For someone so young, Tito Muñoz’s list of accomplishments is absolutely impressive, and it’s close to impossible to list them all in one short piece.  Of Ecuadorian and Colombian background, he is first and foremost– and will tell anyone who asks– a New Yorker, born and bred, and very proud of this fact.  But what’s even more impressive is that as a New Yorker of Latin heritage and at such a young age, he has made such an impact in the musical genre he chose to be a part of– no, not what you’re thinking: not salsa, not reggaeton, but classical music– that those who have witnessed his talent and acumen understand and certainly agree with why he has become world renowned as “one of the most gifted and versatile conductors of his generation.”

In a couple of weeks, Toronto music lovers will have a rare chance to witness the genius of this young conductor, when Muñoz conducts the Royal Conservatory Orchestra featuring Rudin Lengo, piano soloist and winner of the annual Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition, on the night of April 12 at Koerner Hall.  In a phone conversation with Alma Latina Online Magazine, Muñoz told us about his musical journey, the great things happening in his career right now and what his hopes are for the future.  He also spoke excitedly about the program we’ll hear on his first visit to Toronto as a conductor.

Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/TitoMunozConductor

He doesn’t come from a particularly musical family, he says, and in fact came across his love of music almost as a fluke.  Playing the violin in middle school was the very first experience he had with classical music.  “I signed up with some friends and violin was the instrument that I ended up with,” he says.  “It was something that I took to very quickly.  After about a year in the program, my teacher recommended me for the Music Advancement Program at (New York’s) Juilliard. I auditioned for it and I got in.”

This is a Saturday program specifically geared for minority students.  All of a sudden Muñoz found himself being exposed to this world of classical music, which he just absolutely fell in love with. “To do it in New York,” he says, “is a different thing than if I lived anywhere else.”  He also attended high school at the Fiorello H. La Guardia High School of Music & Arts (the high school featured in the movie Fame), so he was close to Lincoln Centre and immersed in music every single day.  He also became a member of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York and New York Youth Symphony, serving occasionally as Apprentice Conductor. Upon graduation, he attended the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and took Violin as a major there under the instruction of Daniel Phillips.

After graduating from Queens, he was honing his skills as an accomplished violinist, but the future had something else in store for him, says Muñoz.  “I never made a distinct decision to become a conductor; not until much, much later I said ‘I’ll do this for a living and I’ll do this as my life.’ I think it just came out of my Type A personality, where I like to take responsibility and be in charge. For example, when I played violin in ensembles, I always wanted to sit in front, I always wanted to be the leader, and not necessarily because I wanted to be the best, but because I liked being the one taking responsibility for everything.  So I think conducting was just this natural inevitable next step to sort of take responsibility of the whole orchestra.”

I point out to him, however, that other people have seen this gift in him and the talent that he possesses, and they trust he can do the job.  He accedes this is the case, but also attributes some of it to luck and to having taken advantage of the opportunities that were already there. But it’s also been a conscious effort on his part, he admits, to be at the right place at the right time.  He still had to fight for things to happen, but people also saw the passion and commitment in him.  “It’s one of those things,” he says, “when you’re passionate about something, you don’t realize that you’re pushing so hard.  When you really love what you do and there’s nothing else you can think of to do, you find a way.  And when you look back, you realize, ‘My god, I really pushed hard and made opportunities and found them and searched for them and forced people to do things.’ And you don’t think about them, you just do them. And that’s certainly what I did: I found the opportunities that I could to put myself in those situations and to be that leader.” Eventually he met the right people who believed in him and believed he was capable of succeeding.  Being careful and selective of everything he chooses to do, it’s been success after success along the way.

What he credits to finding success a lot sooner than he expected was attending the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado.  This experience, he says, pushed things along very quickly.  Aspen was also where he met his mentor, music teacher David Zinman.  “This is arguably the most prestigious music program in this country, if not one of the ones in the world,” says Muñoz. They have a conducting program that has become one of the best in North America.  At the time, he was the youngest they had ever accepted. “I was so happy they’d even accepted me. I was really shocked ’cause I really wasn’t expecting it.  I did it just because. And I went and that was the beginning because that’s a place that can really open a lot of doors.  And it was such a high level that I had to grow.  It was one of those places that you either grow or you go home and nothing happens. And so I made the most of it.”

