ARTISTIC PROFILE
Valentín Bravo is a Colombian conductor, composer, and violinist, born in Medellín and currently based in Los Angeles, California. His artistic activity has led him to perform at festivals and venues across Colombia, the United States, and Germany.
In July 2026, he conducted the EAFIT Symphony Orchestra in a side-by-side collaboration with the Iberacademy Orchestra in Medellín, Colombia, in a program featuring Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, marking the work’s first performance in the city. The concert celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Alexander von Humboldt Cultural Institute and was presented with the support of the Embassy of Austria in Colombia and the Consulate of Austria in Medellín. He also participated in the 2026 Los Angeles Conducting Workshop & Competition with conductors Neil Thomson and Scott Weiss, where he was selected as a semifinalist, and in the Texas Conducting Workshop with pedagogues Dianne Wittry, John McKeever, and Silas Huff. Previously, he served as Co-Artistic Director of Festicámara Jaibaná 2025, conducting programs featuring works by Mahler, Bartók, Suk, and Piazzolla, including the premiere of his composition "The Princess and the Henchman" (La Princesa y el Esbirro), based on an original story published by Autor (spain) in 2019.
Since 2024, he has served as a guest conducting instructor at the Popayán International Chamber Music Festival in Colombia, returning in 2025 and 2026 to lead conducting masterclasses and participate in outreach and educational activities. His engagement with the Peninsula Committee of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has included the presentation of Music and Nature in February 2026, followed by an invitation to open the committee’s 2026–2027 Speaker Series in December 2026 with Music and Drama. Since 2025, he has been an affiliate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and actively volunteers with its community and educational programs.
He is currently Music Director of Bravo! Singers, an adult choir based in Rancho Palos Verdes. Together with violinist Mimi Jung, he co-directs the Jung–Bravo Music Studio, where he teaches violin, chamber music, and composition, and develops orchestral and chamber music programs for young musicians. He is also a violin and chamber music coach at the Music Box in Redondo Beach, California.
He has been invited on three consecutive occasions to conduct the benefit concert La Casita de Nicolás in Medellín with Camerata Jaibaná, featuring works including Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, alongside violinist Mimi Jung. In his most recent appearance, he conducted Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with soloists Mimi Jung (violin) and David Samuel (viola), accompanied by guest students from Vanderbilt University.
In 2024, he served as assistant conductor to José Escandell in a production of Verdi’s Otello in Valencia, Spain, for Leonor Gago Artist Management Opera Company. In November 2022, he was one of the winning conductors of the EAFIT Symphony Orchestra Young Talents Competition, conducting part of a season concert program. He has also conducted excerpts from Copland’s Appalachian Spring with musicians from the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and Iberacademy, as well as Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro under stage director Marco Gandini. In 2022, he participated as assistant to conductor Leonard Elschenbroich in Cochabamba, Bolivia, as part of a collaboration between the Bravura Foundation and Iberacademy.
He studied conducting with Alejandro Posada at EAFIT University and has received private training from Lina González-Granados, José Escandell, and Orhan Salliel.
As a composer, he received Second Prize at the 2023 Caneres Music Competition in Vienna for his Fugue for String Quartet. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Violin Performance from EAFIT University and was a violinist with the EAFIT Symphony Orchestra for eight years.