José Luis Gómez, conductor

Music Director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra

The Venezuelan-born, Spanish conductor José Luis Gomez began his musical career as a violinist but was catapulted to international attention when he won First Prize at the International Sir Georg Solti Conductor’s Competition in Frankfurt in September 2010. Gomez’s electrifying energy, talent and creativity earned him immediate acclaim from the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra where he was appointed to the position of Assistant Conductor.

Maestro Gomez was the principal conductor of the Orchestra 1813 Teatro Sociale di Como between 2012 and 2015. In 2016, Gomez was named Music Director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Since taking the helm, the orchestra has seen a marked increase in subscribers and donors and Gomez has worked tirelessly to introduce innovative and exciting new outreach activities whilst continuing to nurture and support existing education projects. Maestro Gomez is also a champion of many lesser-known composers from South America, programming their works sensitively with more recognised classical names. He has also been responsible for commissioning new works, such as a new concerto for trumpet by Arturo Marquez which was given its US premier with Pacho Flores and the Tucson Symphony Orchestra under Gomez’s baton in 2019.

In the Americas he enjoys a close relationship with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and has also worked with such orchestras as the Houston Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra of Ottawa, Vancouver, Colorado, and Alabama Symphonies, Rochester & Louisiana Philharmonics, and he made his debut at Carnegie Hall with the International Youth Philharmonic. Further south, he has worked with Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira, Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquesta Nacional de Peru.

He has worked extensively at home in Europe with such orchestras as RTV Symphony Orchestra of Spain, Weimar Staatskapelle Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Hamburg Symphony, Karlsruhe Staatstheatre Orchestra, Basel Sinfonietta, Orquesta Sinfonica do Porto, Castilla y Leon, Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, Sinfonia Varsovia, SWR Radio Sinfonie-orchester Stuttgart, Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Malaga Philharmonic, and in 2019 he made a very successful debut with Komische Oper Berlin with Gabriela Montero as soloist.

In Australasia he has worked with the Macau Orchestra and Nemanja Radulovic, New Zealand Symphony, Australian National Academy of Music in a Celebration of Bernstein, the Dunedin Symphony Orchestra, the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and the Daegu Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Opera highlights have included La Bohème at Frankfurt Opera and a new production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at Stuttgart Opera, of which he also conducted the revival in the following season, 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 with Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni with Teatro Sociale di Como, with whom he also closed their season with a spectacular production of Cavalleria Rusticana.

He has recorded Bela Fleck’s Second Concerto for Banjo and Orchestra ‘Juno Concerto’ with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and conducted the MGD CD release of the Nielson, Françaix and Debussy Clarinet Concertos with talented young clarinettist Vladimir Soltan and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra.