Gustavo Gimeno

Recognized for his clarity, versatility, and thoughtful musical leadership, Gustavo Gimeno has distinguished himself with orchestras and in opera. Music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 2020-21, he recommitted to the orchestra through the 2029-30 season. The 2025-26 season is his inaugural season as music director of Madrid's Teatro Real.

In the 2025-26 season, Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra present a lineup of soloists including Lang Lang, Javier Perianes, and Anoushka Shankar. The season opens with Orff's Carmina Burana, followed by Beethoven's Symphonies No. 6, 8, and 9 and Mahler's Symphony No. 9, among other works. Gimeno and the orchestra also tour several European countries, sharing the stage with soloists including Bruce Liu and Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

At Teatro Real, Gimeno conducts Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and The Miraculous Mandarin, as well as a new staging of Smetana's The Bartered Bride. In the 2024-25 season, he led a new production of Eugene Onegin and performed with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid for its 120th anniversary.

Gimeno is much sought-after as a guest conductor. In the 2025-26 season, he debuts with the New York Philharmonic, conducting Dvořák's New World Symphony with Hélène Grimaud, and returns to the Los Angeles Philharmonic with soloist Renaud Capuçon. Recent guest engagements include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and other leading orchestras of Europe and Asia. As an opera conductor, he has led productions at the Liceu Opera Barcelona, Opernhaus Zürich, and Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia.

Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra continue their recording partnership with Harmonia Mundi; their most recent release features Stravinsky's Pulcinella and Divertimento and the world premiere recording of Kelly-Marie Murphy's Curiosity, Genius, and the Search for Petula Clark. Their first album for the label, featuring Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie, won the JUNO Award for classical album of the year (large ensemble) in 2025.

Gimeno served as music director of the Luxembourg Philharmonic for a decade beginning in 2015-16, during which he and the orchestra performed in many of Europe's, South Korea's, and South America's most prestigious concert halls.

In March 2025, Gimeno was appointed a Commander of the Order of Civil Merit by King Felipe VI of Spain. He has also been named an Officer in the Order of Civil and Military Merit of Adolph of Nassau by the Grand Duke of Luxembourg.