The Best European Union Conducting Maestro is José Eduardo Gomes from Porto

Maestro José Eduardo Gomes, professor at the ESMAE - Superior School of Music and Performing Arts of Porto Polytechnic, won the European Union Conducting Competition, during the second edition of this competition, which was held in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Also, the maestro from Porto also brought home the Beethoven Best Interpretation Prize Trophy.

José Eduardo Gomes was selected after four rounds of intense scrutiny and out of 300 maestros; the maestro from Porto won the competition and conducted a concert at the Sofia National Conservatory. Second and third podium places were awarded to Almanzar Sebastian, from Colombia, and Zlatkov Svetlomir, from Bulgaria. 

José Eduardo Gomes is the Chief Conductor of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP) and a professor at ESMAE, where he works with several orchestras.

The maestro has studied clarinet at ESMAE, where he graduated with professor António Saiote; he later continued his orchestral conducting at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, in Switzerland, with professor Laurent Gay.

He later studied Choral Direction with professor Celso Antunes; as a musician, José Eduardo Gomes plays Chamber music and performs at a regular basis, both in Portugal and abroad.

The maestro also directs youth orchestras and trains young musicians. He also collaborates, at a regular basis, with the project Orquestra Geração and with several schools in Portugal, namely the Viana do Castelo Professional Music School, the ARTAVE School and the Music Academy of Costa Cabral and EPABI.