Article published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 12, 2019.

Dominican conductor Darwin Aquino is the orchestra’s third music director. He’s working with the 50-piece paid orchestra, made up of instrumentalists ranging from university students to seasoned musicians with private studios, for the first time.

So far, he is impressed by his new forces, which also include the orchestra’s first intern assistant conductor. “They work pretty hard to make it happen,” Aquino says. So do the board members, he says, who work hard to get grants and donors to keep the concerts free.

He has lived in the United States for six years and first came to St. Louis in 2016, as a guest conductor for Winter Opera St. Louis’ production of Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” He was invited back the next year for Bizet’s “Carmen” and last year became the company’s music director.

He’s also conductor-in-residence for the Washington University Symphony Orchestra and director of orchestral studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He has been a guest conductor with orchestras and opera companies throughout Europe and the Americas.

Read the full story in:
Gateway Festival Orchestra launches new season with new music director