“For Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s new conductor José Luis Gomez, home so far is the Tucson Music Hall downtown and the Tucson Symphony Center near Mansfield Park,” writes Cathalena Burch in Thursday’s (2/9) Arizona Daily Star. “In September, Gomez, who was named last year to succeed longtime conductor George Hanson, will paint a musical picture of home and his roots, from his native Venezuela to his adopted home in Italy…. Gomez has peppered the season with works that reflect his musical heritage and influences [including], he said, ‘links also to my family influences, like the Debussy Prelude (to ‘The Afternoon of a Faun’) … which was one of my father’s specialties. He was a flutist.’ Gomez was concertmaster of the Youth Orchestra of Zulia State—part of El Sistema de Orquestas Juveniles de Venezuela—when he first played Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 4. TSO Concertmaster Lauren Roth will perform it … in October. His season opener features the TSO premiere of Venezuelan composer Carreño’s ‘Margariteña,’ a piece that he played dozens of times in the youth orchestra…. There are 15 TSO premieres next season and a world premiere of the TSO’s first commission from an alumnus of its Young Composers Project.”
Posted February 15, 2017
