In his second season as Music Director of The Phoenix Symphony, Tito Muñoz is increasingly recognized as one of the most gifted and versatile conductors of his generation. He previously served as Music Director of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy in France. Prior appointments include Assistant Conductor positions with The Cleveland Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and the Aspen Music Festival.
Mr. Muñoz’s recent and upcoming guest appearances include the Cleveland Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Edmonton Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Manhattan School of Music, and Toronto Royal Conservatory. Additional international engagements include the Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, SWR Sinfonieorchester, Sao Paolo State Symphony, Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra, and Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra. Past notable engagements include the orchestras of Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Naples, Rochester, and San Antonio, among others. Summer festival engagements have included the Chautauqua Symphony, Grant Park Orchestra, and the Chicago Philharmonic at the Ravinia Festival. Previous international engagements include the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Opéra de Rennes, Danish Radio Sinfonietta, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Auckland Philharmonia, and Sydney Symphony.
Mr. Muñoz continues to maintain a close relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra, where he has a regular conducting presence, including a critically acclaimed subscription week as a last-minute replacement for Pierre Boulez. Mr. Muñoz conducted his first joint performances with The Joffrey Ballet and The Cleveland Orchestra in the summer of 2009. This successful collaboration led to further performances in the summer of 2010 as well as an invitation to tour with The Joffrey Ballet in the 2010/11 season. In the 2012/13 season, he conducted The Cleveland Orchestra’s first complete Nutcracker performances, a program he reprises in 2014/15, and, in summer 2013, led the orchestra’s first staged Rite of Spring, both with the Joffrey Ballet.
Committed to working with young artists, Mr. Muñoz has conducted performances at the Aspen Music Festival, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University, Kent/Blossom Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, New England Conservatory, New World Symphony, Oberlin Conservatory, Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Kinhaven Music School, National Repertory Orchestra, as well as a nine-city tour with the St. Olaf College Orchestra. Additionally, he has had ongoing relationships with the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and the Portland (OR) Youth Philharmonic, leading rehearsals and masterclasses. He has also led conducting classes at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, Cleveland Institute of Music and Indiana University.
During the summers of 2004 through 2006, Mr. Muñoz attended the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen where he studied with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin and participated in masterclasses with Asher Fisch, Leon Fleisher, George Manahan, David Robertson, and Leonard Slatkin. He is the winner of the Aspen Music Festival’s 2005 Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and the 2006 Aspen Conducting Prize, returning to Aspen as the festival’s Assistant Conductor in the summer of 2007, and later as a guest conductor. He made his professional conducting debut in 2006 with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center, invited by Leonard Slatkin as a participant of the National Conducting Institute. That same year, at the invitation of David Zinman, he made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival. He was awarded the 2009 Mendelssohn Scholarship sponsored by Kurt Masur and the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation in Leipzig, and was a prizewinner in the 2010 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt.
A native of New York City, Mr. Muñoz began his musical training as a violin student in the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, continuing studies in violin and composition at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. He attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, and participated in the InterSchool Orchestras of New York and New York Youth Symphony. He furthered his training at Queens College (CUNY) as a violin student of Daniel Phillips.
