Martín García León, born in General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina, is the first orchestra conductor from Patagonia. He began his piano studies at age 14 and moved to Buenos Aires in 2012 to study orchestral conducting. Shortly after graduating in 2018, he was selected to study with Alexander Polyanicho in Saint Petersburg, Russia, where he became the first Argentine to conduct the Saint Petersburg Symphony.

In 2019, García León established himself on the international stage by being invited to conduct at the season opening and 60th anniversary of the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet, performing two sold-out shows and leading a cast of over 150, including dancers, solo singers, a choir, and a full orchestra. That same year, he won a competition to guest conduct the Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Republic) and participated in the Distat Terra contemporary music festival.

During the pandemic in 2020, he founded the choir Los Abuelos Cantores de la Patagonia to support older adults against depression and anxiety caused by quarantine. He was also selected for the Federal Orchestra Conductor Internship by the CFI and the Government of Entre Ríos, conducting several Argentine orchestras.

In 2022, he was invited to conduct a tour with the Río Negro Philharmonic Orchestra across the Patagonian steppe and received a scholarship for Master’s studies at the University of Houston, where he was assigned to work not only with the symphony orchestra but also the university opera. That year, he was also a finalist in multiple competitions including the first orchestra conductor competition organized by the Patagonia Cultural Foundation, Call for Conductors 2022 Budapest (Hungary), and the Felix Mendelssohn Competition in New York (USA 2023).