The Phoenix Symphony’s new music director is a native New Yorker who goes west by way of France: Tito Muñoz, who has led French orchestras in Lorraine and Nancy.
Mr. Muñoz, who will open the symphony’s next season in September, went to Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art in New York and trained at the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, Colo., among other places. He has gone on to conduct orchestras, operas and ballets around the world, and in 2012 he was appointed the music director of Ensemble LPR, the orchestra of Le Poisson Rouge in New York. Mr. Muñoz, 30, is from Flushing, Queens.
“Tito represents the dynamic and exciting ability to advance the orchestral art form by celebrating the classical tradition but also experimenting with a more accessible 21st century approach,” Jim Ward, the president and chief executive of the Phoenix Symphony, said in a statement.
Mr. Muñoz, who has been a guest conductor in Phoenix for two seasons, said in the statement that he “felt a fantastic chemistry with the musicians” and that he looked forward to working with its education and community engagement initiatives, which he said “align with my own commitment to working with our next generation of young artists.”
