Álvaro Cassuto is Portugal’s foremost conductor. Having conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras, he was Music Director of the Portuguese National Radio Symphony Orchestra (1970-89), the University of California Symphony Orchestra at Irvine (1974-79), the Rhode Island Philharmonic (1979-85), the National Orchestra of New York (1981-86), the Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa (1988-93), the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra (1993-99), the Israel Raanana Symphony Orchestra (2000-2002), and of the Algarve Orchestra (2002-05). Currently, he is Artistic Director of the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. Born in Oporto, very early he established himself as one of Portugal’s most promising composers of the avant-garde. He studied in Berlin with Herbert von Karajan and in Hilversum with Franco Ferrara, and obtained his conducting degree in Vienna, one year after graduating in Law from the University of Lisbon. In 1968 he established himself in New York. He was invited by the legendary Leopold Stokowski to be assistant conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and after his début at Avery Fischer Hall in 1969, he was awarded the coveted Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood by Erich Leinsdorf. In Europe, he guest conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia, both at the Barbican Centre as well as in CD recordings, the Royal Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, both on tour to Portugal, the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester and on tour, and he regularly conducts in

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