Xavier Gúell was born in Barcelona in 1956. He studied music in the conservatoires of Barcelona and Madrid and orchestral direction with Franco Ferrara in Italy, Sergui Celibidache in Germany and Leonard Bernstein in the United States. For many years, he directed orchestras in Spain and other countries and premiered the works of many of the best composers of our times, becoming one of the most important champions of contemporary music in Spain. In 2015, he published his first book, La Música de la Memoria (The Music of Memory).