Spanish conductor José Luis Gómez has just renewed his contract with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra until the end of the 2026/27 season. Gómez was appointed musical director in Tucson in 2016 and at this time had a contract in force until 2024, so he still had two years of tenure left, which have been extended another three. José Luis Gómez began his musical career as a violinist, but came to international attention in 2010 after winning the First Prize of the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in Frankfurt by unanimity of the jury. His performance in the competition earned him immediate appointment as Assistant Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, a position created especially for him by Paavo Järvi and the orchestra immediately after the competition’s conclusion. José Luis Gómez was also Principal Conductor of the 1813 Teatro Sociale di Como Orchestra between 2012 and 2015.
Since José Luis Gómez took over in Tucson, there has been a significant increase in the number of subscribers and sponsors. Gómez has worked hard to introduce new outreach activities while continuing to support and develop the orchestra’s existing educational projects. He is also a champion of many lesser-known South American composers, whose works he programs together with other classical authors. Similarly, he has been responsible for commissioning new compositions, such as Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño for trumpet, whose US premiere took place in 2019 with Pacho Flores.
On the American continent, José Luis Gómez maintains a close relationship with the Edmonton Symphony and has worked with orchestras such as the Houston Symphony, the Ottawa National Arts Center Orchestra, the Vancouver, Colorado, Grand Rapids, Winnipeg and Alabama Symphonies, Chamber Orchestra Antonio, Rochester, Louisiana, Pasadena, and Elgin Philharmonics, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the International Youth Philharmonic. In the south he has worked with the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá and the National Orchestra of Peru. He is intensely active in Europe, where he has conducted orchestras such as the RTVE Symphony, Weimar Staatskapelle Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, Karlsruhe Staatstheater Orchester, Basel Sinfonietta, Orquestra Sinfônica do Porto, Castilla y Leon Symphony, Milan Pomeriggi Musicali, Warsaw Symphony, SWR Radio Sinfonie-Orchester Stuttgart, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra or the Malaga Philharmonic. In 2019 he made a successful debut at the Berlin Komische Oper with Gabriela Montero as soloist. He recently conducted a tour of Belgium with the Flanders Symphony and Johannes Moser as soloist. In the Asia-Pacific area he has led the Macau Orchestra with Nemanja Radulovic, New Zealand Symphony, Australian National Academy of Music, Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra and Daegu Symphony Orchestra, among others.
Other notable performances by José Luis Gómez include his debuts with the Moscow State Conservatory, the widely televised New Year’s Eve concert in Sofia and with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra at their New Year’s concerts and some upcoming engagements include the National Symphony Orchestra. from Washington DC (Program with Yo Yo Ma and Paquito de Rivera), Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (With Stephen Hough, piano), or the Pacific, Colorado and Phoenix Symphonies. In the operatic arena, highlights include La Bohème at the Frankfurt Opera and a new production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at the Stuttgart Opera, La Forza del Destino in Tokyo with the New National Theatre, Don Carlo and Norma at The State Opera in Tbilisi, Georgia, La Traviata in concert version with the Sacramento Philharmonic, or Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni at the Teatro Sociale di Como, where he also conducted a spectacular production of Cavalleria Rusticana. He has recorded Bela Fleck’s Concerto No. 2 for banjo and orchestra, Juno Concerto, with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and conducted the Hamburg Symphony and the talented young clarinettist Vladimir Soltan in the release of an album for MGD that collects the concertos for Nielson, Françaix and Debussy clarinet.
