The conductor and composer from Ontinyent, Saúl Gomez, will be the town crier for the Moors and Christians festivities to be held from the 20th to the 23rd of October. This was announced by the president of the Associació de Moros i Cristians, Mª Angeles Penella, who pointed out that "this year we wanted a person with close links to the world of the Moors and Christians, who is well known within the festival, to be the town crier. Nowadays Saül Gómez is the most important musician in terms of composing festive music".
Saül Gómez Soler is a Senior Music Teacher with a degree in Percussion and Composition from the Joaquín Rodrigo Conservatory of Music in Valencia. He also holds a degree in Orchestra Conducting from the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo de Barcelona. He has studied band conducting at the ISEB in Trento (Italy) with Jan Cober, Felix Hauswirth, Carlo Pirola and Franco Cesarini.
As a composer, he focuses his career on the creation of symphonic music and music for the audiovisual sector. In this field, he has received three nominations for the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in Los Angeles and one for the Jerry Goldsmith Awards. His works are published by Piles and Molenar, and he also has his own publishing label. He has received various commissions such as the composition of the compulsory work for the 2015 Valencia International Competition, chamber music for the RTVE orchestra and the compulsory work for the 2016 Percute International Percussion Festival. He has also received commissions from prestigious international soloists such as José Franch or the Madrid Okho duo.
He has premiered works in Vancouver (Canada), Texas (USA) and Madrid (Spain) and his compositions have been performed in Belgium, Portugal, Italy, Japan, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Taiwan, Colombia... He regularly participates as a jury member in different competitions and his music can be found on different CDs. He has been awarded different prizes and distinctions such as the Honourable Mention of the Excelentísimo Ayuntamiento de Ontinyent. Since 2013 he is a member of the Academia de la Música de Valencia as well as of the Asociación de Compositores COSICOVA of which he is a member of its board. He also belongs to the Grammy Academy.
As a conductor, he has been in charge of several band ensembles, both in Spain and in different parts of Europe (Salzburg, Innsbruck, Prague, Berlin, Munich...) and has conducted prestigious international soloists such as Vasko Vasilev, Pacho Flores, José Franch, Francesca Calero, Luís González, Roberto Turlo, Juan Lago or Pablo Zinger. During 2018 he was the resident conductor of the Youth Symphonic Band of the Federation of Musical Societies of the Valencian Community (FSMCV) with which he premiered several works and gave concerts in the Community, Madrid and France. Since May 2022 he has been the resident conductor of the prestigious CIM La Armónica de Buñol Symphonic Band.