Cosette Justo Valdés

Cosette Justo Valdés was born and raised in Cuba.  A daughter of amateur musicians, she’s loved music all her life, and she began learning piano and music theory from age 8. At 18 she saw a symphony orchestra for the first time and immediately knew she wanted to be a conductor. She took up conducting in 2003 at the National Institute of the Arts of Cuba, in Havana, and after graduating in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in Orchestral Conducting with Maestro Jorge López Marín, she was appointed Music & Artistic Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente (OSO) (Santiago, Cuba), Cuba’s second-most important orchestra.  

During her first three years at the Orquesta Sinfónica de Oriente, Cosette organized and conducted numerous concerts of a broad repertoire of early music, classical, jazz, pop, and traditional Cuban music, which allowed her to start consolidating her foundation as a conductor. 

In 2012, Cosette was admitted to study her Masters Degree with Maestro Klaus Arp in the Mannheim Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst (State University for Music & Performing Arts) in Germany. During her time in Europe she had the opportunity to conduct many orchestral, choral, and chamber ensembles while remaining Music & Artistic Director of the OSO in Cuba and returning often to conduct it. 

Cosette held from January 2019 to March 2022 the position of Assistant Conductor and Community Ambassador of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, in Canada. During her 3 years in this position, she has been able to conduct all types of styles of music with the ESO, and her connection to the musicians of this orchestra is really special. As a result of this wonderful relationship with the ESO Cosette was appointed in March 2022 the Resident Conductor of this marvelous orchestra. 

She has been invited in Canada as a guest conductor by the Edmonton Opera, iMusici de Montréal, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra as well as the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra in Mexico. This coming season she will be conducting the Saskatooon Symphony Orchestra, Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Island Sympony Orchestra and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra (US).