FELIPE TRISTÁN
GENERAL DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR
Felipe Tristán is quickly establishing himself as one of the most sought-after conductors from Mexico. He has performed in China, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, Spain, Panama, and across the US, in cities such as Washington DC, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, San Diego, New Orleans, Minneapolis. In New York City, he has performed on stages including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Symphony Space, and The DiMenna Center for Classical Music.
In 2020, he collaborated with the New York Philharmonic in the highly successful NY Phil Bandwagon, an initiative to bring live music outdoor performances across New York City.
Felipe Tristán is the 1st Prize Winner of the Klangkraft Dirigierwettbewerbs Conducting Competition (Germany 2019), 1st Prize Winner of the International Conductors Workshop & Competition (Atlanta 2018), 1st Prize of the Shining Stars Concerto Competition of New York; and received an Excellence Award from the Mexican Music Awards, in 2017.
He is the Associate Conductor of Teatro Grattacielo - opera company in NYC specializing in verismo - as well as the Camerata Bardi Vocal Academy, where he trains young operatic voices. He worked as Founder & Music Director of the International Summer Opera Festival of Morelia, gathering young singers from around the world, as well as a stellar roster of guest artists from the Met Opera, The Juilliard School, and the Manhattan School of Music. Among the operatic titles he has conducted are Falstaff and Il Trovatore (Verdi), La bohème (Puccini), Carmen (Bizet), L’amico Fritz (Mascagni).
Felipe is currently on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege, where he conducts the Repertory Orchestra. Previously, he was Assistant Director of Education at the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, a GRAMMY® Award-winning organization in New York. Also, he was on faculty at Brooklyn College, as Director of String Orchestras.
Guest conducting appearances include the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Gwinnett Symphony Chamber Orchestra, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, North Shore Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, Orquesta Filarmónica de Querétaro, Orquesta de Baja California, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Chihuahua, Orquesta Sinfónica de Oaxaca, Orquesta Sinfónica de la UANL (Monterrey Symphony), Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Michoacán, among others.
In 2011, Felipe moved to New York City after being awarded the prestigious Kenan Fellowship of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Later, he became the first Mexican to be appointed Assistant Conductor of the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, in which he is now Associate Conductor and member of its board of directors. Under the leadership of Felipe, the BSO toured Mexico for the first time in early 2020.
In 2017, Felipe toured China as a guest conductor and presented a TEDx Talk in Beijing and Zhengzhou, and later that same year, he was honored to conduct at the Palacio de Bellas Artes - Mexico’s foremost stage - at the 40th Anniversary Gala of the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey, his alma mater.
Felipe holds degrees from the Escuela Superior de Música y Danza de Monterrey, Universidad Regiomontana, University of Houston, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, was a Kenan Fellow at Lincoln Center in NY and studied advanced conducting at The Juilliard School Evening Division under the guidance of Dr. Mark Shapiro.