M.M. orchestral conducting, Yale University; M.M. orchestral conducting, Florida State University; Licenciaturas orchestral, choral conducting, and composition, Universidad Católica, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Mariano Vales joined the DCYOP faculty during the fall of 2007 as conductor of the Junior Philharmonic. He began his professional conducting career at the age of eighteen in Buenos Aires while studying conducting with Maestro Guillermo Scarabino. Maestro Vales continued his studies in the US under Maestro Philip Spurgeon at Florida State University and Maestro Lawrence Leighton Smith at Yale University. The Mozarteum Argentino honored him with the Eduardo Gruneisen Prize for young musicians. As a result he was able to study at the Accademia Chigiana in Italy. At Yale University he received the Frances G. Wickes Foundation of New York scholarship and the privilege to study as Special Student of the Dean.
Maestro Vales currently serves as the Coordinator for the Music Program at the Organization of American States. He is an active composer in the Washington theatrical scene; his latest musical, Mummy in the Closet, commissioned by the Gala Theater, opened in June of 2009 and was nominated for 5 Helen Hayes Awards in 2010.
Maestro Vales comes from a family of German musicians who emigrated to Argentina and the US.
Faculty and staff photographs made possible through the artistry and generosity of Charles Steck Photography and through the generosity of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities