Giancarlo Guerrero’s surprise appearance at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show on February 8 had the classical music community enthralled. Not often are Hispanic or Latin American classical musicians given a share of the limelight at the country’s greatest annual sporting event, with an estimated viewership of 125 million this year. Though the 56-year-old conductor, who was born in Nicaragua and grew up in Costa Rica, had performed with pop artists like Ben Folds and Wynonna Judd during his 16-year tenure as music director of the Nashville Symphony, being personally invited to perform at the NFL show by the hottest pop star of the day was something entirely unprecedented.
Like Bad Bunny, Guerrero is a six-time Grammy Award winner. He has conducted orchestras across the U.S. and abroad, and is the new music director of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago and of the Sarasota Orchestra in Florida. When his manager got a call from Bad Bunny’s team on Jan. 31, part of the top-secret deal was that he had to be in Santa Clara, California, the site of the game, two days later, joining nearly 800 other participants and extras for rehearsals before Super Bowl Sunday.
In the show, almost entirely in Spanish for the first time ever, the camera briefly focuses on Guerrero leading about 30 Bay Area string players, bowing their instruments to a click track via in-ear monitors, which is rare in classical music but standard practice for shows on Super Bowl scale. The tune they play is from Bad Bunny’s Latin trap hit “Mónaco,” which in turn samples it from the 1964 song “Hier encore” by the French balladeer Charles Aznavour. The opening of “Mónaco” ushers in a hearty “¡Buenas tardes, California! Mi nombre es Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio” from the Puerto Rican rapper, introducing himself by his birth name as he stands in the middle of a packed Levi’s Stadium for his logistically complex, mosaic-like show.
“When we were talking about the whole project, one of the things Benito said was, ‘You know, I could have easily had synthesizers playing that part, with some guy waving his arm, but I wanted a real string orchestra and a real conductor’,” Guerrero told me from his home in Miami. He met Bad Bunny the day of the performance—there were Bad Bunny stand-ins for the rehearsals—in a special halftime compound, where they bonded over a game of dominoes during some downtime. “I’ll never forget that he said, ‘I have way too much respect for what you guys do and you need to be presented in the proper light.’ So that tells me about an artist who really focuses on the musical aspect and has such a degree of adoration for what we do that, even though I had already become a fan, that really put him above and made me think of him as a very serious artist.”
Backstage at the Super Bowl: Bad Bunny, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Shirley Guerrero, the conductor’s wife. Photo courtesy of Giancarlo Guerrero.
What did it mean for you to be sought out by Bad Bunny, personally, for such a high-profile event?
My first reaction was almost disbelief. Even as I was hearing my manager speak, my wife was with me on the call and we both looked at each other like, hang on a second, the NFL, the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny, the halftime show, and a classical conductor. I just didn’t see the connection. For a second I thought this could be a prank. And then my manager said, “You know who this guy is, right?” I said, “Of course. I have a wife and two daughters—every time I’m in my car, I hear his music.”
At the Super Bowl, Giancarlo Guerrero, string musicians, and, center, Bad Bunny. Watch the halftime show, queued to start when Guerrero leads Bad Bunny’s “Mónaco,” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6FuWd4wNd8&t=270s.
Once I realized this was real, I was very honored. At that point, I didn’t think about how my name even came up, but it may have to do with the Grammy connection. I have been to Puerto Rico many times to conduct at the Casals Festival and the Puerto Rico Symphony. So who knows—this is a very small world when it comes to music. Somebody knew me and told him, and that may be the connection. When I finally met him, I should have asked him, “By the way, how did my name come up?” I guess I’ll have to leave that for next time!
What else did you learn about his work that might be similar to your own?
He is now the biggest pop star in the world, so, of course, he has access to the greatest arrangers and musicians and producers, so the quality of music-making is absolutely stunning. He’s able to move between genres easily, going from reggaeton to salsa to this and that. All of the seven different stages in the Super Bowl show were different styles of music.
