Authors There are 104 authors

Showing 13 - 24 of 104 items
  • Borgunyó, Agustí

    Born in Sabadell in1894, he began his musical studies at the city’s Escola Municipal de Música (Municipal Music School) under Josep Plans and Cebrià Cabané. He later furthered his studies of composition and harmony in Barcelona under Manuel Burgués. By the age of sixteen he had already mastered anumber of instruments and had joined Barcelona’s MunicipalBand.

    In 1915, at the age of 21, he left for the United States,where he began by writing light music for a dance orchestra,of which he was also a member. Between 1922 and 1929, when he lived in Washington DC, he wrote a great number of ballets, suites and operettas in an American style,which were premiered and which received vary favorable reviews in the Washington Times and the Washington Herald, which noted his ability to capture fashionable popular rhythms. It was during this time that he was Artistic Directorof the Meyer Davis Orchestra, which was extremely popular in the city in the twenties. In the early thirties, he orchestrated on an exclusive basis for the famous singer Kate Smith, at the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) radiostation in New York. Next, he produced scores for the city’s Wor Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Alfred Wallenstein. The director commissioned him to write workswith a Spanish air, which is how they were broadcast by the station.

    Between 1941 and 1960 he was Musical and Artistic Director of the National Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra under a programme sponsored by Firestone. He orchestrated a number of singers, including Mario del Mónaco and Renata Tebaldi. After his return to Catalonia in 1963, he continued to receive commissions for informational documentaries from the US Department of Agriculture until his death in July 1967. He is author a an extremely wide range of works, including 150 sardanes and other compositions for the cobla, more than 50 works for voice and piano, and some thirty choral works, most of which are based of the works of poets and other writers from Sabadell: a great number of pieces for piano, two string quartets, a trio and works for string andsymphonic orchestras, amongst which we would highlight "L’aplec", premiered in 1956 by the Orquestra Municipal de Barcelona under the baton of Eduard Toldrà, "Emporion", "Nocturno Sevillano", "Danza Ibérica núm. 1" and the "Suite Ibérica"; the three-act operetta "Maryana" and the ballets "La festa de carrer" and "The Damask Rose".

  • Borràs, Teresa

    Teresa Borras i Fornell was born in Manresa on 30th July, 1923. Her musical education began at the age of 8 at the Liceo Conservatory in Barcelona: piano, arrangement and then guitar. She went on to perfect her studies with masters Molinari and Cervera. She later studied arrangement, counterpoint and composition with Cristòfor Taltabull. She attended classes given by the master Agosti at Chigiana Academy in Sienna (Italy) and subsequently was awarded a grant by that institution for composition classes given by the master Frazzi. She then studied the clavicembalo for two academic years at the Higher Municipal Conservatory in Barcelona. In 1979 she was awarded a composition grant for a summer course in Compostela with R. Halffter. She won Second Prize of the award: Caterina Albert i Paradis; in 1997. Between the years 1947 and 1953, she gave numerous piano concerts. She was a piano and guitar teacher for six years at the Municipal Music School in Manresa and a piano and arrangement teacher at the Music School in Mataró (branch of the Liceo). She has taught music to first year secondary education pupils at Satorras School in Mataró. She is a piano soloist and particularly promotes her own work. She died in 2010

  • Bosch, Lluís M.

    Lluís M. Bosch i Daniel was born in Barcelona in 1966. He studied piano, harmony, composition and ethno-musicology at the Municipal Conservatory of Music in this city. In 1991 he won first prize in the Composition of Sant Joan de Vilatorrada with the work Rondalla. He is a professor of harmony at the Conservatory of the city of Manresa.
    The fascinating power of music as a means of expression has been one of the most notable influences of his creative impulse. His work combines communication, sensitivity and imagination in a cocktail that surprises with its simplicity and ease of synthesis.
    He says: “The colors, smells, and the perception of all sensations is an obsession for me to compose music. The magic of being able to describe the sound allows me to go beyond the meaning of words. Music is the most subtle and universal language".

