Born in Caracas in 1990, Andrés Rivas began his musical education at the age of 3 at the ‘Centro Académico Montalbán,’ part of the El Sistema de Orquestas Juveniles e Infantiles de Venezuela.
In October of 2010, he made his international debut at the auditorium of the EWA University in Seoul, South Korea. In 2011, he was given the baton by Maestro Gustavo Dudamel at the inauguration of the National Center for Social Action for Music and the 36th anniversary of El Sistema in Venezuela. Months later, he shared the podium with Maestro Dudamel at a tribute concert for Venezuelan composer Juan Vicente Torrealba, where he conducted two of his works: Concierto a Caracas and Suite Torrealbera. He culminated the year by conducting this same orchestra at the Casa da Música theater in Oporto, Portugal.
As a violinist, Mr. Rivas has worked with soloists from around the world, such as Martha Argerich, Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, Ilya Gringolts, Maurice Hasson, Natalia Gutman, Gabriela Montero, Alexander Romanovsky, Andreas Ottensamer, and Albert Markov; and performed under the baton of many conductors, including the late Claudio Abbado, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Sir Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Joann Faletta, James Bagwell, Leon Botstein, and John Williams.
Since 2008, Mr. Rivas has performed on numerous international tours with the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar de Venezuela, performing in countries including Austria, Japan, South Korea, Portugal, Italy, Germany, Russia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, Croatia, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico, Norway, Belgium, Trinidad and Tobago, France, London, Scotland, and Spain. In 2009 Mr. Rivas was invited by Maestro Dudamel to perform as Assistant Director during a national tour throughout Venezuela, conducting works by Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and others. In 2012 he was invited by Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu to participate in a concert-style Proms at the Vienna Konzerthaus. In 2013 he was part of the creation of the bi-national orchestra South Korea–Venezuela, where he was invited to conduct the orchestra by Dr. Abreu.
In 2014, upon invitation from Leon Botstein, Mr. Rivas participated in Bard College’s prestigious Conductor’s Institute. In 2015, he began a Graduate Degree in Orchestral Conducting at Bard under Harold Farberman. In the same year, he undertook an Assistant Conductor role at the annual Bard Music Festival. In 2017, he finished his studies at Bard College, and then secured the only offered place at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in their MMus/MA Orchestra Conducting program. The next year, he won the Miami Symphony Orchestra’s Conducting Fellowship and Apprenticeship under Eduardo Marturet. He has also led The Orchestra Now as concertmaster at venues such as Carnegie Hall and The Metropolitan Museum of Art with conductor Leon Botstein.
He is presently the Assistant Conductor for The Orchestra Now and the Bard College Conservatory Orchestra.
Andrés Rivas will conduct The Orchestra Now on November 20, 2022. He previously conducted TŌN on March 19, 2022; March 7, 2021; November 14, 2020; September 19, 2020; and September 12, 2020.
Bio: October 2020