And it’s like what we do: we have to move between Baroque, Classical, modern, opera, you name it. We talked about how boring it would be for us to be stuck in just one genre. I could not imagine my life like that. I’m constantly curious about other things, and he is too; obviously he’s aware of what happens in the classical music world. If you’re going to put something on and expect to be treated in a serious manner, you have to do things in a serious manner, even if it’s only for 40 seconds [out of the 13-minute halftime show]. That tells you where he’s coming from, and I have nothing but admiration for an artist who thinks like that.
“I’m grateful to Benito [Bad Bunny] that he invited us to perform at the Super Bowl, because classical musicians don’t get that exposure often,” says Giancarlo Guerrero.
What do you think your participation accomplished for the classical music community?
The minute after the halftime show happened, I was seeing posts from orchestras in Europe and Asia about somebody who has a successful career in classical music being on the show. I had no idea what type of camera time I was going to have, if any. All I knew was that I was doing my thing, and I saw cameras and Bad Bunny walking by, but I had no idea what the result would be. My wife, who was in the [backstage] compound waiting for me, said that the minute it happened the phone started blowing up! I guess it was long enough that people recognized me.
I’m grateful to Benito that he invited us because we don’t get that exposure often; the last time it was done was 10 years ago with Gustavo Dudamel conducting YOLA [Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, at Super Bowl 50]. To have two Hispanic conductors who have successful careers in the United States, in the middle of this political climate, is just remarkable. It got the conversation going and brought a lot of interest, in my case, in the Sarasota Orchestra and the Grant Park Music Festival. Also in the Nashville Symphony, where I’m now conductor laureate, and my former orchestra in Poland, the Wrocław Philharmonic. In many ways this has been a godsend in terms of the exposure of what we do.
Giancarlo Guerrero is music director of the Grant Park Music Festival and the Sarasota Orchestra and is conductor laureate of the Nashville Symphony. Photo by Lukasz Rajchert.
The show also included a broad representation of Hispanic and Latin American communities. What do you think these communities have contributed to the classical music industry?
First of all, the show had a beautiful message of inclusion, of communion, of unity, as people from different parts of the world. For me, the best part was the camaraderie during those days, with everyone working together for the same goal. And you might say “Hispanics, Latinos,” but among these 1,000 people working on the show—staff, musicians, dancers—there were people from all over the world, of different ages, of all colors, all working toward the same goal. At the end of the day, that’s the message: if we all unite for a common purpose, we can achieve anything.
At the opening of the Super Bowl, singer Coco Jones and an ensemble including Sphinx Organization musicians Stephanie Matthews and Kayla Cabrera performed “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the Black national anthem. Charlie Puth sang the U.S. National Anthem before the game.
Today, the vast majority of exports for symphony orchestras come from Latin America—from countries like Mexico, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. All these countries, like my own country, Costa Rica, which started its youth orchestra programs 53 years ago, are now seeing the fruits of that investment. Now I travel to Europe, Australia, to the Chicago Symphony, or the Minnesota Orchestra, and I meet musicians from [those countries].
Youth orchestras in Latin America started a little over 50 years ago; Costa Rica was one of the first. I’m a proud product of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica’s youth program. I started there, and, like for many children, it was just a hobby that became a passion. Today I dedicate my life to music. If you go to any orchestra or opera company, you’ll find Latin American musicians who have come here seeking better opportunities.
“As artists, we have to keep thinking creatively about how to expand beyond our current audience base. Audiences who love music are everywhere; it’s just a matter of gradually exposing them to it,” says Guerrero.
What do you think classical music can learn from the show, including your appearance?
As artists, we have to keep thinking creatively about how to expand beyond our current audience base. Audiences who love music are everywhere; it’s just a matter of gradually exposing them to it. I’m a prime example of this; I came from a family who listened to Julio Iglesias and mariachi music.
And the moment they walk through that door and enter the concert hall, in every case in my experience, they’ve said, “Where has this been all my life?” This is truly a unique experience, being able to hear this repertoire from over 200 years ago. There’s a reason why we continue to celebrate Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Brahms, and especially the composers who are working today.
I think we have to tell stories, not just believe that simply playing Tchaikovsky solves everything; we live in a very different world now, and we, as institutions of classical music, symphonic repertoire, and opera, have to be very creative, especially with the amount of competition that we face. Like Bad Bunny, we have a large audience, but we have to keep knocking on doors so that people feel welcome in our world.
