Andrés Franco

BIOGRAPHY
A finalist in the 2011 Memphis Symphony Orchestra International Conducting Competition, Andrés Franco is currently Associate Conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Caminos del Inka Ensemble and Conductor of the Fort Worth Youth Philharmonic.
Mr. Franco appears regularly as guest conductor in the U.S., Europe and South America. Recent and upcoming engagements include performances with the Corpus Christi, Eugene, Houston, Springfield and Stockton Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Spain), the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru, and the Bogota Philharmonic (Colombia). He has also participated in the Oregon Bach Festival, the FWSO’s Great Performances Festival and the Latin American Music Festival at TCU.
Mr. Franco’s diverse performance experience includes “Invierno Porteño”, a co-production of the Philharmonia of Kansas City and the Kansas City Ballet School, where he appeared as piano soloist and conductor performing music by Astor Piazzolla; and conducting the premiere of “Escenas Convergentes”, a work written by Luis Franco involving symphony orchestra, soloists and folk musicians as well as dancers and multimedia.  He has also conducted several choral-orchestral masterworks with the Oregon Bach Festival Choir, Kansas City Symphony Chorus and Texas Boys Choir.
His interest in education has led him to work with the Eastern Washington University Symphony and the TCU Symphony Orchestra, where he served as Sabbatical Replacement in 2008.
Andrés Franco studied conducting with Maestros Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schwarz, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Helmut Rilling, Nicholas Uljanov and German Gutierrez.
Born into a family of musicians, Andrés Franco started his studies under the direction of his father, Jorge Franco. An accomplished pianist, he studied with Cliburn Gold Medalist Jose Feghali, Rudolph Buchbinder and Lev Naumov. He received his Master’s degrees in Piano Performance and Conducting from TCU.
Mr. Franco resides in Fort Worth with his wife, FWSO principal clarinetist Victoria Luperi and their maltese, Beni.