Jessica Rivero Altarriba

Latin American conductor Jessica Rivero Altarriba is known for her charismatic stage presence, dynamic energy, and communicative skills. Recently announced as a Taki Alsop Fellowship Award Recipient 2024-2026 and named the New Jersey Symphony’s first-ever Colton Conducting Fellow for the 2023–24 season, she is also a Freeman Conducting Fellow with Chicago Sinfonietta. Altarriba is concurrently pursuing her Masters in Conducting at the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University.

Upcoming engagements this season include performances with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, New Jersey Symphony, Peabody Symphony, NOI Festival Orchestra (Maryland), Ravinia Festival and Colorado Summer Festival. During the 2022-2023 season she worked with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra and Lüneburg Symphoniker in Germany as a guest conductor.

Altarriba’s guest engagements include Spain’s Malaga Camerata, Virtuous Mediterrani Orchestra, Lüneburg Symphoniker in Germany and professional Symphony Orchestras in Cuba such as Holguín Symphony Orchestra, Camagüey Symphony Orchestra, Youth Symphony E.Salas, Philharmonic of the University of Arts, Chamber Orchestra National School of Art, Eastern Symphony Orchestra, Amadeo Roldán Orchestra, Lyceum Mozartiano Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of University of Arts. She also conducted incidental music with Havana-Martin Camerata for the national premiere of Phantom of the Opera.

Festival credits include Cuba’s Festival a Tempo con Caturla, JazzPlaza, Contemporary Music Festival, Mozart Habana Festival, and the Arts Festival, where she was awarded 1st prize for Young Conductors.

Born in Cuba, Altarriba is equally vested in both established and well-known repertoire and contemporary compositions. Her devotion to her craft is evident in her prior posts, which include serving as guest conductor of the Esteban Salas Symphony Orchestra in Cuba and Music Director of the University of Arts Band, and the Eastern Symphony Orchestra in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba. She received her bachelor’s degree in Conducting from the Arts University in Havana in 2018. During her time at the University of Arts, Altarriba gave world premieres of contemporary pieces including ’Calabi’’ by Nathalie Hidalgo Reyes, and “The Creation’’ by Dania Suarez Piorno—in collaboration with the University ‘s Composition faculty. Altarriba is the recipient of an Excellence in Music Leadership Fellowship at The Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University, where she is currently pursuing her Masters in Orchestral Conducting under Maestra Marin Alsop.