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Conductor News
Opera is for All
Inaugurated as part of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis’ 2023 season, the New Works Collective is the company’s groundbreaking effort to bring new voices into the world of opera, as well as to connect new audience members with the art form by exploring characters and stories that embody the full spectrum of modern life…
Sound Moves: Where Music Meets Chess
Celebrate the closing of the WCHOF's exhibition, Sound Moves: Where Music Meets Chess, with a unique performance using...
Darwin conducts a New York premiere of Latinx modern music
Association of Dominican Classical Artists (ADCA) Symphony Orchestra performing "Elegy for Strings" by Roque Cordero (1917-2008) Panama. Darwin Aquino, guest conductor ADCA Symphony Orchestra is a group of musicians formed by the members of La Camerata Washington...
Darwin Aquino’s new interview with Martha Buckner, of the Ashland Symphony Orchestra
The Ashland Symphony Orchestra presents a conversation with Conductor Finalist Darwin Aquino and ASO Executive Director Martha Buckner. Recorded August 14, 2020. Towards the end: "Por una Cabeza" by Carlos Gardel, performed by Darwin Aquino....
Read the story: “Filling the Silence: What Life is Like for 7 Classical Musicians during the COVID-19 Pandemic”
With the recent announcement by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra postponing the remaining live concerts of the 2019-20 season, musicians have had their COVID-19 break extended even further. We [Eric Meyer - St. Louis Post-Dispatch] caught up with seven local musicians...
Latest review about conducting V. Bellini’s opera Norma
Vincenzo Bellini’s 1831 opera “Norma” is the epitome of the bel canto genre: It’s all about the singing — and the drama that the singing conveys. [...] For its first “Norma,” Winter Opera St. Louis focused on the singing, assembling a fine cast. It was led by soprano...
St. Louis Public Radio interview about Video Games concert featuring WashU & UMSL Symphony Orchestras
For about a year, Darwin Aquino has been serving as conductor of the orchestras at both the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University. And on Tuesday evening, the two groups under his direction rehearsed together for the first time ever. Final...
Conducting debut in Ohio with The Cleveland Opera, leading Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess
Article published in Cleveland Classical on May 28, 2019 “Although I’ve never led the entire opera, all conductors do concert versions of Porgy and Bess, because the tunes are so popular — ‘Summertime,’ ‘I got plenty o’ nuttin’,’ ‘It ain’t necessarily so.’ And there...
Article as the new Music Director of the Gateway Festival Orchestra
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...
When Music Changes Lives – article by Darwin Aquino in ReVista, Harvard Review on Latin America
In 2004, I got a surprising phone call from Santo Domingo on one cold winter night. I was then studying musical composition in Strasbourg, France, a great opportunity for a young Dominican musician. The officials of the recently elected government of my country were...