About this Artist

Colombian conductor Camilo Téllez currently serves as Associate Conductor of the Frost Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gerard Schwarz. In 2019, he was a finalist at the Amsterdam Conservatorium Competition, where he had the opportunity to conduct the Netherlands Philharmonic and the Hague Ensemble. He has conducted and collaborated with orchestras in the United States, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Brazil, and Colombia. Some of these include the Berlin Sinfonietta, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Palm Beach Symphony, Florianopolis Camerata, and the Manizales Symphony Orchestra.

Téllez is passionate about the power of social transformation through music. In 2017/18, he served as Music Director of 40 Horas, an El Sistema–inspired outreach program supported by the Colombian government to foster talent in economically disenfranchised areas of his hometown of Bogotá, Colombia. Téllez founded a symphony orchestra for local youth and a children’s choir that performed in venues across Bogotá. Through his work, he has brought music to some of the most vulnerable communities in the United States and Latin America.

A staunch advocate for new music and the celebration of contemporary Latin American composers, Téllez frequently conducts the contemporary music ensemble Alia Musica in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the summer of 2021, he served as Assistant Conductor for the Chicago Opera Festival’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and he will compete in the International Conductors Workshop Competition in Atlanta, Georgia.

Téllez holds a Master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and an Artist Diploma from the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He studied piano performance and orchestral conducting, graduating with honors from the Juan N. Corpas University in Bogotá, Colombia. Téllez has assisted conductors such as Gerard Schwarz, Giancarlo Guerrero, Thomas Wilkins, Carl St.Clair, Federico Cortese, Marzio Conti, Arthur Fagen, Cliff Colnot, Kenneth Kiesler, Gary Thor Wedow, and Nir Kabaretti, among others.