David Amado

David Amado has been Music Director of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra since July of 2016.  In June 2023, after leading the Delaware Symphony Orchestra for 20 seasons as Music Director, David Amado was named the first Music Director Laureate in the DSO’s 118-year history.

As a guest conductor, Amado has led numerous prominent orchestras. In addition to the St. Louis Symphony, where he served as associate conductor from 2001 to 2004, he has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, and the Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, National, New World, and Toronto symphonies. Recent engagements have included the Mobile, New Bedford, New Haven and Toronto symphony orchestras and California’s Symphony Silicon Valley. In June of 2019, he made his debut at the Mostly Modern Festival in Saratoga Springs, New York. 2024-25  highlights include guest conducting engagements with the Oregon Mozart Players, Hilton Head Symphony, and a return to the Delaware Symphony Orchestra to close their season.

Amado has been praised by the media, audiences, and fellow musicians for his deep musical insight and visceral energy. His recordings on Telarc and Naxos have garnered Latin GRAMMY nominations.

Amado began his musical training in piano, studying in The Juilliard School’s pre-college and college divisions before going on to Indiana University, where he received a master’s degree in instrumental conducting. Returning to New York, he pursued further conducting studies at Juilliard with Otto-Werner Mueller. His first professional conducting post, an apprenticeship with the Oregon Symphony, was followed by a six-year tenure with the St. Louis Symphony, where he served as both a staff conductor at the orchestra and music director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra.