Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Robert Spano has conducted the great orchestras of North America, including those in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.  Overseas he has led the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Czech Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Sinfonie Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic and Tonhalle Orchester.  He has conducted the opera companies of Chicago, Houston and Santa Fe, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden and the Welsh National Operas.  In August 2005 he conducted Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at Seattle Opera, and returns for the cycle in 2009.   With a discography of nine critically acclaimed recordings for Telarc and Deutsche Grammophon made over six years, Robert Spano has garnered six Grammy Awards. 

Robert Spano was Artistic Director of the Ojai Festival in 2006, Director of the Festival of Contemporary Music at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center in 2003 and 2004 and from 1996 to 2004 was Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic.  Head of the Conducting Fellowship Program at Tanglewood Music Center from 1998-2002, he has received honorary doctorates from the Curtis Institute of Music and Bowling Green State University.  Robert Spano lives in Atlanta. 

Robert Spano is among  the most  innovative and imaginative conductors of his generation. Now in his seventh season as Music Director of the Atlanta  Symphony  Orchestra, he has enriched  its repertoire and  elevated  it to greater prominence.  He has conducted the major orchestras of North America, including those in Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco.  Among the orchestras he has led internationally are the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, the Czech Philharmonic, the Berlin Radio Sinfonie Orchestra, the BBC Scottish and BBC Symphony Orchestras, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic and the Oslo Philharmonic.   Mr. Spano has appeared with the opera companies of Chicago, Houston, and Santa Fe, and at the Royal Opera at Covent Garden and the Welsh National Opera.  In August 2005 he conducted three consecutive cycles of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen at Seattle Opera, and returns to conduct the Ring cycles in 2009. 

Reflecting Mr. Spano's commitment to living composers, his 2007-2008 season includes performances of John Adams's Dr. Atomic at Chicago Lyric Opera, Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar at the Barbican Centre and Michael Gandolfi's Impressions of the Garden of Cosmic Speculation (commissioned and recorded by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra) with  the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Scottish.  Important commissions pepper the season with works from Venezuelan Gonzalo Grau, Iranian Behzad Ranjbaran and Wynton Marsalis, as well as works by John Adams, Jennifer Higdon, Osvaldo Golijov and Christopher Theofanidis, composers closely associated with Mr. Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.  This season's Atlanta programs reflect Mr. Spano's broad and diverse repertoire, opening with La Bohème, which will be recorded live in performance, and include masterworks of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Sibelius and Ravel, whose Daphnis et Chloé will be featured in the orchestra's April 2008 return to Carnegie Hall. 

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra1's long and distinguished  recording legacy  with Telarc continues to flourish with Mr. Spano.  Their discography includes music of David Del Tredici, Christopher Theofanidis, Jennifer Higdon and Michael Gandolfi, Sibelius's Kullervo, and the Grammy award-winning recordings of Vaughan Williams's A Sea Symphony and Berlioz's Requiem.  Mr. Spano and the ASO have also recently recorded two discs of the music of Osvaldo Golijov for Deutsche Grammophon:  one including Three Songs and Oceana, and the other, the chamber opera Ainadamar, which was awarded two Grammys.

Mr. Spano was Music Director of the Ojai Festival in 2006, Director of the Festival of Contemporary Music at the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Music Center in 2003 and 2004, where he was Head of the Conducting Fellowship Program from 1998-2002, and was Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996-2004.  He is on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory, and has received honorary doctorates from Bowling Green State University and the Curtis Institute of Music.  Robert Spano makes his home in Atlanta.