Alejandro Gómez Guillén was recently named as the thirteenth Artistic Director of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. He was also chosen as a Fellow in the Project Inclusion of the Chicago Sinfonietta for the 2016-2017 season. He has also been Music Director of Cantabile, Associate Conductor of the Boulder Symphony, Music Director of the Colorado Youth Philharmonia and the Mountain View Chancel Choir, as well as having conducted the Javeriana Symphony Orchestra, the Spokane Youth Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and the CU Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.
A passionate advocatAlejandro Gomez Guillene of music education, he has also been Assistant Professor of Music at Colorado Mesa University, where he led the CMU Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, taught Orchestration, Symphonic Literature, Chamber Music as well as leading the Violin and Viola studio for the Music Department until June of 2016. He has also been the Associate Conductor of the University of Colorado at Boulder Campus Orchestra, mentor and coach with the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras, and coach and conductor for the Colorado Mesa University Middle School Music Camp for the last 3 years.
An accomplished violinist, he was concertmaster for the Grand Junction Symphony Orchestra, appeared as concertmaster of the opera orchestra at Amherst Early Music Festival under Gary Thor Wedow, and has played in master classes for renowned baroque violinist Stanley Ritchie, among others. Recent solo appearances include the Tolima Conservatory Symphony Orchestra and the Eastern Washington University Symphony. He has also traveled to Germany and Italy as concertmaster of the Junges Stuttgarter Bach Ensemble with performances at the Rheingau Music Festival and the Berlin Philharmonie and has appeared as leader and concertmaster of the CU Chamber and Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Early Music Ensemble under the direction of renowned harpsichordist Elizabeth Farr.
Alejandro received his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance from Texas Christian University where he studied with Curt Thompson and Michael Shih and went on to earn dual Master of Music degrees in Violin Performance and Orchestral Conducting from the University of Colorado at Boulder with Judith Ingolfsson, Lina Bahn and Gary Lewis. His main conducting teachers include Helmuth Rilling and Nicholas Carthy and he is a doctoral candidate in orchestral conducting at the University of Colorado, Boulder under the tutelage of his mentor and teacher Maestro Gary Lewis.
Recent conducting engagements include the Eighth Santander Choral Festival and a residency with the flagship Batuta program in Colombia. He also led productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors with the Off Broadway School of Fine Arts in Boulder and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker with the Midland-Odessa Symphony Chorale and Ballet, as well as performing with the inaugural Princeton Festival Baroque Orchestra. Alejandro was also selected to conduct public concerts of the St. Matthew Passion, the B Minor Mass and the Christmas Oratorio at the Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) where he studied with Helmuth Rilling over the course of three different summers. He returned to OBF over the summer of 2014, where he worked as one of a handful of conductors selected to lead performances of Bach’s Easter and Ascension Oratorios.
Upcoming engagements include the Cabrillo Festival under the direction of Marin Alsop, the choral project ¡Canta, Bogotá Canta! in his native Bogotá, and the Weimarer Bachkantaten Akademie in Germany. When not leading ensembles or reveling in the music of Bach, Alejandro spends his time singing, hiking, and making music with his lovely wife Sarah.
His musicality, warmth, poise, and sensitivity made Alejandro an instant hit with members of the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra and its Search Committee. Of the eight finalists for this position, Alejandro was a clear favorite, receiving an average score of 92% during the orchestra’s evaluation phase, as well as perfect scores from twelve individual musicians.
Please join us in welcoming Alejandro to Bloomington!