National Opera of Chile and Santiago Philharmonic Appoints New Music Director 

Paolo Bortolameolli will assume the role as of the 2026 season for an initial three years

In a selection process chaired by Mayor Mario Desbordes and led by the Teatro Municipal de Santiago board and executive team, Paolo Bortolameolli will assume his new role with the Ópera Nacional de Chile and Filarmónica de Santiago from 2026 through to 2028. 

Prior to his official tenure, the Chilean-Italian conductor will be opening the company’s 2025 in March with Novoa’s Manara, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Simon Trpčeski, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5. 

Also marking the orchestra’s 70th anniversary season, he will return in July 2025 to lead productions of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Strauss’s opera Salome later in November, as well as Lorin Maazel’s The Ring Without Words. 

Bortolameolli was first invited to conduct the Santiago Philharmonic in 2013, and was made Principal Guest Conductor in 2019. By then, he had conducted around 60 orchestras worldwide to great acclaim. 

Currently the Music Director of Chile’s Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Juvenil (National Youth Symphony Orchestra), Bortolameolli has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and more. 

Formerly, he was Artistic Director of Mexico’s Sinfónica Azteca in Mexico, and led an annual educational residency run by the Fundación Azteca. He has also been a guest-lecturer for a TED Talk in New York, and in 2020, released his first book, titled “RUBATO Procesos musicales y una playlist personal.”

“I receive this appointment with tremendous pride and happiness, at a point where I have consolidated a very special artistic and personal relationship with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Santiago,” Bortolameolli said. 

“The innovative, international, flexible vision, full of curiosity and ambition of Maestro Bortolameolli, will be a source of renewed energy not only for the orchestra but also for our Theater for the coming years,” added Carmen Larenas, General Director of Teatro Municipal de Santiago.