Marcelo Bussiki is the current music director/conductor of the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra and has been in the position since 1996. He has recently been named the Vice-Chancellor of Academic Affairs at Blinn College. He has had a passion for music since his early years. Born in Cuiaba, capital of Mato Grosso State in Brazil, Bussiki left home at age 14 to study at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music in Rio de Janeiro. He continued his conducting studies under Maestro Roberto Duarte at Rio de Janeiro Federal University.

Upon graduation, he was named music director of the orchestra of the Federal University of Mato Grosso, a position he held for six years. Bussiki was awarded knighthood in the Ordem de Merito de Mato Grosso in recognition of his pioneering work in cultural expansion and musical education. He received the title of ‘Oficial’, the highest honor that the executive power can confer upon an artist in Brazil.

Bussiki came to the United States in 1992 under a scholarship from the Brazilian government and studied at the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston. From 1994-1996, he directed that university’s New Music Ensemble, developing an extensive repertoire of modern and contemporary music.He received a doctorate of musical arts in conducting from the University of Houston in 1998.

During his tenure with the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra, Bussiki has been in demand as a guest conductor in Texas and out of state. In September, 2002, he returned to his native Brazil under sponsorship from the Brazilian National Bank in Rio de Janeiro to conduct 15 performances of Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Viva la Mama, as well as other symphony concerts in Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia. In October, 2001, he conducted a premiere performance of the Organ Concerto by vanguard U. S. composer Lou Harrison, featuring organist John Walker and the Carnegie-Mellon Percussion Ensemble, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bussiki conducts several concerts a year at the International Festival Institute at Round Top, Texas. He was conductor for the first International Guitar Festival in 2005, 2006, 2007, and again in 2016. In 2014, Bussiki was honored as “Artist of the Year” by The Arts Council of Brazos Valley. For 2021-2022, Bussiki begins his 25th Season as the artistic leader of the BVSO.