Carlos Miguel Prieto, considered one of the most dynamic and interesting young conductors in recent years, is music director of Mexico's oldest orchestra, the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, associate conductor of the Houston Symphony, and music director of the Huntsville Symphony (Alabama). He regularly conducts all the main orchestras of Mexico and has made guest appearances with such North American orchestras as the Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Florida Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic, and others. Internationally, he has conducted orchestras in Germany, Holland, Russia, Portugal, Spain, France, Ireland, Israel, and throughout Latin America. In the current season he will conduct in Germany, Holland, Spain, the United States, Canada, Argentina, Colombia, and Costa Rica. In September, 2004 he will lead the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra in a two-week tour of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, which includes two concerts in the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam. He was voted “Conductor of the Year 2002” by the Mexican Union of Music and Theater Critics and in 1998 he received the Mozart Medal of Honor presented by the Government of Mexico and the Embassy of Austria.

In the summer of 2002 Prieto conducted the Youth Orchestra of the Americas. His 2003 tour with this enthusiastic ensemble began with concerts at the United Nations and the Kennedy Center, and in July and August, continued from Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and other countries of South America.  He toured with this orchestra throughout Mexico in July 2004. 

As Associate Conductor with the Mexico City Philharmonic from 1998 to 2002, he conducted over 50 pairs of concerts ranging from Classical Subscription to Educational and Popular concerts.  A committed supporter of contemporary music, Prieto has conducted over 50 world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers, many of which were commissioned by him.  He has recently made a series of recordings of Latin American and Mexican music for the Urtext label.

Carlos Miguel Prieto is the founder and music director of the successful and groundbreaking Mozart-Haydn Festival, an annual series of six concerts dedicated to the symphonic music of these two composers.  In October 2004 he led the fifth festival in Sala Nezahualcoyotl of Mexico City.

Prieto, who is also an accomplished violinist, has been a member of the Cuarteto Prieto (a tradition of four generations) from an early age, with which he has performed in the most important halls of Mexico, the U.S., and throughout Europe. He has participated in the festivals of Aspen, Tanglewood, Interlochen, San Miguel Allende, Cervantino, and has played as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. 

A graduate of Princeton and Harvard Universities (where he was concertmaster of the orchestra), Prieto studied conducting with Jorge Mester, Enrique Diemecke, Charles Bruck and Michael Jinbo.