Spain’s native, JOSÉ-LUIS NOVO is currently artistic director and conductor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in Maryland and from 2003 to 2016 he held an impressive thirteen-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Binghamton Philharmonic. Prior to these appointments, he served as Assistant Conductor of the ...

Spain’s native, JOSÉ-LUIS NOVO is currently artistic director and conductor of the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (ASO) in Maryland and from 2003 to 2016 he held an impressive thirteen-year tenure as Music Director and Conductor of the Binghamton Philharmonic. Prior to these appointments, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra under both former Music Director Paavo Järvi and the late Music Director Emeritus Jesús López-Cobos, and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra under the late Erich Kunzel. He has been on the conducting faculty at the Eastern Music Festival since 1999.

Highlights of Novo’s tenure with the ASO include numerous appearances at the Music Center at Strathmore with violinists James Ehnes, Anne Akiko Meyers, NoahBendix-Balgley, Chee-Yun, Leticia Moreno and Esther Yoo; pianists Olga Kern, Jon Nakamatsu, Brian Ganz and Awadagin Pratt; cellists Steven Isserlis and the late Lynn Harrell; guitarist Manuel Barrueco; pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the Naval Academy Glee Club. Also remarkable are a 2012 return appearance at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, national broadcasts on NPR’s Performance Today, debut TV broadcasts on Washington’s WETA Metro PBS, the launching of the ASO’s award-winning streaming platform Symphony+, the creation of the Annapolis Symphony Academy and the ASO’s first commercial CD commemorating the 300th anniversary of the signing of the City of Annapolis’ Royal Charter. In July of 2022, Maestro Novo and the ASO stunned audiences on both sides of the Atlantic in a debut international tour to Spain with guitar virtuoso Pepe Romero as guest soloist.

Recent and upcoming guest conducting engagements include debut appearances with the Rochester Philharmonic, the Austin, Grand Rapids, Hilton Head, Palm Beach, Alexandria and South Bend Symphony Orchestras, and return appearances with the Baltimore Symphony, the Fresno Philharmonic, Symphoria, and a Kimmel Center debut in Philadelphia conducting the Curtis Institute Orchestra. After a successful debut with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra (TPO) for the Thailand International Composition Festival, Maestro Novo has been invited back regularly to guest conduct the TPO on several occasions. Other guest conducting engagements have included appearances with the Symphony San José; the Minnesota Orchestra; the Syracuse, Modesto, Windsor, Stamford, Tulsa, and Tallahassee Symphonies; the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra; the Cleveland and Abilene Philharmonics, and most of the major Spanish orchestras.

Novo has also fostered a reputation as a keen educator of young musicians. He has held conducting positions with the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, Miami University Symphony Orchestra, National Repertory Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Spain and the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and from 2017 to 2019 he was Interim Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Maryland School of Music, College Park. In addition, he has conducted many noteworthy college and youth orchestras such as the Curtis Institute Orchestra, the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra, the Bard Conservatory Orchestra, the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra, and the Portuguesa State Youth Orchestra of the Venezuelan El Sistema. More recently and under the auspices of the Annapolis Symphony Academy, he presided over the debut of its Orion Youth Orchestra, conducting the inaugural concert in June 2022.

Novo was featured in the League of American Orchestra’s Symphony magazine in “Podium Powers,” an article about emerging Hispanic conductors in the United States. He holds music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Yale University and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels, and is the recipient of a 2010 Annie Award in Performing Arts from the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, a 2008 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Adventurous Programming Award, and a 2005 Broome County Arts Council Heart of the Arts Award.