About Enluis Montes Olivar

Dynamic Venezuelan conductor Enluis Montes Olivar, 29, is receiving international acclaim for his artistry and dynamic energy. He currently serves as Associate Conductor of the Simón Bolívar Chamber Orchestra, Associate Conductor of the Schwob Philharmonic, Conducting Fellow of the San Diego Symphony and Music and Artistic Director of The Blue Morpho Orchestra. In 2024, he was awarded the prestigious Glenn Gould Protégé Prize, which followed his 1st Prize and Orchestra Prize at the 2022 International Conducting Competition of the University of Almería in Spain.

He has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, New West Symphony, the Redlands Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica Metropolitana di Bari in Italy, and the Orchestre National de Mulhouse in France and  with the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra in China. He recently led the Simón Bolívar Chamber Orchestra on tour in Algeria and in a complete Symphonic Beethoven Cycle in Caracas. With the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, he has released an album in May of 2025 with music of Carreño, Castellanos and Estevez.

Upcoming appearances in 2026 include returning engagement with the San Diego Symphony as a conducting fellow and guess conductor at The Rady Shell including the traditional summer concert: Tchaikovsky Spectacular and he will lead a Symphonic Brahms Cycle with the Simón Bolívar Chamber Orchestra. Enluis will also make his debut with the New York Philharmonic at the St. John the Devine Cathedral and with  the Bogota Philharmonic in Colombia.

As a two seasons Dudamel Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Enluis conducted performances at both Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Hollywood Bowl, where critic Tony Frankel praised his work as “virtuosic splendor” and “a master class in musicianship.” Additionally, he has served as assistant conductor at the Opéra National de Paris, collaborating with Gustavo Dudamel on Nixon in China and with Alexander Soddy on Lohengrin.

Enluis received a diploma in Orchestral Conducting from the Simón Bolívar Conservatory of Music in 2023. A product of Venezuela’s El Sistema, Enluis has led performances with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Juan José Landaeta Symphony, Caracas Symphony Orchestra, and the Simón Bolívar National Choir. He conducted a landmark posthumous tribute to Maestro José Antonio Abreu, uniting members of the El Sistema family, and led a Guinness World Record-setting performance with an orchestra and chorus of 12,000 musicians, the largest ensemble of its kind.

He began his formal conducting studies in 2012 with Teresa Hernández, José Antonio Abreu, Gregory Carreño, and Franka Verhagen, and has participated in masterclasses with renowned conductors such as Dick van Gasteren, Eduardo Marturet, Diego Matheuz, Roberto Zambrano, John Farrer, Leaf Bjaland, Mark Churchill, Marc Moncusí, Luis Mauricio Carneiro, David Cubeck, Ransom Wilson and Nathalie Stutzmann.

Enluis continues his conducting studies with Paul Hostetter and voice with Dr. Laura Thomason, at the Schwob School of Music, Columbus State University and will graduate in spring of 2026. Since Spring 2024, he has also been a faculty member of the Schwob Music Preparatory Program, teaching orchestral conducting.