Spokane Symphony announces new choral conductor selection

Jul 7, 2009

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 464-7071

Spokane Symphony Music Director Eckart Preu announced today that Julian Gomez Giraldo has been named Spokane Symphony Choral Conductor for this year. He replaces Dr. Lori Wiest who held the position for 10 years before retiring earlier this year.

He serves as Director of Orchestras at Eastern Washington University. Gomez Giraldo has served as Intern Director of Orchestras, Professor of Choral Activities and Director of Choral Music Education at the University of Northern Colorado. He has also been professor of conducting at the Universidad Pdagogica Nacional in Bogota, as well as choral and orchestral clinician for the National Choral-Orchestral Program of the Ministry of Culture of Colombia.

Professor Gomez is active as a clinician, adjudicator, and guest conductor of honor orchestras and choirs throughout the United States, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and Colombia. He is also active as a composer and arranger, with several of his instrumental and choral works published by Hal Leonard.

Under the guidance of Helmuth Rillling, he has participated as an active conductor during Bach festivals in Santiago de Compostela, leading the Bachakademie Orchestra of Stuttgart and Gachinger Kantorei. He has also appeared with the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra and with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. He has conducted the National Opera and Zarzuela Companies in Colombia.

He also served as Music Director of the National Symphony Choir Santa Fe de Bogota with which he was awarded First Prize in the Sixth International Polyphonic Competition “Ciudad de Ibague”. Under his leadership for over 10 years, the choir performed representative master choral-symphonic works and operatic repertoire with the Colombian National Symphony and the Bogota Philharmonic, including both the world and international premieres of numerous works such as the “Misa Tango” by Luis Bacalov, Berlioz’s “Misa Solemnis”, Honegger’s :Jeanne D’ Arc, Prokofiev’s and “Ivan the Terrible” among others..

Julian Gomez Giraldo began his studies of conducting and French Horn at the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica, and the Escuela Superior de Musica in his native Colombia. He also studied in the National Academy of Gregorian Chant in Venezuela with the Benedictine monks Luigi Augustoni and Johannes Berchmans, and in the Schola Guido D’ Arezzo with the Benadictine Monk Juan Ramon Uribe.

He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education and Conducting from the National Pedagogic University of Bogota, and also earned Master’s degrees from TexasChristianUniversity in Choral and Orchestral Conducting, and in Theory and Composition. He is pursuing a Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting with Music History emphasis from the University of Northern Colorado.