Arturo Tamayo was born in Madrid and studied music at the Madrid Conservatory and conducting in Basel with Pierre Boulez and in Vienna with Witold Rowicki. He also studied composition at the Freiburg Musikhochschule with Klaus Huber and Wolfgang Fortner. Arturo Tamayo divides his activities as a conductor between the concert hall and the opera house, in a repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary. He has regularly conducted throughout Europe, America and Japan, and appeared at a number of major opera houses, including Covent Garden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Vienna State Opera, Opéra de Paris, Teatro Real in Madrid, Rome Opera House, and many others. Tamayo has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, Capriccio, Claves, BIS, Timpani, and several other labels.