Spain, Portugal & Latin America
“Music is all about emotions”, says Luis Toro Araya.
The Chilean conductor has brilliantly started his 25/26 season by winning 2nd prize in the final of the German Conducting Award, conducting the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and the WDR Sinfonieorchester at the Philharmonie in Cologne, Germany. This season also marks his second year as Chief Conductor and Artistic Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción, one of Chile's leading orchestras. Toro Araya transmits to the audience performances full of emotion, engaging with musicians in a personal, energising way, and bringing a wide palette of subtle yet powerful colours to the concert platform.
Luis Toro Araya has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Concepción since March 2025. In recent years, he has debuted with orchestras such as the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra, the Orchestre de Picardie, the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile, with which he maintains a close relationship. In 2026, he will make his debut with the Hofer Symphoniker in their New Year's concerts and will also return to the Gran Teatre del Liceu as assistant conductor in a production of Puccini's Manon Lescaut.
Toro Araya was Assistant Conductor of the Orquesta Nacional de España until 2024, working closely with David Afkham, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. In 2024, he performed successfully with the ONE and Pablo Sáinz-Villegas at La Rioja Festival. During 2023, he was also part of the Dudamel Fellowship with Los Angeles Philharmonic, collaborating with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta, and Susanna Mälkki, and leading the orchestra in acclaimed performances of Stravinsky's The Firebird.
Luis Toro Araya has successfully taken part in various competitions, being a finalist of the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award 2021, where he conducted the Camerata Salzburg in the 100th edition of the Salzburg Festival. He is also a prize winner at the 2nd International Opera Conducting Competition in Liege 2022 and winner of the Opera Award and the Audience Award at the International Conducting Competition Rotterdam (ICCR) 2022. He was also recently awarded 2nd Prize at the German Conducting Award, conducting the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and the WDR Sinfonieorchester at the Philharmonie in Cologne.
Born 1995 in San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, Chile, he studied violin at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Chile and at the Modern School of Music with Alberto Dourthé Castrillón. He was later part of the National Symphony Orchestra of Chile from 2014 until 2017. In 2015 he began his orchestral conducting studies with conductors such as Jorge Rotter, Leonid Grin, Garrett Keast and Helmuth Reichel Silva. In masterclasses, he has been able to work with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Paavo Järvi, James Lowe and Larry Rachleff. Luis Toro Araya studied orchestral conducting at the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar with Prof. Nicolás Pasquet and at the Zurich University of Arts with Prof. Johannes Schlaefli.
