Twenty-five year old conductor Tito Muñoz is widely recognized as one of the most exciting emerging conductors on the podium today. He is currently Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra, appointed by Franz Welser-Möst in April 2007, and a League of American Orchestras Conducting Fellow. He previously served as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

An alumnus of the National Conducting Institute, Mr. Muñoz made his professional conducting debut in 2006 with the National Symphony Orchestra. That same year, he made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival at the invitation of David Zinman. The 2006-2007 season included his critically acclaimed subscription debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, stepping in for an ailing Krzysztof Penderecki. Other recent engagements include appearances with the Cincinnati Pops, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

In the 2008-2009 season Mr. Muñoz will appear with the Eugene Symphony, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy. Additionally, he will make his operatic debut with the Opéra National de Lorraine in performances of Caballero’s Los sobrinos del Capitán Grant.

The 2007-2008 season included performances with The Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. He also conducted the final round of the 11th Annual Sphinx Competition, the Cleveland Institute Orchestra and a joint orchestra made up of members of Sibelius Academy and the Colburn Conservatory of Music (as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s International Youth Orchestra Festival). Abroad, he made his European debut with the Orchestre Lyrique de Région Avignon-Provence.

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 master classes 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, and in summer 2007, he returned to Aspen as the festival's Assistant Conductor.

Also an accomplished violinist, Mr. Muñoz has performed in many of New York’s leading ensembles including the New York Virtuosi, Ensemble Sospeso, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as well as numerous Broadway shows. As a studio musician he has recorded for Albany Records, RCA Victor and Sony.

A native of New York City, Mr. Muñoz began his musical training on the violin at age thirteen in the Juilliard School's Music Advancement Program, continuing studies on violin and composition at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division. In addition to studies at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, he was a member of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York (ISO) and the New York Youth Symphony, where he later served as Apprentice Conductor. He furthered his training at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, as a violin student of Daniel Phillips.

OFFICIAL BIO FOR THE 2008-2009 SEASON. LAST UPDATED JULY 2008.
PLEASE DESTROY ALL PREVIOUSLY DATED MATERIALS.