Meet Felix Torres | Conductor & Arts Executive

We had the good fortune of connecting with Felix Torres and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Felix, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I chose an artistic career because it was the thing I kept coming back to when trying to decide: who I was going to be or what I was going to do for my career. It continued to inspire me.

When I was in high school, I made the All-State Orchestra in Texas, and that provided me with a life-changing experience. From that moment forward, I continued to pursue the goal of being a conductor.

I really couldn’t see myself doing anything else.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I think the thing that I’m most proud of right now is the work that I’m doing all across my artistic endeavors.

I am the Music & Artistic Director of the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra (MSO), the Music & Artistic Director of the East Texas Youth Orchestra (ETYO), and I am the Principal Conductor & Artistic Director for the Texas Institute for Orchestral Studies (TXIOS). Through that work, I am able to work with a wide variety of people, not only the musicians on stage but also a very diverse audience base with whom we can share our music.

In particular, with Mesquite, this is now my sixth year with the orchestra. Each year, we have pushed the boundaries of what the orchestra is capable of through programming more difficult and engaging music and more diverse music by composers from nontraditional backgrounds. This has exposed our audience to music they might not otherwise hear from other ensembles, and I am very proud of how far that ensemble has come.

With ETYO and TXIOS, I continue to seek out and recruit young musicians with a desire to push themselves beyond what they think they are capable of because these young people are very capable of achieving and succeeding at a very high level. In particular, with TXIOS, our summer program is 100% scholarship-based. This enables us to recruit students who may not have the resources to attend this kind of intensive summer program.

I arrived at where I am today professionally through sheer perseverance. Sometimes, I tell people that I am where I am out of pure stubbornness—the unwillingness to give up and the drive to push through to the next breakthrough moment.

I continue to evolve who I am as a person and artist, which sounds cliché, but that’s how I believe you continue to grow as a musician and artist. There were times when I wanted to give up, when I thought I wasn’t capable, or when I thought I would never be able to achieve the things I have now achieved.

This enables me to look forward and say I may not be able to do X, Y, or Z yet, but I know if I continue to push myself, I can achieve those things.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Of course, you’d have to do some of the stereotypical DFW things like visit the Stockyards or walk or bike the Trinity River, maybe the Katy Trail, or visit Deep Ellum. But as I’ve gotten older, I am less inclined to do things like a typical tourist might do, so I’d probably find some of the cooler hiking spots. There are a lot of very interesting and beautiful nature preserves in DFW that I’ve only discovered in the last few years. Those are the types of things I like to do now.

In terms of food, there are some of the standards, my wife and I really love Joe T’s, but now we really like hole-in-the-wall type places, great food trucks, places like that are the ones I would take a friend of mine to. It would need to be a culmination of all of North Texas so there’d be a lot of research or asking around and seeing what other spots people recommend for those great spots to check out. There’s a lot of really great things to see, eat, and experience in the Metroplex.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My wife. She has been with me, every step of the way, through all of the literal and metaphorical blood, sweat, and tears. She has encouraged me, lifted me up, and believed in me, even when I didn’t believe in myself. Without her, I certainly wouldn’t be in the place I am today.

Website: https://fdtorres.com

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Image Credits
Steve Glick, Thomas Zuber