Alvaro Cassuto is Portugal's foremost conductor. Having conducted many of the world's leading orchestra, he was Music Director of the Portuguese National Radio Symphony Orchestra (1970-89), the University of California Symphony Orchestra at Irvine (1974-79), the Rhode Island Philharmonic (1979-85), the National Orchestra of New York (1981-86), the Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa (1988-93), the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra (1993-99), the Israel Raanana Symphony Orchestra (2000-2002), and of the Algarve Orchestra (2002-05). Currently, he is Artistic Director of the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra. Born in Oporto, very early he established himself as one of Portugal's most promising composers of the avant-garde. He studied in Berlin with Herbert von Karajan and in Hilversum with Franco Ferrara, and obtained his conducting degree in Vienna, one year after graduating in Law from the University of Lisbon. In 1968 he established himself in New York. He was invited by the legendary Leopold Stokowski to be assistant conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra and after his début at Avery Fischer Hall in 1969, he was awarded the coveted Koussevitzky Prize at Tanglewood by Erich Leinsdorf. In Europe, he guest conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and the City of London Sinfonia, both at the Barbican Centre as well as in CD recordings, the Royal Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, both on tour to Portugal, the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester and on tour, and he regularly conducts in cities such as Berlin, Brussels, Munich, Leipzig, Prague, Copenhagen, Weimar, Athens, Milan, St Petersburg, Moscow, Madrid, Paris, Rio de Janeiro, among many others. In the United States, where he spent eighteen years, Álvaro Cassuto guest conducted dozens of orchestras, among them the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Oklahoma Symphony, the San Antonio Symphony, the Colorado Festival Orchestra, and in many cities such as Boston, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. He made his operatic début with Verdi's Otello at Lisbon's São Carlos National Theatre, of which he was artistic director from 1980 to 1981. He has conducted many Portuguese premières, and made over 25 recordings with the Nova Filarmonia Portuguesa alone, and embarked on an important recording project of music by Portuguese composers for Marco Polo and Naxos.

Robert McDuffie has appeared as soloist with many of the major orchestras of the world, including the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Utah, St. Louis, Montreal, and Toronto Symphonies, the Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minnesota Orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the North German Radio Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala, Santa Cecilia Orchestra of Rome and all of the major orchestras of Australia.

Recent appearances abroad have been at the Philharmonie in Cologne with the Bochum Symphoniker, in Taipei with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Hamburg Symphony (followed by a 22 city US tour with the Hamburg Symphony).He returns to Rome each June as the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of The Rome Chamber Music Festival.(www.romechamberfestival.org) The Mayor of Rome has recently awarded Robert McDuffie the prestigious Premio Simpatia in honor of his contribution to the cultural life of that city.