  • Bozzo, David

    David Bozzo was born in September 1980 to a family in which music had always played a very important role.
    His first contact with music was through his father, who took him to his first music lessons at the age of six with pianist andcomposer Carme Talleda.
    In 2000 he started intermediate studies, specialising in the violin, at the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory, having had theopportunity to study with composers Xavier Boliart, Carles Guinovart and Albert Sardà. During this period he was also a member of theconservatory’s orchestra under the direction of maestro Albert Argudo. In 2006 he started his higher education in composition at theHigher Conservatory of Music in Castelló, where he was taught by maestro Ferrer Ferran as well as César Cano, Claudia Montero and Emilio Calandín, amongst others. He also took advantage of his four years of higher education to further his violin studies with maestroEduardo Arnau, to whom he dedicated the work for a solo violin, Recitatiu i Fuga (EAG).
    Today he is professor of violin at the Carme Talleda School of Music and works with the youth orchestra Arts Musicals de Castelló, as both assistant to the concertino at various concerts and as concertino at the premiere of a work by maestro Ferrer Ferran. Despite his youth he boasts a full repertoire of works for duets, quartets, quintets, soloists and string orchestras, and Stabat Mater for solo mezzosoprano and symphony orchestra commissioned by the youth orchestra of Arts Musicals de Castelló. He was afinalist in the composition competition Hui, hui música in Valencia in 2007 with the work Elegia a Gregorio Samsa for a wind quintet. The Quartet de Corda nº1 A la muerte de un ángel (String Quartet No.1 “On the Death of an Angel”) was commissioned by The Billroth String Quartet who also premiered it.

  • Brncic, Gabriel

    Director of the Arts for the Phonos Foundation of Barcelona, Associate Professor in the Cabinet of Electroacoustic Music (1989- ), Director of the ‘Music and Computers’ seminars at the Menéndez Pelayo University (1991-95) and Director of the Eines courses on Musical Creation at CCCB in Barcelona. Ha worked since 1960 on the newest musical disciplines related to 21st century technology.
    He has worked on several compositions at the University of Chile, as well as the Di Tella Institute in Buenos Aries. He continued his work at the Phonos Foundation in Barcelona, the GME in Cuenca, the Experimental Music Group of Bourges, among other labs. His works covers several genres, searching for audiences of all sorts of tastes. In 1996 the Center for Contemporary Culture presented an event in homage to Brncic for his music that connected intimately with its audiences. The concert included works performed with traditional instruments with added electroacoustic effects.

  • Brotons, Salvador

    Dr. Salvador Brotons was born in Barcelona into a family of musicians.  He studied flute with his father and continued his studies at the Barcelona Conservatory of Music, obtaining superior titles in flute, composition and orchestra conducting. His professors include, among others, Antoni Ros-Marbà (conducting), Xavier Montsalvatge (composition) and Manuel Oltra (instrumentation). In 1985 he was awarded with a Fullbright scholarship and moved to the United States where he obtained his Doctorate in Music from the Florida State University.

    From 1977 to 1985 he was principal flute in the Orchestra of the Liceu in Barcelona, and also a member of the Orquestra Ciutat de Barcelona (1981-1985).

    As a composer, he has written more than 125 works, mainly for orchestra and chamber ensembles.  He has received 16 composition awards. Brotons has received many commissions and many of his pieces have been published and recorded in CDs in Europe and the USA under labels such as EMI, Auvidis, Albany Records, Naxos, Claves, RNE, etc.

    Salvador Brotons was Assistant Conductor of the Florida State University Symphony Orchestra (1986-1987), and Music Director and Conductor of the Oregon Sinfonietta (1990-1993), the Mittleman Jewish Community Orchestra (1989-91), and the Portland State University Symphony Orchestra (1987-1997).  He also taught counterpoint, orchestra conducting, music history and music literature at Portland State University.

    He has been the Conductor and Music Director of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (WA) since 1991. He has also been the Conductor and Music Director of the Vallès Symphony Orchestra (1997-2002) in his native Barcelona and the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra in Palma de Mallorca (1998-2001, 2009-2013). He is on the faculty of the Escola Superior de Música de Barcelona, where he teaches orchestra conducting and composition. In 2002, he received the “Florida State University Alumni Award” for his professional achievements. Since 2008 he is the conductor of the Banda Simfònica de Barcelona.

    Brotons has been invited to guest-conduct many orchestras around the world

    Currently he is combining an intense schedule as orchestra conductor with composition commissions.

  • Capdevila, Mercè

    Mercè Capdevila, born in Barcelona, began her musical training at the Marshall Academy, the Conservatori del Liceu and, later, the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory of Music. She studied Plastic Arts at the Massana school of art and design (Barcelona) and at the Kunshand Werk Schule in Pforzheim (Germany), taught by Edward Mosny. She later trained in electroacoustic music under Gabriel Brncic at Laboratori Phonos in Barcelona and attended composition courses with Luigi Nono, J.M. Mestres-Quadreny, Corian Aharionan, Carmelo Bernaola and Luís de Pablo.

    Her works have been performed at several music centres across Europe, Canada and the Americas. She has received commissions from the Associació Catalana de Compositors (Barcelona) and from the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea (CDMC) (Centre for the Diffusion of Contemporary Music). She spent a year (1993-1994) working at the studios at NYU’s Aaron Copland School of Music, as well as at Queens College as guest composer.

    She is currently working on multidisciplinary montages with sound, light, laser beam and poetry in various spaces with diverse characteristics. She also collaborates with other plastic artists and poets such as Eloi Puig, Gabriela Vargas, Ester Xargay, Eva Hibernia, Carles Hac Mor, Glòria Rognoni, Javi Palma and Egill Friedlaison.

    She has released two monographic CDs of her works, with other works recorded on group CDs. She has recorded works for Radio Nacional de España, for Catalunya Música, Radio France, Radio Kolomna, Radio Moscow and St Petersburg’s Radio Neva-3. Several of her works have been published by Clivis, Dinsic, Periferia and Musica Studio.

    She is a member of the Associació Catalana de Compositors and a founding member of the Asociación de Música Electroacústica de España. For ethical reasons, she has never participated in any competition, contest or award. 

  • Casablancas, Benet

    Musically trained in Barcelona and Vienna (F. Cerha and K-H. Füssel), he also graduated in philosophy and earned a doctorate in musicology at the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona. His works have received recognition on the international level (City of Barcelona Prize, New York’s Musician’s Accord, Spain’s National Album Award, Amsterdam’s Composer’s Arena, finalist for the Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco, among others) and have been performed throughout Europe, and in the United States, Canada, Japan, Latin America and Egypt by prestigious ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the national orchestras of Spain and Belgium, Arditti Cuarteto, Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie and the London Philharmonic; at venues such as the Musikverein Wien, London Barbican, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan Hall and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.
    He made his debut in 2008 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and his New Epigrams represented Spain at the ISCM World Music Days in Vilnius. He has been invited to the 2011 Music Biennale Zagreb and as visiting composer to the 2011 Cairo Contemporary Music Days. In 2007 he was awarded the Generalitat of Catalonia’s National Music Prize. Author of the book “Humour in Music” (Reichenberger) and numerous articles on musicology (published in New Grove, Arietta, Quodlibet), he has acted as head of musical theory at various teaching centres, head of curriculum at JONC and as a lecturer at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He is also invited regularly as guest judge and lecturer at many international events. In 2002 he took the reins of the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu. His extensive musical production is the fruit of a search for radical personal and aesthetic independence, and has been widely acclaimed for the balance achieved between structural integrity, on the one hand, and expressive strength, dramatic character and playful register, on the other; all as part of a musical discourse made up of brilliant harmonic language, rhythmic intensity, increasing tonal differentiation and instrumental virtuosity. Recently, he has released six new albums (with Naxos, Stradivarius, Tritó and Anemos). His latest endeavours include commissions from the Miller Theatre in New York (Composers Portrait), Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Maastricht´s Ensemble 88, Ensemble Cantus Zagreb and Tokyo Sinfonietta.

