Javier Gándara has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1999.  He is also on the Horn Faculty at the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard Pre-College Division. Gándara began his professional career at the age of 16 when he won a position in the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra while still attending high school at La Escuela Libre de Música in San Juan.  He later studied at Indiana University and obtained a BM from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Ranier DeIntinis. He has held positions with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias (principal), Orquesta Sinfónica de Euscadi (principal), and the Oregon Symphony (assistant principal) and has performed as a guest with the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony. He is also part of the faculty of YOA Orchestra of the Americas, and has been a coach for the National Youth Orchestra System in Colombia (Batuta) and the Swedish National Youth Orchestra.