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Manuel Bagorro
Creative Advisor at Carnegie Hall in New York City; Founder and Artistic Director of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe; Artistic Director of Bay Chamber Concerts in Camden, Maine
Manuel Bagorro is a long-time Creative Advisor at Carnegie Hall, working on the design, planning and implementation of a range of programs. He is also Artistic Director of Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School in Rockport ME, Founder and Artistic Director of the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) in Zimbabwe and served as a program advisor for CultureSummit Abu Dhabi in 2017 and 2018. He curated the arts program for the first Wellbeing Summit in Bilbao, 2022 and leads the artistic team for the Global Hearth Summit in Ljubljana, 2025. For the last 12 years, his work with Bay Chamber Concerts and Music School has resulted in a new approach to the organization’s educational offerings and community engagement programs. Under his leadership, the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA) became one of the most significant artistic and social impact projects in Southern Africa, weathering the social, political and economic turmoil in Zimbabwe for more than a decade.
He is also a pianist, having performed extensively and won prizes in the Newport International and Royal Overseas League Piano Competitions. He performed in the John Schlesinger film, Madame Sousatzka, and appeared as soloist with the BBC Welsh and Cape Town Symphony Orchestras. He composed the music for a series of documentaries entitled Africa Unmasked and played for Queen Elizabeth II and other dignitaries at a State Banquet in London in 1995.
IN MANUEL’S WORDS
How do you think individual, collective, and planetary wellbeing are connected?
Wellbeing begins with the individual – with the creative and innovative thinking of each of us as we journey through our lives. What I think our individual journeys make clear to us is that our own wellbeing relies not only on our personal practices and outlook, but on social groups, communities and a sense of belonging to a larger whole. The existence of this beautiful, human, wellbeing ecosystem is of course entirely dependent on planetary wellbeing – the planet provides the home for our journeys as humans, and our sense of individual and collective belonging.
What do you hope the outcomes are from the global Hearth Summit?
I hope that the global Hearth Summit strengthens and emboldens our collective commitment to keeping our own wellbeing and the wellbeing of our planet in our minds and hearts long after the Summit ends. I hope for a collective realisation that the arts have a powerful role to play in nurturing individual, collective and planetary wellbeing.
