Music of Note

Paolo Bortolameolli joins The Phoenix Symphony as its next Music Director

By Kaylor Jones / Photo by Jesús Cornejo

Conductor Paolo Bortolameolli remembers the exact moment his life fell into place.

“When I was 7 years old, my dad took me to a classical concert at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago in my home country of Chile. While listening to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, I was overwhelmed by emotions I had never felt before and started crying,” says Bortolameolli, who got emotional again when taken backstage to meet the conductor. “It was the most beautiful moment – the conductor knelt down and hugged me, telling me, ‘This is exactly why we do what we do.’ That night, I realized that becoming a conductor was what I wanted to dedicate my life to.”

Now, as the next step in an award-winning career, Bortolameolli is bringing his talents to the Valley. He was recently named The Phoenix Symphony’s next Virginia G. Piper Music Director, starting in 2027-28 after closing out this season as music director designate (www.phoenixsymphony.org). The appointment follows a three-year international search for the Symphony’s 12th ever Music Director, and Bortolameolli considers it a profound honor.

“The Phoenix Symphony is an outstanding orchestra that is constantly striving to grow and improve, something I deeply admire. Both times I worked with them, I found musicians committed to excellence, refinement and the continuous pursuit of an even richer orchestral sound, combined with thoughtful repertoire building that makes their programming especially compelling.”

In this position, he will help shape a new era of the orchestra’s culture and artistic direction, celebrating both the artform’s traditions and bold new voices on the scene.

“Programming is one of the most fascinating and challenging aspects of this role, and I’m excited to bring a broad worldview – and new composers – to music lovers here, while also working to connect the operatic and symphonic worlds. I want to bring the world to Phoenix, and bring a piece of Phoenix to the world.”

Universal Sounds

Over the years, Bortolameolli’s career has taken him around the globe – in Chile, he serves as the principal conductor of the Ópera Nacional de Chile and Filarmónica de Santiago, as well as the music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Juvenil. He’s also artistic partner to Colombia’s Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín and has performed at the Paris Opera, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Spain and the Hollywood Bowl.

“The one that stands out most was conducting Symphony No. 8 by Gustav Mahler in Chile for the first time in the country’s history, as part of the 30th anniversary celebration of the National Youth Orchestra. It was an enormous undertaking that took seven months of preparation and culminated in two performances featuring 600 performers and audiences of 3,500 – a truly unforgettable experience.”

Even now, Bortolameolli retains the influence of a childhood spent attending the opera, ballet and symphony – and sitting under the piano listening to his grandfather play.

“I grew up in a deeply musical environment shaped by my family – my grandfather, a child prodigy who studied piano and composition from the age of 6, my mother’s love of opera, and my father’s belief that music was the most important thing.”

Now, as a conductor, Bortolameolli says his job is to invite the audience into the experience of listening.

“Although musicians each have their own parts, conductors originally became necessary as orchestras grew larger, both to keep everyone together in tempo and to shape the broader interpretative vision that individual players cannot fully see from their own parts alone.”

Today, he says, conducting is much more collaborative. “It is about listening, guiding the energy and shape of the music and working with the orchestra in a shared musical ‘dance’ toward the same artistic direction.”

Educate & Inspire

According to Bortolameolli, the arts are a fundamental part of human nature, with song and dance predating written language. Because of this, it’s his belief that the impact of the Symphony’s music should extend far beyond the concert hall.

“Educational outreach plays a key role in that expansion, helping students engage with music early in life and building lasting connections between art and new audiences. In this way, symphony outreach programs not only enrich the human experi-ence but also help sustain the future of the arts.”

An important element of this is shaping educational programs to the needs of the community – something The Phoenix Symphony does through STEM initiative Mind Over Music, Side-by-Side concerts with young musicians and professionals, and other field trip and classroom concert opportunities.

We’re living in a crossroads of sorts, Bortolameolli says, where technology is both reshaping our humanity and pushing us to reconnect with who we truly are. At the end of the day, his goal is to forge human bonds – including life-changing experiences like the one he experienced as a boy.

“As human beings, we are social by nature, and the performing arts remain one of the most powerful ways to stay rooted in that essence. They bring us together in real time, allowing us to share experiences and recognize our own creativity, emotions and humanity in others. For young people inspired to join the performing arts, my encouragement is simple – trust that impulse and pursue it, because this path matters more than ever in keeping us connected to what is human, through the shared experience of the here and now.”