Gregory Carreno

Gregory Carreno is a young Venezuelan violinist and orchestra conductor born in 1982 into a family of internationally renowned musicians.

Mr. Carreno began his violin studies in Caracas, Venezuela at the Simon Bolivar National Conservatory of Music with Susan Siman and Ulises Ascanio; and at the Emil Friedman Conservatory with Raimondas Butvila. He also studied with Edgar Aponte at the Jose Francisco del Castillo Latino American Violin Academy, Misha Vitenson at Florida International University and Glenn Basham, of the University of Miami. Mr. Carreno is a founding member of the Orquesta Infantil de Venezuela, with which he has toured in most countries of Europe and Latin America.

Mr. Carreno has performed with internationally acclaimed conductors such as Jose Antonio Abreu, Claudio Abbado, Gustavo Dudamel, Carlos Riazuelo, Eduardo Marturet, Sir Simon Rattle, Vittorio Negri, and Gregory Carreno, Sr., among others.

Mr. Carreno has been a member of very prestigious orchestras, performing as a soloist in many of them such as Jovenes Arcos de Venezuela, Orquesta Sinfonica de Miranda, Orquesta Sinfonica de Trujillo, Orquesta Sinfonica de La Camara Andina de Fomento, the Florida International University Orchestra, Ibero American Youth Orchestra, Miami Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Sinfonica de la Juventud Venezolana “Simon Bolivar," in which he has performed for heads of state, the king and queen of Spain, Pope John Paul II in Venezuela and again in Brasil, and in the United Nations in the presence of Kofi Anan, Nelson Mandela, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu.

He has taken violin masterclasses with Igor Oistrakh, Maurice Hasson, Sara Silling, Alexander Kantorov and Jean Pierre Wallez, as well as string quartet masterclasses with Zakhar Bron, the Berlin Philarmonic String Quartet, the Borodian String Quartet, Portland String Quartet and Beijing String Quartet.

Mr. Carreno received the Orden “Jose Felix Rivas” in its Third Class, the most important recognition awarded to an outstanding young musician. As a member of the Simon Bolivar Venezuelan Youth Orchestra, he was recognized as a UNESCO Artist for Peace.

Mr. Carreno currently performs with the Miami Symphony Orchestra and is the artistic director of the OLYMPUS System of Childrens' and Youth Orchestras and Choirs. To date, he has developed, with his team of professors, five children's orchestras in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, with 250 young musicians and choirs of 60 voices in only a year and a half. With his teaching system he has made it possible for these children to play a musical instruments and perform in a concert within just a few months of music education.