Andrés Franco

Andrés Franco is a nonprofit executive and orchestral conductor. He is the inaugural Executive Director of DNAWORKS, an organization dedicated to dialogue and healing through the arts.  He currently serves on the Exposure Advisory Committee of The Pittsburgh Foundation and the WQED Community Advisory Board.

A frequent guest conductor in the U.S., Europe, and South America, Andrés has appeared with the symphonies of Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Eugene, Fort Worth, Houston, Indianapolis, Omaha, and St. Louis; the philharmonic orchestras of Boise and Oklahoma City; the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and the Chicago Sinfonietta. Worldwide, he has conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Perú, Bogotá Philharmonic, Medellín Philharmonic, and EAFIT Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared at the Cabrillo, Grant Park, OK Mozart, Oregon Bach, Round Top, and Texas Music festivals.

Andrés served five seasons as Music Director of Tulsa’s Signature Symphony and Resident Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony. He has also served as Associate, then Resident Conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony, and Music Director of the Philharmonia of Kansas City. 

From 2020 to 2023, Andrés served as Executive Director of City of Asylum, an organization devoted to building a just community by protecting and celebrating creative free expression. 

Born into a musical family, Andrés Franco began piano studies with his father, Jorge Franco. He studied with Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Jose Feghali and attended piano workshops with Rudolph Buchbinder in Switzerland and Lev Naumov in France. Andrés studied conducting with Marin Alsop, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Helmut Rilling, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, Gustav Meier, and Kurt Masur.

Andrés Franco holds a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, and Master of Music degrees in piano performance and conducting from Texas Christian University. He is married to Victoria Luperi, associate principal clarinet and principal E-flat clarinet of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.