José Luis Gutiérrez currently serves as Designated General Music Director of the Mittelsächsisches Theater, a position he will officially assume in the 2025/26 season. He has already shaped the musical profile of the house significantly as First Kapellmeister, conducting a wide range of operas and concerts.
In March 2024, he made a highly acclaimed debut at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, conducting Die Zauberflöte in the iconic production by Barrie Kosky – an engagement initiated by Cornelius Meister. In the upcoming season, he will make his debut at Oper Köln with the Gürzenich Orchestra. Further invitations from major German opera houses and orchestras are already scheduled and will be announced soon.
His international career brought him to the San Francisco Opera in 2023, where he served as assistant conductor to Roberto Kalb and Sir Donald Runnicles in the company’s centennial season, working on the world premiere of El último sueño de Frida y Diego by Gabriela Lena Frank and Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss.
He has conducted numerous opera productions, including Carmen, Rigoletto, Don Pasquale, Il Tabarro, La Voix Humaine, Cendrillon, Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, Der Zarewitsch, Die Csárdásfürstin, Der Graf von Luxemburg, Frau Luna, Don Giovanni, Hänsel und Gretel and Gräfin Mariza at the Mittelsächsisches Theater, as well as Hänsel und Gretel at the Landestheater Coburg and Die Zauberflöte at the Staatstheater Meiningen (directed by Achim Freyer).
As a symphonic conductor, he has worked with the Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie, the Vogtland Philharmonie, the Tyrolean Ensemble for New Music, and Ensemble Chromoson.
José Luis Gutiérrez graduated with distinction in orchestral conducting from the Tyrolean State Conservatory in Innsbruck, where he studied with Dorian Keilhack. He is currently continuing his artistic development in the Master’s program at the University of Music Nuremberg. He also participated in the Carlos Miguel Prieto Conducting Program at OAcademy (2022) and studied with Kenneth Kiesler in various masterclasses.
Originally from Mexico, his musical roots lie in the national Esperanza Azteca Orchestra and the Mexican National Youth Orchestra, where he was active as a cellist.