The head of the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs is leaving as concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra after the 2009-2010 concert season.

Andres Cardenas has been concertmaster since 1989. A concertmaster is an orchestra’s violin soloist. The 51-year-old violinist also leads the orchestra’s violin and string sections and has conducted the entire orchestra on occasion.

Cardenas plans to record, conduct and continue playing solo internationally. He teaches at Carnegie Mellon University in

Pittsburgh, the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Toronto’s Royal Conservatory, Calgary’s Mt. Royal College and the Shanghai Conservatory in China.

He and his wife, Monique Mead, run the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs.