Javier Gándara has been a member of the Met Opera Orchestra since 1999. He began his professional career at age sixteen, when he won a position in the Puerto Rico Symphony while attending high school at La Escuela Libre de Música in San Juan. Javier later graduated from The Juilliard Schoo, where he studied with Ranier De Intinis. He has held positions with the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta de Euskadi, and the Oregon Symphony. He is on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music, The New School, and Juilliard Pre-College.