Oto Carrillo was appointed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) horn section by Daniel Barenboim in 2000. A native of Guatemala, Carrillo grew up in Chicago admiring the CSO and its wonderful horn section while receiving a bachelor’s degree in music performance from DePaul University and a master’s degree in music performance and musicology from Northwestern University. His teachers were Jon Boen, principal horn of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and Gail Williams, retired associate principal horn of the CSO.
After graduating, Carrillo won positions with the Memphis and Cedar Rapids (Orchestra Iowa) orchestras and continued playing in Chicago for two seasons as a member of the Civic Orchestra, coached by the legendary principal horn of the CSO, Dale Clevenger. He has played guest principal with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México and guest associate principal with the Utah Symphony. Carrillo has also performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Metropolitana Orchestra of Lisbon, Portugal, as well as having had featured roles in Chicago-based ensembles such as the Chicago Sinfonietta, Chicago Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Music of the Baroque, where he is now principal horn.
In addition, Oto Carrillo has played in various summer festivals with orchestras such as the National Repertory Orchestra, National Orchestral Institute, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Grant Park Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival in Woodstock, Illinois and Grand Teton Music festival orchestras. Prior to his appointment to the CSO, Carrillo held positions in the South Bend and Southwest Michigan Symphony orchestras.
Carrillo has collaborated with numerous chamber groups, including Civitas, Dempster Street Pro Musica, Chicago Chamber Musicians and as a member of the Millar Brass, Athenaeum Ensemble and International Chamber Artists. Recently, he gave a series of recitals in Vancouver, Canada, where he also played with musicians of Vetta Chamber Music. Carrillo has been a soloist with various groups in and outside Chicago, performing works by Bach, Strauss, Mozart, Britten and Glière as well as giving the Chicago premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Silver Chants the Litanies for Horn and Chamber Orchestra. He has collaborated with his colleagues in the CSO horn section to perform Schumann’s Konzertstücke for Four Horns with the Chicago Youth Symphony, the Civic Orchestra and, most recently, the CSO.
As an instructor, Carrillo has given many master classes across the U.S. and around the globe. He has been on faculty at DePaul University since 2003 and, in 2013, was awarded the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award. In addition, he served as the horn professor for ten years at the Pacific Regional International Summer Music Academy (PRISMA) in British Columbia.
Outside of playing horn, Oto Carrillo enjoys savoring and occasionally brewing excellent craft beer, woodworking, playing sports of all types, traveling to beautiful places in this country and around the world (he currently has visited fifty-six of the sixty-three National Parks), and the company of his wife, Sarah, a freelance trumpet player, and their two adult children, Lucas and Isabelle.
