Miguel Harth-Bedoya

Miguel Harth-Bedoya is a master of color, drawing idiomatic interpretations from a wide range of repertoire in concerts across the globe.

Celebrating more than 30 years of professional conducting at the highest levels, Harth-Bedoya has a deep commitment to passing his experience on to the next generation of conductors. As of August 2020, he is the Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, working to create a brand new, groundbreaking Bachelor of Music program in orchestral conducting. He has also created The Conducting Institute, with a summer orchestral conducting program as well as a variety of online courses.

Harth-Bedoya has amassed considerable experience at the helm of orchestras, including recently completing tenures as Chief Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra – a post he held for seven seasons – and twenty seasons as Music Director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, where he now holds the title of Music Director Laureate and will conduct regularly. Previously he has held Music Director positions with the Auckland Philharmonia and Eugene Symphony.

Harth-Bedoya guest conducts with orchestras around the world. In the United States he has conducted the Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony, among others. He is also frequently a guest at summer festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Grant Park Festival, and Hollywood Bowl. 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.

Worldwide he is a frequent guest of the Helsinki Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, National Orchestra of Spain, New Zealand Symphony and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, and has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, London Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Zurich Tonhalle, Danish National Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Bilbao Symphony and Barcelona Orchestras, among others.  In the summer of 2016 Harth-Bedoya made his Japanese debut conducting both the NHK Symphony and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras.

Equally at home in opera, Harth-Bedoya has conducted both traditional and premiere productions.  He led a new production of La bohème at English National Opera directed by Jonathan Miller, as well as traditional productions with the Bremen Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and Minnesota Opera. 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.  He has also led two productions of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, with the Cincinnati Opera and 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. Among its varied activities, Caminos del Inka champions South American composers, produces lectures, chamber music concerts, CD and video recordings, and supports The Conducting Institute. In addition, Harth-Bedoya’s multimedia project: Caminos del Inka, a musical journey has been performed by the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Residentie Orkest and MDR Sinfonie Leipzig.

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.

Recently, on MSR Classics label he recorded an album of orchestral music by Jimmy López Bellido performed by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and in the Norwegian label, LAWO Classics, released a disc devoted to works by Alberto Ginastera which he recorded with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK).

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