General Music Director
Mittelsächsisches Theater Freiberg


Former Assistant Conductor
San Francisco Opera




CONTACT
Dacian Predan-Hallabrin
dacian@predan-hallabrin.com


REPRESENTATION
Eastern Europe & Italy

Mexican conductor José Luis Gutiérrez is the General Music Director of the Mittelsächsisches Theater Freiberg since the 2025/26 season, following a highly successful tenure as First Kapellmeister, during which he profoundly shaped the musical identity of the institution. He is currently the youngest General Music Director in Germany. 

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Celebrated for his musical versatility and collaborative leadership, Gutiérrez commands a vast repertoire that spans the great operatic canon as well as the symphonic works of the 20th and 21st centuries.

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Highlights of the 2025/26 season include his debut with the Gürzenich Orchestra at the Cologne Opera conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, his U.S. debut at the Lakes Area Music Festival in Minnesota, and a season-opening concert with the Sächsische Bläserphilharmonie. In January 2026, he will conduct the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. His China debut will follow in summer 2026 with the Xi’an Symphony Orchestra and the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra.

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In November 2024, Gutiérrez garnered significant acclaim with his debut at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in Barrie Kosky’s celebrated production—an engagement extended at the invitation of General Music Director Cornelius Meister.

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Internationally, Gutiérrez was engaged by the San Francisco Opera in 2023, where he served as assistant to Sir Donald Runnicles and Roberto Kalb during the company’s anniversary season, contributing to the world premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s El último sueño de Frida y Diego and Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten.

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He has conducted numerous opera productions, including I Pagliacci, Gianni Schicchi, 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 in a production directed by Achim Freyer.

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Gutiérrez also regularly collaborates on contemporary music projects, including with the Tiroler Ensemble für Neue Musik and Ensemble Chromoson.

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He completed his conducting studies with distinction at the Tyrolean State Conservatory in Innsbruck, where he studied with Dorian Keilhack, and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Music Nuremberg. In 2022, he participated in the Carlos Miguel Prieto Conducting Program at OAcademy and took part in several masterclasses with Kenneth Kiesler.

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His musical roots lie in the Orquesta Esperanza Azteca and the Mexican National Youth Orchestra, where he performed as a cellist.