Sarasota Orchestra maestro performs at Super Bowl LX Halftime Show

While you were home eating nachos and drinking a beer during the Super Bowl, Sarasota Orchestra Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero was hanging with fellow Grammy Award winner Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio and performing in the halftime show. 

Better known as Bad Bunny, Martínez was the main attraction at the halftime show as the Seattle Seahawks faced the Boston Patriots in Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, California on Sunday. (Spoiler alert for classical music fans: The Seahawks won, 29-13.)

Bad Bunny, who won his first Grammy Award back in 2021, won three more earlier this month for a career total of six. He made history by winning Album of the Year, the first time a Spanish-language album won the top honor.

As a classical music conductor, Guerrero might not be a household name like Bad Bunny, but he's got him tied for Grammy Awards. 

Guerrero won six of them during his 16-season tenure at the Nashville Symphony Orchestra before joining the Sarasota Orchestra as permanent music director in October 2025.

Like Bad Bunny, Guerrero is no stranger to crossover success. He is only the first classical musician to be featured in a Super Bowl Halftime Show since Gustovo Dudamel's appearance in 2016.

In the show, Guerrero could be seen conducting a group of young string musicians, a role that is close to his heart. Born in Nicaragua during a civil war, Guerrero immigrated as a child to Nicaragua, where he joined the local youth symphony. 

Given his introduction to music through a civic youth orchestra, Guerrero is a champion of classical music education for young people from diverse backgrounds, which Sarasota Orchestra provides through its youth orchestras. 

Courtesy image

Guerrero didn't grow up in a home where classical music played. The soundtrack of his youth was mariachi, which his father loved, and Julio Iglesias, whom his mom adored. In his household, Guerrero's wife, Shirley, and his two daughters are Bad Bunny fans. 

"Bad Bunny is a multitalented artist who plays so many kinds of Hispanic music. It doesn’t just feel familiar, the music feels like home," Guerrero said in a statement. “Both my daughters and wife are huge fans of Bad Bunny. If I wouldn’t have jumped at this opportunity, they would never have forgiven me!”

Speaking of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Guerrero commented,"There are so many brilliant artists involved with the creation of this show and it was beyond inspiring to work with them and watch it all come together. How exciting to be a part of it all!”

That's high praise coming from an internationally known conductor who also serves as artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago in addition to his Sarasota Orchestra role. 

Next month Guerrero will be heading to Berlin to conduct the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester. 

But before then, he'll be on the podium at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Feb. 13-15 to conduct "Masterworks: Variations on America," which explores different visions of the nation as it celebrates its 250th birthday.

We didn't get the chance to ask Guerrero if he invited Bad Bunny to the concert.