As solo horn player at the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Matías Piñeira is a brass virtuoso renowned for his dazzling technical excellence and spellbinding musicality.

Piñeira has played with world-renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Sir Simon Rattle, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Barbara Hannigan, Semion Bychkov, Klaus Mäkelä, Lorenzo Viotti, and Manfre Honeck, and has worked with soloists that include Yuja Wang, Lisa Batiashvili, Janine Jansen, Maxim Vengerov, Anna Netrebko, Diana Damrau, René Pappe, Rudolf Buchbinder, Ken Nagano, Gautier Capuçon, Leónidas Kavakos, Ennio Morricone, Denis Matsuev, Vikingur Olafsson, and Seong-Jin Cho.

He teaches at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and has been invited to give masterclasses at the International Horn Society in Kingsville, TX, and at the Wind Instrument Academy at the Tirol Festival in Erl, among others.

Born in Chile, Piñeira took his first musical steps at age 7 under the guidance of his maternal grandfather, Antenor Piñeira, horn player and teacher. He soon joined the symphonic firefighters’ band, the Orfeón Nacional de Bomberos de Chile. In 2000 he undertook private studies with maestro Edward Brown and was invited to be part of the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Chile. In 2004 he studied in the music institute at Universidad Católica de Chile, where he was awarded various scholarships to further his musical career. In 2005 he joined the National Youth Symphony Orchestra as a soloist. In 2006 he was invited to participate in the Campos do Jordão winter festival in Brazil. In 2008 the 19-year-old won the solo horn position at the Symphonic Orchestra of Chile where he stayed for five years.

Piñeira perfected his technique with maestro Ignacio García, solo horn player at the Berlin State Opera, and in 2014 was invited to become part of the orchestral academy, under the baton of maestro Daniel Barenboim. He later joined the prestigious Munich Philharmonic. As soloist, he has been invited to perform at many orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Staatskapelle Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich.

Touring with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra has garnered outstanding reviews for Piñeira. Bachtrack highlighted the “Chilean principal horn Matías Piñeira [who] gave a luminous solo in a flowing Andante cantabile” and described him in a separate performance as “golden and true”. Critics around the world are quick to single him out: “Then it’s off on a most awesome adventure, with Matías Piñeira doing some extraordinary double-tonguing on his French horn” wrote City News Camberra, while Merkur described how “the audience did not come out of its amazement at the impressive performance” as Piñeira “intoned a solo with a full, warm voice”.