idiomatic interpretations from a wide range of repertoire in concerts across the globe. He has amassed considerable experience at the helm of orchestras with 2019/20 his seventh season as Chief Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and his 20th and final season as Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. Previously he has held Music Director positions with the Auckland Philharmonia and Eugene Symphony.
Harth-Bedoya regularly conducts the upper level of American orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland, Philadelphia, New York Philharmonic Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland, Minnesota, New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras. Following his exceptional tenure as Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic during the early years of his career, Harth-Bedoya’s “special chemistry” (LA Times) with the orchestra remains strong and he returns often as a guest conductor.
With exceptional charisma, Harth-Bedoya has nurtured a number of close relationships with orchestras worldwide and is a frequent guest of the Helsinki Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, National Orchestra of Spain, Atlanta Symphony, New Zealand Symphony and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. In the 2019/20 season he will appear as a guest with the New World Symphony, BBC Scottish Orchestra, National Orchestra of Lyon (France), Brisbane Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and National Orchestra of Spain. Previous seasons have featured concerts with the London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Zurich Tonhalle, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony and Barcelona Orchestras. In the summer of 2016 Harth-Bedoya made his Japanese debut conducting both the NHK Symphony and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras.
In 2015 Harth-Bedoya conducted the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s first opera Cold Mountain at Santa Fe Opera the recording of which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Previous opera engagements include a new production of La Bohème at English National Opera directed by Jonathan Miller and appearances with the Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera and Santa Fe Opera. He has led two productions of Golijov’s Ainadamar, with the Cincinnati Opera and recently at the New Zealand Festival.
With a passionate devotion to unearthing new South American repertoire, Miguel Harth-Bedoya is the founder and Artistic Director of Caminos Del Inka, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching, performing and preserving the rich musical legacy of South America. He commissioned moving images to accompany a symphonic program and the resulting multimedia project has been performed by the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Residentie Orkest and MDR Sinfonie Leipzig. In June 2017 he launched an online catalogue www.latinorchestralmusic.com.
Harth-Bedoya’s impressive discography includes albums on Harmonia Mundi, Deutsche Gramophone, Decca, FWSOLive, LAWO, Naxos, and MSR Classics. The 2018 release Mussorgsky/Gorchakov: Pictures at an Exhibition/Prokofiev: Cinderella (FWSOLive) received accolades from critics, with Nick Bernard of MusicWeb-International, writing: “Throughout, music director/conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya is a sensitive and impressive guide. He draws from the Fort Worth musicians playing of real character and considerable virtuosity.” In Gramophone, Guy Rickards commented,"...Miguel Harth-Bedoya has a knack for getting the most out of players in front of him; and, as it is with the Mussorgsky; so it proves with the substantial 30 minute selection of extracts from Prokofiev's Cinderella...”
For the prestigious Harmonia Mundi label, Harth-Bedoya has made six acclaimed recordings: Music of Lutoslawski and Brahms (arr Schoenberg);orchestral works by Jimmy Lopez; New South American Discoveries; the complete Prokofiev Piano Concertos with Cliburn winner Vadym Kholodenko, and piano concertos by Grieg and Saint-Saëns which was awarded “Editor’s Choice” in Gramophone.
Other recordings include Traditions and Transformations: Sounds of Silk Road Chicago with the Chicago Symphony and Yo-Yo Ma, which received two Grammy nominations, music by Osvaldo Golijov with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Castilla y Leon and pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque on Deutsche Grammophon and Sentimiento Latino with Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flores on Decca. For Naxos, Harth-Bedoya recorded an album devoted to music by Peruvian composer Celso Garrido-Lecca.
Upcoming recordings include an album on the MSR Classics label of orchestral music by Jimmy López Bellido performed by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and a disc devoted to works by Alberto Ginastera with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK) to be released on the Norwegian label, LAWO Classics.
Born and raised in Peru, Harth-Bedoya received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and his Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School, both under the guidance of Otto-Werner Mueller. He also studied with Seiji Ozawa and Gustav Meier at Tanglewood.
Harth-Bedoya is an environmental advocate who is committed to a zero waste lifestyle. In 2016 he co-founded Cowboy Compost, a business geared to achieve food waste reduction. He lives in Fort Worth with his wife, Dr. Maritza Cáceres, a choral conductor, and their three children, Elena, Emilio, and Elisa. www.miguelharth-bedoya.com
