José Eduardo Gomes was recently awarded 1st prize at the European Union Conducting Competition, where he also won the Beethoven Prize. He is a professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, where he works with the various orchestras.
He has served as Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Clássica do Centro, Associate Conductor of the Orquestra Clássica do Sul, Principal Conductor of the Orquestra Clássica da FEUP, professor at the Escola Superior de Música e das Artes do Espectáculo, Principal Conductor of the Círculo Portuense de Ópera Choir, and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre de Carouge (Switzerland).
He began his clarinet studies in V. N. Famalicão, his hometown, at the Famalicão Music Band. He continued his training at ARTAVE and ESMAE, graduating in the class of António Saiote, and received the Eng.º António de Almeida Foundation Prize. He later attended the Haute École de Musique de Genève (Switzerland), studying orchestral conducting with Laurent Gay and choral conducting with Celso Antunes.
José Eduardo Gomes is a founding member of the Quarteto Vintage and the Serenade Ensemble. He has been a prizewinner in several competitions, notably the Prémio Jovens Músicos (in the clarinet and chamber music categories) and the Montroy International Clarinet Competition (Valencia). He is also a laureate of the Prémio Jovens Músicos in the orchestral conducting category, where he additionally received the orchestra prize.
In recent years, he has been regularly invited to work with Portugal’s leading orchestras, performing at the country’s most prominent music festivals with soloists such as Maria João Pires, Diemut Poppen, Sebastian Klinger, Bruno Giuranna, Artur Pizarro, Natalia Pegarkova, and Adriana Ferreira, among others. In the 2024/25 season, he performed in Portugal, France, Bulgaria, and Hungary.
He has taken part in opera productions including “Don Giovanni” and “Così fan tutte” (Mozart), “Lo Speziale” (Haydn), “La Donna di Genio Volubile” (Marcos Portugal), and “Os Noivos” by Francisco de Noronha. He recently served as Music Director for the Companhia Nacional de Bailado’s new production of “Alice in Wonderland” and for “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” with the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa.
He was also Music Director for the opera “Blimunda” by A. Corghi, with a libretto by José Saramago, in a new production by the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, as well as for the new production of the opera “Trilogia das Barcas” by Joly Braga Santos.
Another important part of his work is dedicated to youth orchestras across the country. He is Artistic Director of the JOF — Jovem Orquestra de Famalicão (Famalicão Youth Orchestra).
In 2018, he was awarded the Medal of Cultural Merit by the City of V. N. Famalicão.