Pablo Saelzer has been Music Director and Conductor of FMMC’s Avanti Orchestra since 2005, when he made his Washington, DC, conducting debut at the orchestra’s yearly Kennedy Center performance. A professor of music at Montgomery College in Maryland, he also conducts the college’s orchestra. From 2007 until 2012 he served as conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of the Maryland Classical Youth Orchestras, with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut. As guest conductor, Mr. Saelzer has appeared with orchestras at Yale University’s Sprague Hall; in Santiago, Chile; in Poços de Caldas, Brazil; at Festival Internacional de Cuerdas Ibague in Colombia; and with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Southern Opera and Music Theatre and Festival-South. He regularly guest conducts Orquesta de Cámara de la Universidad de Santiago de Chile with whom he maintains an enduring relationship.
Throughout his career, Mr. Saelzer has been active in music education as well as in orchestral and chamber music performance. He was a faculty member at the Music Conservatory of the Universidad Austral in Valdivia, and at the Levine School of Music, where he taught violin, viola and chamber music. He also served as artistic director and conductor of the Mississippi Youth Symphony Orchestra program and taught chamber music and conducting at the University of Southern Mississippi. He was music director of the Mississippi Symphony’s Premier Orchestra Institute. An accomplished violist, he has performed with diverse professional ensembles in the DC and Baltimore area, including the National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Concert Artists of Baltimore.
Mr. Saelzer studied at the Music Conservatory in Valdivia, Chile, and also at the Kantorei St. Martini in Bremen, Germany, the Orchestral Conducting Academy in Concepcion, Chile, and the Conductors Retreat at Medomak, Maine. He holds a bachelor degree from the Universidad Austral de Chile and a masters degree from Columbus State University in Georgia.
Photo of Pablo Saelzer by Allison Malley
