Venezuelan conductor Rafael Payare was recently named Music Director of Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal starting with the 2022-23 season. His first instrument was the French horn, and both he and his brother participated in El Sistema, which is a free music program for young children from highly impoverished backgrounds. Payare worked his way up to principal horn of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, and as a young adult he started conducting, too. Although he’s a fan of Johann Sebastian Bach, I could find not recordings of him leading a performance Beautiful Music by Bach. Instead, he conducts a performance by violinist Yoonshin Song of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s 5th Violin Concerto. And, as a bonus, a link to a performance of Bach Cello Suites by Rafael Pavare’s wife, the distinguished cellist Alisa Weilerstein.
Alisa Weilerstein – cello
(23) Bach: Cello Suites – YouTube
Rafael Payare – bio