About

BIO

Described as “expressive and passionate” [Malaysian Straits Times], and lauded by the Leipziger Volkszeitung as a "very impressive conductor.... who was elegantly demanding in Mendelssohn's Reformation Symphony", Jacomo Bairos enjoys a rising international career as conductor, champion of new music and dedicated educator. Recently concluding a two-year post as Associate Conductor for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Mr. Bairos regularly works with some of America’s finest orchestras and ensembles.

2012/13 season highlights include return engagements with the Atlanta and Charleston Symphony Orchestras, as well as debuts with the Leipzig (Germany), North Carolina, Amarillo, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Bairos will also continue his work as guest conductor with the CSO through the 2012/13 season, programming and conducting a variety of concerts to include subscriptions on the heralded Knight Sounds and Pops series.

Recent seasons include return engagements with the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta National do Porto (ONP) and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra as well as performances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Malaysia Philharmonic and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Bairos has worked with an array of distinguished artists such as Shlomo Mintz, Caroline Goulding, Latin-Grammy winner, Nestor Torres, the crossover group ProjectTrio, and Cuban Band Tiempo Libre to name a few.

Met with critical acclaim from Fanfare Magazine, his debut recording in 2009 of Raw Emotions and the Iceland Symphony Orchestra featured late 20th century concertos by North American Composers. Firmly committed to the performance and commissioning of living American composers, he regularly conducts the music of Mason Bates, Adam Schoenberg, Christopher Theofanidis, Michale Torke, and Paul Dooley respectively. From 2005-2007 Mr. Bairos was the Artistic Director for the Singapore Symphony's Chamber Music Series where his adventurous programming garnered consistent audience praise and a doubling in attendance during his tenure.

A passionate educator, Mr. Bairos regularly visits local schools and has developed concerts for youth that have reached thousands of kids across the Carolinas. In his native homeland of Portugal he led concerts for some 2300 kids with the ONP and was Music Director for the 2010 National Youth Orchestra Festival of Portugal. As former Director of Orchestras with the renowned Baltimore School for the Arts, he worked closely with the Baltimore Symphony’s “OrchKids”, creating side-by-sides and education workshops for children in underserved urban communities.

Awarded the prestigious 2012 Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Scholarship by Maestro Kurt Masur, he traveled to Leipzig Germany to share concerts with the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, assist at the Gewandhaus Orchestra and further his studies and mentorship with Mo. Masur.

Discovered by eminent teacher Gustav Meier, he was invited to attend the Peabody Conservatory where he also became conducting assistant to Leon Fleisher. Mr. Bairos furthered his studies at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen in 2012 and 2010, the 2011 Cabrillo Music Festival and with the 2012 Kurt Masur conductors seminar in New York where Mo. Masur invited him to perform together in concert. Mr. Bairos was also semi-finalist for both the 2010 Sir George Solti International Conductors Competition, and 2009 Eduardo Mata Conductors Competition.

Mr. Bairos primary conducting mentors are Gustav Meier, Robert Spano and Kurt Masur. He also has studied intensively with Jorma Punula, Marin Alsop, Edward Polochick, Hugh Wolff, and Larry Rachleff.

As an accomplished and award winning tubist, Mr. Bairos has given master classes and performed with festivals and orchestras around the world. New York Magazine praised his solo performances in the Juilliard Focus Festival of 1998 as one of the “instrumental highs of the festival” and at age 18, he was the first tubist in the history of the Aspen Music Festival to win the festival wide concerto competition. He has performed, toured and recorded with the Symphony Orchestras of Chicago, Cincinnati, Seattle and with the New York Philharmonic. He has held principal posts with orchestras in America, Spain, China, and most recently was principal tuba for the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

Born in Lisbon to both American and Portuguese parents, he holds Portuguese (EU) and US citizenship and currently divides his time between Miami, FL, and Charlotte, NC.