Rafael Payare

Conductor Rafael Payare is the music director of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and, as of 2022, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. Several times in his career, he has been named to conducting posts after just one or two guest appearances. Payare was born in Puerto la Cruz, near Barcelona, Venezuela, on February 23, 1980. His father was a municipal cartographer, and his mother was a schoolteacher. Payare was a product of Venezuela's famed El Sistema music education system. He took up the horn at age 14 and, after just three weeks, earned a chair in the Symphony Orchestr...