Photo courtesy of Facebook.com/TitoMunozConductor

He stayed there for three summers and it was because of Zinman and having been a part of this program that he was able to get his first job as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the young age of 22, a job he got over nearly 150 highly qualified applicants.  That was the starting point of a very successful conducting career that has also included serving as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra as well as a tenure with the Cleveland Orchestra and also making his professional conducting debut with the National Symphony Orchestra.  He currently serves as Music Director of the Opéra National de Lorraine and the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy.

Being of Latin American background, he says, has not really played much of a role in his career as a conductor or in the opportunities he’s gotten along the way.  If anything, he says, there have been plenty of opportunities and scholarships for ethnic minorities, especially in New York.  “It’s actually much easier to be a minority and be a classical musician,” he points out, because there’s this idea that they’re underrepresented in classical music or they come from disadvantaged backgrounds or come from places or cultures that don’t see classical music as something important. This is something that is definitely changing, says Muñoz.

There are a few well established Hispanic conductors in the US doing very well, like Costa Rica-born Giancarlo Guerrero, Music Director of the Nashville Symphony in Tennessee and Gustavo Dudamel, Music Director of Los Angeles Philharmonic, “Probably the world’s most famous conductor right now”, he says.   Although this is a Western European art form, he is seeing now many more young excellent musicians from different ethnic backgrounds because in the States the training is very good, there’s a lot of access and many competitions as well, like the Detroit Sphinx competion, that are giving the chance to ethnic minorities to get a lot more exposure to the world of classical music.  The opportunities are there and these young people are taking advantage of them, winning jobs and doing very well for themselves.

His growth in the industry was then pretty much ethnicity and colour-blind, and it continues to be, in most cases, as he moves in the world of classical music, except for the odd times when they ask him to explain his ethnicity in press releases and such, or the odd request to do a 5 de Mayo concert, for example, because they see his last name, or being asked to do a “Latin” concert– music that he can do and certainly likes, but it’s not really what he is about.  “I certainly don’t want to be stereotyped as ‘The Latin Conductor’ that does the Latin music because I do other music very well and that’s what I like to do,” says Muñoz. Within his circle, however, not only is he just one more colleague, but he is highly respected by all, and not ethnicity or youth have been obstacles to become a well respected leader with all musicians, inexperienced or experts, young and old– a lot of it, mind you, due in part to Muñoz conscious effort to not make any of that an issue and so it hasn’t been an issue for anyone else he has worked with.  Moreover, the confidence with which he conducts himself both on stage and in general has garnered him the respect and high esteem of his colleagues and the industry in general.

Tito Muñoz was recently appointed Music Director of Le Poisson Rouge’s Ensemble LPR, the flagship ensemble of New York’s celebrated multimedia performance venue, dedicated to the fusion of popular and art cultures in music, film, theatre, dance, and fine art, and a project started by two of Tito’s friends, who are classically trained musicians as well.  Here they do innovative work that he is very excited to be a part of.  After all of his achievements, he’s hopeful to get a Music Director job in America, but right now he is pretty much a “Freelancer”, he says, doing a job that is a continually learning process and where he is growing and absorbing as much as he possibly can.  He is, after all, very young and with a bright future ahead of him, and he is also quite selective of everything he chooses to do.  “I do want to work at home more,” he says. “I do want to spend more time in the United States.  That would be my next thing and see where that can lead.  It’s a funny profession, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.  For instance, this job in France I have, if you had asked me three or four years ago what would be your next thing, I wouldn’t have said ‘Director of an Opera House in France.’ Things come in front of you and you take them and hopefully it’s a good fit and fulfills me.”

Torontonians will have a chance to witness Muñoz in action on April 12 at Koerner Hall.  He promises a fantastic concerto and he’s really excited to be working with Toronto’s young musicians, especially piano soloist and winner of the annual Glenn Gould School Concerto Competition, Rudin Lengo.  The program includes Stewart Goodyear’s Count Up, Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major, S. 124 and Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14.  For tickets, visit Koerner Hall’s Box Office.