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, securing a sensational and rare unanimous decision from the jury.
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, a post created especially for him by Paavo Jarvi and the orchestra directly upon the conclusion of the competition.
In 2016, Gomez was named Music Director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. The 19/20 and 20/21 seasons in Tucson will see Gomez conduct the complete Beethoven’s Symphonies and selected Concertos in a celebration of the composer’s works in his anniversary year, and additionally in the 19/20 season he will conduct Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, a selection of works by Rossini with rising star Federica Lombardi, the world premiere of Lopez-Hanshaw’s “vokas animo for Orchestra and Chorus,” and a gala evening with Renée Fleming. In past seasons Gomez has invited and enjoyed working with such artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Midori, Barry Douglas and Gil Shaham. His contract as Music Director of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra has been extended to the end of the 23/24 season.
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, Grand Rapids, Winnipeg, and Alabama Symphonies, the CMI Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio, Rochester and Louisiana Philharmonics, Pasadena, Elgin, and he made his debut at Carnegie Hall with YPhil Youth International Philharmonic. Further south, he has worked with Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra and Orquesta Nacional de Peru.
He has worked extensively at home in Europe and with orchestras in Australia and Asia. At the end of the 19/20 season he will make his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic. He will also embark on an extensive tour of the UK with the Flanders Symphony Orchestra with Milos Karadaglic as soloist. Another debut will take him to California to work with the Pacific Symphony and Joyce Yang, and he will also work with both the Malaga Filarmonica and the Phoenix Symphony for the first time.
