Bio
MARTÍN ALEXANDER ARELLANO is an award-winning conductor and composer of Nicaraguan-Mexican descent, recognized for his dynamic leadership across opera, symphonic, and contemporary repertoire. A multi-laureate of the 2024 and 2025 American Prizes in Music, he received top honors in Opera Conducting and additional national recognition in Community Orchestra, Wind Ensemble, Musical Theater, and Performance of American Music. In 2023, he was awarded Second Jury Prize at the Opéra de Baugé International Conducting Competition in France.
Arellano was invited as a guest Music Director with the St. Pete Opera in the 2025–2026 season and currently serves as Conductor of the Santa Clarita Symphony Orchestra in the Los Angeles area. He is the founder and Music Director of both the North Bay Chamber Orchestra and the Central California Wind Ensemble. His programming reflects a commitment to artistic excellence, audience engagement, and the championing of contemporary and American voices. Internationally trained in both Europe and the United States,
Arellano earned his professional conducting diploma (COP) at the Strasbourg Conservatoire in France, where he studied with Miguel Etchegoncelay and Theodor Guschlbauer and was selected to represent the conducting studio in masterclass with David Reiland and the Orchestre National de Metz. He holds additional degrees from the University of Iowa and the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
Arellano’s operatic work includes conducting performances of Gilbert & Sullivan’s The HMS Pinafore and Domenico Chimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto , as well as assisting major university and professional productions. He has appeared as a Conducting Fellow with the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and the Miami Symphony Orchestra, and has participated in the Pierre Monteux Festival, collaborating with internationally recognized conductors including Ludovic Morlot.
As a composer, Arellano has written for wind ensemble, symphony orchestra, and chamber ensembles, and was a finalist in The Florida Orchestra’s Student Composer Competition. His dual perspective as conductor and composer informs an interpretive approach rooted in structural clarity, stylistic fluency, and contemporary relevance. A native Spanish speaker fluent in French, Arellano brings an international outlook to his work and is committed to expanding the orchestral canon through innovative programming and cross-cultural artistic dialogue.