Darwin Aquino

Known for his charismatic energy and musical versatility, Dominican composer, conductor, and violinist Darwin Aquino is making an impact around the world leading critically acclaimed performances of symphonic music, new works, opera, ballet, and vocal music, with a particular focus on the Latin American repertoire.

 

In his country, he served for more than fifteen years as the Artistic & Music Director of El Sistema, Director of the National Conservatory of Music, and Composer in Residence and Violinist for the Dominican National Symphony Orchestra. Darwin describes his creative life as follows: “My music emerges from the heart of Caribbean rhythms and chants. We are a creative mixture of cultures – an explosion of sounds, colors, and imagination. It has always been my universe, my poetic vision of the world”.

 

Currently in his fifth season as Artistic & Music Director of the Saint Louis Philharmonic Orchestra, recent engagements have seen conducting debuts with Opera Southwest (L. Boccherini’s Clementina – USA premiere), the National Symphony Orchestra of Panama, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. Darwin was selected as Commissioned Composer by the Dialogues V Festival for the world premiere of his piece Vom Imaginatio Folkloricus 3.5, performed by the Lux Nova Duo and Sinfonietta Vivazza, at Berlin’s Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal, Hamburg’s Rezonanzraum, and Madrid’s Nuevo Teatro Alcalá.

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From the premiere of his orchestral piece Espacio Ritual with the Orchestre Philharmonique Radio France at La Maison in Paris, the Musique au Jour le Jour expressed: “Aquino has very well listened to the French composers, Boulez or Varese, developing in this piece a deeply personal language and an inventive mastery for writing to the orchestra”.

Recently, he was selected as the new Head of Music for Opera Theater of Saint Louis. There, he has also served as Conductor for the New Works Collective, where he led its first nine world premieres to great success and earned a reputation for being a champion of new operas. He is also in his eighth season as Conductor-in-Residence with the Washington University Symphony Orchestra.

 

Darwin was the first Latin American conductor to be appointed Music Director for the Gateway Festival Orchestra and Winter Opera St. Louis. Of his performance of Bellini’s opera Norma, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch remarked: “Conductor Darwin Aquino had the orchestra sounding great from the first measures of the overture and maintained a good balance between stage and pit. He has a fine feel for the nuances of the bel canto style and knows to breathe with the singers”.

 

The past several seasons have seen Darwin as a guest conductor for the Philharmonishes Staatsorchester Mainz and the Saarländisches Staatsorchester in Germany, where he led special New Year’s concerts and sold-out performances of Latin American symphonic music, including his own orchestral works (YOAminicana & Congofonía). Other recent notable engagements include the Florida Grand Opera (D. Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto with his Spanish translation), Missouri Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Opera (Porgy and Bess), Ashland Symphony Orchestra (where he conducted the world premiere of his orchestral piece Lunga Pandemia), St. Louis Ballet, Caribbean Lyric Festival, National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, Chicago Summer Opera, Filarmónica Boca del Rio in Mexico, the Illinois Modern Ensemble at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Orchestra of the Americas, Chamber Project St. Louis and the Missouri Festival for the Arts.

 

Darwin has assisted conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Patrick Summers, George Manahan, Gemma New, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Gzregorz Nowak, Benjamin Zander, Daniela Candillari, Ramon Tebar, and Rory McDonald, among others. He served as Assistant Conductor for the Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Americas, the FIU Symphony Orchestra, and Cover Conductor for both the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) and the St. Louis Youth Symphony Orchestra. In the opera world, he has worked as Assistant Conductor for Opera Theater of Saint Louis, the Florida Grand Opera, and Opera Naples.