[faint string instrument sounds]
It's a beautiful Thursday night, musicians in the Tucson Symphony orchestra are arriving at the TCC music hall
for the final dress rehearsal before their season opener.
In most ways, it's a practice like any other: a quick look through sheet music,
chaos that gets louder as more musicians take their seats,
and eventually they come into tune together.
It's all totally normal except for one very big thing.
For the first time in more than 2 decades, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra has a new maestro.
[symphony begins] My name is José Luis Gomez and I come from Spain.
Me llamo José Luis Gomez.
Vengo de España.
Gomez takes the reigns from George Hansen who was the longest serving conductor
in the symphony's 87 year history.
Long before Gomez stood on this podium though, he was a kid raised
in a family that immersed him in music.
I was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela and my father is a flutist, my brother is a violinist as well,
and music has been always part of our family and so my father was the first foot
of the Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra and one of the teachers of the Sistema,
which is a youth orchestra system of teaching in Venezuela, very well known.
And so music was part of our family from day 1.
[music] When he was a kid, Gomez studied the violin.
It's one of those instruments that captivates the audiences more than others
because it's very passionate but also it can be very delicate.
It's a very unique instrument and I think growing up playing it has been,
you know, a wonderful experience.
He says his training as a musician layed the foundation for his transition to conducting
and his leap onto the international stage.
All of a sudden, I just found myself in a very short time,
winning an international conducting competition
and therefore my career just started out of you know, like a dream.
The winner is Mr. José Luis Gomez Rios.
And I was really lucky because I immediately got an invitation from the orchestra who was part
of the competition, which was the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra to join them by express desire
of the music director, the conductor Paavo Järvi,
as his assistant so I immediately started to work with him
which is a top level 4-class conductor.
I had the chance to work with an orchestra from day 1 and big repertoire like Mahler,
Bruckner, you know, so it was kind of a very intense beginning but I also felt
that like it was really well guide by the people who are around me.
After Frankfurt, Gomez spent several years playing with orchestras around the world.
Across Europe, New Zealand, Japan, and he was the musical director
at the Teatro Sociale di Como in Italy.
Gomez made his debut in Tucson in 2014.
Lauren Roth, the orchestra's principal violinist was there.
I definitely remember working with him for the first time and feeling like, oh,
we've got a real musician's musician on our hands here.
Someone who understood the music and who was able to communicate it with a lot
of inspiration and passion to all of us.
I believe that there is something really unique that happens with music is
that it's an international language and somehow when you see a conductor
in an orchestra combining forces together, it's a result of inspiration
of understanding each other but at the level that goes beyond the words.
There have been many times where we have connected musically,
we being the instrumentalists and Sir Maestro Gomez.
To describe those moments, it's sort of hard to do except to tell you
that they're just there and we all feel them.
I think there is a little bit of electricity among the players
and that's something that we all feel.
We might talk about it later, but it's almost not worth putting into words
because it's simply a really strong feeling that nobody can deny.
A few months ago, the orchestra's patrons had a chance to meet Gomez and talk with him directly.
One thing was clear, there are a lot of different expectations for the orchestra.
We're from Los Angeles.
We've spent 35 years going to the LA Philharmonic and they always had one piece
in every performance that was different.
Night of the Mayans is that piece in LA and they just blew us away.
So showing new stuff as part of your concert's wonderful.
Some is good, some is not so good.
I want the TSO to be accessible to everybody in the community.
You don't have to know a lot about classical music or be a great lover of classical music
in order to appreciate the great talent and the professional quality
of our orchestra right here in Tucson.
1, 2...[music] Gomez says the Tucson Symphony Orchestra is poised to ascend to the next level.
Of course, that's going to require a lot of hard work on the part of Gomez and his musicians.
I saw in your orchestra like a positive development and to still grow
as an institution believe it or not, this is something that is really attractive
for a conductor because you know it gives you the room to also to learn, to grow with them,
and I think we found each other here in the right time.
We have incredible leadership in Maestro Gomez.
Moving forward, I think he will provide inspiration
and motivation for the players to play better.
I think we'll play at a higher level.
I hope that with Maestro Gomez's leadership, we'll be able to reach better and further
into the community here in Tucson. During off season, Gomez will continue to play
with orchestras around the world.
I am happy to say that of course I will have a home here in Tucson.
It will be my American, let's say, home.
I will still have my place in Europe because I'm expanding my career all over the world
but one of the good thing is that I'm not traveling alone anymore because I know
that I have the Tucson Symphony with me everywhere I go.
[music]