Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero Heads into First Season at Grant Park Music Festival

In Friday’s (6/6) Chicago Sun-Times, Kyle MacMillan writes, “For Giancarlo Guerrero, beginning a major new post in Chicago as artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival is like coming home. Chicago was where the Grammy Award-winning Costa Rican conductor solidified his foothold in the United States and received his essential training as a conductor at … Northwestern University … The Grant Park Music Festival announced Guerrero’s appointment in October, and he will lead his first concert on June 18 … This year’s installment of the 10-week summer classical-music series, which features the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus and guest soloists from around the world, opens Wednesday and runs through Aug. 16…. Guerrero, 56, ended his 16-year tenure in May as music director of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra … Paul Winberg, the [Grant Park] festival’s president and chief executive officer, had said the organization was looking for a conductor who could achieve a ‘magical alchemy’ with the forces onstage and audiences. Guerrero, who first appeared at the festival in 2008, returned last July for two back-to-back programs … He said immediately felt a rapport with the festival musicians…. Guerrero praised the festival’s free-admission policy and its adventurous programming.”