Catching up with one of the hottest young conducting talents who’s making waves on Australian shores.

Still under 30, the MSO’s Principal Guest Conductor is seen as global hot property. As he touches down in Melbourne for a series of concerts, we chatted to one of the new breed of dynamic South American conductors that the world is wild about right now.

You grew up as part of José Antonio Abreu’s famous El Sistema program. First of all, how did you know or when did you know that you wanted to be a conductor?

That’s a funny story because when I was 20 years old I had a meeting with Maestro Abreu to talk about my future and he asked me, “What do you want to do?” and I told him that I wanted to do more chamber music and play solo. Then he asked me, “do you like to conduct?” and I said, “maybe, I’ve never tried it”. So he said, “OK, come tomorrow and I will give you your first lesson.” So I actually started like this. Later I started studying and as everything seemed to be going well with conducting I decided to stay with that.

I...