Associate Conductor, Naples Philharmonic
Director, Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra
Hugely successful appearances in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia with the National Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Guangzhou Symphony Orchestra, Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony and Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others, have established Manuel López-Gómez’s reputation as a forceful conductor with visionary and inspiring powers.
In addition to his concert work, Manuel is passionate about opera. For Universal Music Italy, he conducted and recorded the world premiere of the recently orchestrated opera Atahualpa by Carlo Enrico Pasta in Peru. Shortly after, he returned to Italy for Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Juan Diego Flórez. The Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro invited him for a production of Il viaggio a Reims, and he joined the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra for Le nozze di Figaro.
For more than 15 years, Manuel worked side by side with Gustavo Dudamel on symphonic and opera projects such as La bohème, La traviata and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony in Caracas, Venezuela; Don Giovanni in Los Angeles; the Brahms symphonies in Paris; and West Side Story with Cecilia Bartoli at the Salzburg Festival. In 2017-18, Manuel shared with him the musical direction of a new production of La bohème at the Opéra Bastille in Paris.
Manuel began to study the violin, piano, chamber music, composition and conducting in Venezuela. Having been formed within El Sistema, he sees the dedication to young people and their musical training as a major duty of his profession. He accomplished this particular commitment in recent years as music director of the Bogotá Philharmonic Youth Orchestra between 2020-23. Beginning in 2024, he serves as associate conductor of the Medellín Philharmonic Orchestra and, most recently, as associate conductor of the Naples Philharmonic.
The Naples Philharmonic Youth Orchestra is generously endowed by the Schoen Family Foundation.
Photo © Alexander Ivanov