For a guy who avoided the music conservatory like the plague for many years, Juan Gallastegui made up for it in spades.

He holds two undergraduate degrees (tuba performance and music education), three master’s degrees (music history, secondary education and orchestral conducting) and a doctorate (music history). And now he has two jobs — operations manager for the Rogue Valley Symphony and music director for the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band.

Gallastegui started playing the trombone at age 9.

“My father was a musician in the local municipal band,” Gallastegui said. “Several of my siblings play instruments and played in the same local band, as well.”

He chose the trombone because it was his father’s instrument, but switched to the euphonium after a couple of years. He still owns his father’s instrument.

Still, it took a while before he realized he wanted a life in music.

“It was pretty late, to be honest,” he said. “I just didn’t want to go to the music conservatory.”

Through high school and much of college, he refused to study more music.

“But after a few years in college, not getting anything done, I finally made the decision to become a professional musician. By then, I was 24 years old.”

An early experience may have sealed his fate. When he was a kid, the local municipal band, which had been dormant for 20 years, was resuscitated by the city’s new mayor.

The mayor managed to organize a new group consisting of some of the older musicians who had played in the band years before, a few new prospects, and a bunch of kids.

“I was among the kids, with my trombone,” Gallastegui said. “The whole town was there to see the band playing again.”

It was one of the oldest bands in Spain. And for that concert, it played in front of a statue created to commemorate one of the most important Spanish conductors.

“He was from my town,” Gallastegui said. “The excitement of my first performance that day hooked me forever to be a musician.”

Gallastegui, 43, was born and raised in Castro Urdiales, Spain, a bucolic small city and seaport in northern Spain.

His earned his undergraduate degrees at the once-dreaded Navarre High Conservatory of Music; the master’s degrees from University of La Rioja (Spain), University of Cantabria (Spain), and Bard College (New York); and his PhD from U of La Rioja.

It was during the term at Bard College in Annandale on Hudson, New York, that he met his wife-to-be.

“It was during the first week of a summer conducting workshop. We got married after I finished my degree in 2015,” he said.

The move to the Rogue Valley was the result of looking for a West Coast job because his wife is finishing her doctoral degree in Reno.

“For a year, I had been looking for jobs to get into administration of orchestras,” he said. “I saw the opening in the valley, and there was a conducting position with the local band as well. That combination is very difficult to get in the same area.”

The two openings were operations manager for RVS and music director for the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band. He was offered both jobs.

He came to the Rogue Valley from the Washington, D.C., area, where he had worked as conductor, music director and in other positions for several musical organizations.

“Running around I-495 (the beltway in the D.C. area) like crazy and working four jobs took a big toll on me,” he said. “My wife and I are looking forward to a different pace in the valley.”

He believes his experience as a conductor will serve him well in his new position, having learned multiple facets of an orchestra operation.

“My goal now is to help Maestro Martin Majkut to fulfill his vision as our music director,” he said.

Gallastegui’s responsibilities at RVS include dealing with venues, musicians, contracts and inventory, as well as supporting other RVS staffers — Executive Director Joelle Graves, patron services and social media manager Lisa Harrington, development associate Shelly Cox-Thornhill, and education and outreach coordinator Andrew Zucker.

He sees one of the biggest challenges as finding enough seats to accommodate RVS concertizing goals. The recent announcement of a collaboration with OSF for use of the Bowmer Theatre for Christmas and Valentine’s Day holiday concerts is a step toward that goal.

But it’s not just about more seats.

“I believe the OSF collaboration and others like it in the future also will present opportunities to keep growing our budget and the number of musicians and staff.”

He looks forward to helping Zucker with the outreach program.

“One of the new ideas we are debating is how we will help the bilingual population in the schools,” he said. “As a Spanish and English speaker, I am very interested in having those programs integrate music from both cultures, which will help also with the integration of the Spanish-speaking population.”

Gallastegui has a secret life, too.

“People might be surprised to learn that I am a quite decent cook,” he said, “and that I love everything related to NASA and the space program.”

He said he reads everything he can get his hands on if it’s written by an astronaut from the space program.

Last week was liftoff for Gallastegui as operations manager. With a weekend of concerts under his belt, he has a better idea of the challenges and opportunities before him.

To learn more about the Rogue Valley Symphony, see rvsymphony.org. For information about the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band, see roguevalleysymphonicband.org.