Tito Muñoz, Assistant Conductor

Tito Muñoz, 23, was appointed to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra conducting staff as an assistant conductor by CSO Music Director Paavo Järvi in May 2006. His duties include assisting Paavo Järvi and the conductors of the Cincinnati Pops and May Festival. In addition, he serves as associate conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra.

A native of New York City, Mr. Muñoz began his musical training on the violin at age 13 in the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program. He studied violin and composition at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division, winning the Richard Kimball Composition Award. He also attended the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and was a member of the InterSchool Orchestras of New York (ISO) and the New York Youth Symphony. Mr. Muñoz continued his violin studies with Daniel Phillips at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, New York.

As a professional violinist, Mr. Muñoz has performed in many of New York’s leading orchestras including the New York Virtuosi, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Ensemble Sospeso and Princeton Symphony, as well as numerous Broadway shows. As a studio musician he has recorded for Albany Records, for RCA Victor and Sony.

Formerly an assistant conductor of the ISO Symphonic Band and apprentice conductor of the New York Youth Symphony, Mr. Muñoz was a faculty member of the French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts, working with the symphony orchestra, concert band and chamber music program and conducting fully-staged Broadway musical productions. He has conducted the Queens College Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra on several occasions and has collaborated with such artists as Charles Neidich, Daniel Phillips, Marcy Rosen and Gil Shaham, as well as crossover vocal group Amici Forever for their recent PBS special and internationally released DVD.

During the summers of 2004 through 2006, Mr. Muñoz was a student at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, where he studied with David Zinman and Murry Sidlin. He also participated in master classes with Leonard Slatkin, David Robertson, Robert Spano, Asher Fisch, George Manahan and John Williams. Winner of the Aspen Music Festival’s 2005 Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and 2006 Aspen Conducting Prize, he will return to Aspen in 2007 as assistant conductor of the festival.

An alumnus of the National Conducting Institute, Mr. Muñoz made his professional conducting debut with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in May 2006. At the invitation of David Zinman, he made his Cleveland Orchestra debut at the Blossom Music Festival in August 2006. Mr. Muñoz will make his Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra debut in February 2007 conducting the Fine Arts Fund Sampler Weekend concert at Music Hall.

In September 2006 Mr. Muñoz was appointed assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.

January 2007