New Head of Conducting Eduardo Diazmuñoz has succeeded where Humperdinck, Ravel and Schoenberg apparently failed.

Spanish-Mexican Eduardo Diazmuñoz has been awarded the job of Music Director and Head of Conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Diazmuñoz, touted by the Conservatorium as “one of the most versatile musicians of his generation”, will begin a partial appointment from August 1 to September 30 this year, before commencing full-time directorship of the Conservatorium orchestra in February 2014.

Diazmuñoz comes fresh from a teaching post as Artist and Music Director of the Opera Division at the University of Illinois, and has expressed enthusiasm for his new position in Sydney: “I want to be part of this Conservatorium, of this splendid University, and contribute my best to further develop their amazing growth.”

Diazmuñoz trained at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City in the late 1970s, and later studied with eminent conductors Lèon Barzin and, most notably, Leonard Bernstein. He has held teaching positions at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, the New World School of the Arts in Miami and the Société Philharmonic in Paris. Having recorded 35 CDs on 19 labels, he is also the first Mexican conductor to have...