Conductor and Music Director Jotaro Nakano creates music to bring people closer together. Jotaro’s performances are frequently praised for his thoughtful and innovative programs that are as artistically beautiful as are enriching for the soul.

Currently, Jotaro directs the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of Boston’s medical and healthcare communities; and the SA’Oaxaca Strings International Music Festival Orchestra, the first tuition-free chamber string music festival in Oaxaca, Mexico. Jotaro’s continued partnerships with both of these organizations come as natural continuations of his mission as an impassioned citizen artist who seeks to connect and inspire underprivileged communities with the deeply moving and uplifting powers of art and music.

As a child of Japanese immigrants – a jazz drumming father and a dancing piano playing mother – Jotaro enjoyed a vibrantly multicultural and artistically wide-ranging childhood that left him with a unique curiosity to explore all of the world’s expressive possibilities.

While completing his doctorate at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Jotaro served as the Peabody Arts in Health Fellow at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, allowing him to explore the many vibrant intersections between arts and healing. Today, with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Jotaro leads the Healing Art of Music^TM program – leveraging the far reaching platform of his orchestral performances to help raise funds for, and amplify the impact of, our local nonprofit organizations. Over the years, the Healing Art of Music^TM has helped raise millions of dollars for our valuable community partners.

Since its founding in 2019, Jotaro has served as the orchestra director of SA’Oaxaca. Its mission is to provide “excellent educational opportunities to underserved Mexican string instrumentalists, and increase the study and promotion of Latin American and Hispanic chamber music compositions.” Through this large-scale international cultural exchange, Jotaro has performed with hundreds of talented Latin American musicians, and looks forward to returning to Oaxaca every summer.

In the past, Jotaro has served as the Music Director of the Ann Arbor Camerata; Cover Conductor for the Baltimore Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and San Diego Symphony; and Conducting Fellow of the Long Beach Symphony. His vibrantly multicultural musical life has allowed him to share the stage with musicians across Mexico, the Czech Republic, Romania, and all across the United States. With every new project, Jotaro’s commitment is to maximize artistic collaboration to fill this world with wonder and hope.