Luis Gómez-Imbert
Quick Facts
Biography
Luis Gómez-Imbert (born in Caracas, Venezuela) is a very active double bassist.
Academic background
Luis Gómez-Imbert studied double bass with Jeff Bradetich, Gary Karr, Bertram Turetzky, Frantisek Posta, David Walter and Edgar Meyer. He graduated Summa Cum Laude at Northwestern University in 1988.
Gómez-Imbert has also studied the orchestral literature with Warren Benfield and Joseph Guastafeste of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Edwin Barker of the Boston Symphony Orchestra; and Harold Robinson of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Work as performer
Soon after graduating, he was presented along with his former professor Gary Carr on an ABC Good Morning America broadcast in the summer of 1988. Since then he has toured extensively through the Americas and Europe as a double bass soloist. Gómez-Imbert has played along with famous bassists Bertram Turetzky and Lucas Drew, with whom he premiered a concert for two basses in Venezuela and subsequently performed it at the Double Bass World Convention held at Indiana University in 1994.
Luis Gómez -Imbert is active in several professional musical organizations from the South Florida area and regularly participates in chamber music concerts. He has been associated to the Atlantic Classical Orchestra as principal bass. Gómez-Imbert has been an active advocate for the performance of new works and many of them have been dedicated to him or composed at his request. Several of those were performed in North and South America, as well as in Europe, where he has been invited to play in different new music festivals in France, Austria, Italy and Spain. Mr. Gomez-Imbert was appointed as principal bass for the Miami Symphony Orchestra since 2013 by Maestro Eduardo Marturet.
He has premiered pieces from composers such as Orlando Jacinto García, Armando Rodriguez Ruidiaz and Alexandro RodríguezJuan Francisco Sanz, Domingo Sanchez-Bor, Roberto Cedeño, Mauricio Rodriguez and many more.
Recording activity
Gómez –Imbert has recorded for the Lyric and OO labels. One of those recording was awarded the Contemporary Record Society’s “1992 New Recording of the Year” by a panel that included famous composers George Crumb and Milton Babbit, as well as virtuoso cellist Yo Yo Ma.
Pedagogic activity
Luis Gómez-Imbert joined the music faculty of Florida International University in the fall of 1994 as professor of Double Bass Studies and director of the FIU New Music Ensemble. His innovative teaching and performing style found an ideal venue to teach a varied group of American and international students, many of whom have performed in numerous professional musical ensembles throughout the South Florida area, as well as internationally.