Albany pro Musica picks new director

PHOTOGRAPHER: Bill Buell

Jose Daniel Flores-Caraballo, founder of the renowned Atlantic Children’s Chorale in Vero Beach, Fla., will be named artistic director for Albany Pro Musica Tuesday at noon at the Albany City Hall Rotunda.

Karen Hitchcock, board president of Albany Pro Music, and Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan will introduce Flores-Caraballo, who was serving as music director at the Community Church of Vero Beach.

“My wife, Dharma, and I are delighted to call the Capital Region our new home,” said Flores-Caraballo in a press release issued Friday announcing the move.

Flores-Caraballo earned a bachelor’s degree in music education and instrumental conducting from the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico in 1987. He earned a master’s in choral conducting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a doctorate in sacred music from Oxford Graduate Theological Foundation. Flores-Caraballo was dean of academic affairs at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico from 1995-1998.

He has studied with highly-acclaimed conductors such as Helmuth Rilling, Don Moses, Fred Stoltzfus and Roselyn Pabon, and has recorded as conductor and organist with musicians all over the world. Flores-Caraballo’s own performing career includes a touring stage show, “The Dueling Brothers,” with his brother Marcos Daniel.

Flores-Caraballo succeeds David Griggs-Janower who died in August of 2013. Griggs-Janower founded Albany Pro Music in 1981.