Luis Castillo-Briceño

Luis Castillo-Briceño is a Grand Prix winner of the Rotterdam International Conducting Competition 2025.

As guest conductor, Luis has appeared with orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los
Angeles Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic and St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra. In 2025/26 he will
make his conducting debuts with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra,
Sichuan Philharmonic, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and Munich Philharmonic.

Luis made his UK debut conducting the LPO at the Brighton Dome in November 2023 and has since performed several other concerts with the orchestra, notably during their US tour in Autumn 2024. Luis will return to the LPO this season when he supports Robin Ticciati for ‘Ariadne’ at Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
 
Named by BBC Music Magazine as a "Rising Star", Luis has held several assisting positions in the past including as: Verbier Festival (2025), Dudamel Fellow of the LA Phil (2024/25), LPO fellow conductor
(2023/24), and was an Equilibrium Young Artist (2021-25), mentored by conductor and singer Barbara
Hannigan. He has acted as her assistant with numerous orchestras including London Symphony Orchestra,
Danish National Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio
France, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Musikkollegium Winterthur and Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne.
 
Luis speaks fluent English, Spanish, French and German. He started his musical studies at the age of five with the violin, at the Instituto Nacional de la Música (Costa Rica's National Music Institute). At age eleven, he started to study flute at the same institution, becoming the principal flutist of the Orquesta Sinfonica Infantil de Costa Rica. Luis also holds a bachelor’s degree in piano from the Zurich University of the Arts, in Switzerland. He studied orchestral conducting and opera coaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna and also holds a Specialised Masters in orchestra conducting from the Zurich University of the Arts.