Luis María González Jiménez
"Luis María González Jiménez is a musician with a generous, curious and professional spirit. He shares his knowledge and sources of information about the saxophone in a positive way. I dedicated my Laberinto VIIb to him." David Soley
Luis María González began a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance at the "Rafael Orozco" Superior Conservatory of Music in Cordoba and finished his studies at the Superior Conservatory of Music in Malaga with honors in the Álvaro Ariza's class. He was then admitted to begin his Master's studies in Music, Performance and Heritage at the Paris-Saclay University and the Versailles Conservatory (CRR-VGP) in the class of Vincent David, again finishing with honors. In June 2021, he completed his advanced diploma at the CRR of Versailles in the class of Nicolas Arsenijevic. With his saxophone quartet Gaman Ensemble, he finished his Master's degree in Chamber Music at the CNSMDP with honors in David Walter’s class in 2022. Recently, he successfully recorded his first album with this same quartet at the Manuel de Falla auditorium in Granada, Spain, under the label IBS Classical.
He has won ten first prizes in different international competitions and has performed in some of the most important concert halls and festivals in the world, including the Weill Recital Hall of the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Salle Cortot and the National Center of Art and Culture Georges Pompidou of Paris, or the Radio-France Festival in Montpellier. His profound interest in music expands to all aspects musical production, from composition to performance; additionally, he has had the honor of premiering works dedicated to him by the composers: Félix Ibarrondo, Seducing (2019), Maël Bailly, De un umbral vacante al otro (2020), Orlando Bass, GSTK (2022) and in terra (2023), and David Soley, Laberinto VIIb (2023).
Throughout his career, he has been awarded several scholarships by different organizations to carry out different projects; he studied at the Institut Supérieur des Arts de Toulouse with Philippe Lecocq and Hugo Schmitt. Today, the Foundations Marie Fournier, Adami, Legs Jabès, Daniel and Nina Carasso, PSL University and the France Foundation, actively support his artistic career.
Beyond his love for music, he is fascinated by the human brain. Currently enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Granada, he is researching the fields of neuropsychology and musicology. He is professionally engaged with highly sensitive persons (HSP), is a member of the Spanish Association of the Professionals of the High Sensitivity (APAS), and an adherent of Françoise Dorocq's DOLCE pedagogy for teaching children, adolescents, and adults with disabilities. In 2023, he published a book on the practice of interpretation as a creative process in the saxophone repertoire at Dykinson publishing house (Q1 of the SPI). Luis María is currently enrolled in a Master’s degree of Saxophone Pedagogy at the CNSMDP.
Since 2022, Luis María has been a professor of Saxophone at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental Marcel Dupré of Paris. He is also a brand artist for Henri Selmer Paris saxophones, as well as for JLV Sound Paris saxophone ligatures, and he holds the position of solo saxophonist in the Almería Symphonic Orchestra (OCAL) in Andalusia.
Photo credit: Aurélien Lam Tranchet