  • Cercós, Josep

    Josep Cercós i Fransí (Barcelona 1925-1989) is not a composer who can be easily pigeonholed. The devout aversion he felt towards being linked to an ‘-ism’ of any kind, combined with a demanding sense of self-criticism, mark his work deeply. In turn, his work is the victim of its composer’s incisive and radical performances throughout his aesthetic development. This process of development, which Cercós began with a clearly Germanic post-romantic style – Simfonia n. 1 (1st Symphony, 1942), Simfonia n. 2 (2nd Symphony, 1946) – when still in his youth, would mature, after studying under R. Lamote de Grignon and, in particular, due to the knowledge of European trends afforded him by C. Taltabull, into an individual neo-classicism – Preludi, recitatiu i fuga (Prelude, recitative and fugue, 1947-1949), Sonata (1952) – where his unique sense of harmony, not without a certain echo of the works of P. Hindemith, became evident. Later, after a short time in Geneva and studying under L. Nono and H. Scherchen in Gravessano, Cercós began the phase which most came to characterise his work, with the first performance in 1960 of Continuïtats (Continuities) – now sadly lost. This period stands apart from others in his life for his tireless will to experiment and speculate and for his complete independence from criteria, renouncing any commitment whatsoever to “actualism”, which would see him range from clearly experimental works - S 24 (1960) – passing through moments that represent a pure search for method – Conjunt per a 7 instruments (Pieces for 7 instruments, 1963) – and experimentation with serialism – Octet (1968-1969) – to the highly personal language of the two Gloses per a violoncel i piano (Verses for cello and piano, 1972). Cercós’ development culminated in the 80s, which, despite his failing health, were his most productive years and saw a change in direction that would synthesise the different stages of the composer’s life. This synthesis began with 2 Retaules (2 Altarpieces, 1983), a highly counterpointed piece still closely linked to his more recent works, while the Concert per a violoncel i orquestra  (Concerto for cello and orchestra, 1983) and the Concert per a viola i orquestra (Concerto for viola and orchestra, 1985) saw an unmistakeable return to his earliest phases. He was also to revamp his first two symphonies, compose a Passacaglia for organ (1989) and complete a cycle of 16 songs for baritone and piano – Els bells camins (The beautiful paths, 1988-1989) – based on the poetry of M. Martí i Pol.
    Within this overview of the aesthetic evolution, there is a genre that takes on significant relevance, the genre of song. Many of the languages and styles quoted in the life story of Cercós manifest themselves in such a way that allows us to trace a complete route – from his very earliest years – based solely on his vocal work. In the latter part of his life, he returned to the concert song, or lied, with Els Bells Camins (1988-89). This song cycle,  together with his Passacaglia for organ is, in fact, his musical legacy. For this, he selected the most popular and widely read poet of recent years in Catalonia, Miquel Martí i Pol (1929-2003). A poet who started from an attitude of strong social commitment and who, since 1970, due to multiple sclerosis which meant that he had to shut himself away, began a process of introspection and meditation regarding his limitations transcending the extent of his illness, focusing on the expression of more human sensations, such as love, desire and death, always with a strong autobiographical slant.

  • Cervelló, Jordi

    Jordi Cervelló was born in Barcelona on October 1935. When he was only six years old he started studying violin with the maestro Rosa García Faria and Joan Massià. Afterwards he started studying virtuosity with Franco Tufari in Milan and with Eugen Prokop. Furthermore, he took part in the Sienna and Salzburg violin interpretation classes, and studied composition with Josep M. Roma.
    He is one of the composers who appear in the “Dècada de Compositors Catalans” (Catalan Composers Decade) of the VIIIth International Music Festival of Barcelona in 1970. He has been awarded the Ciutat de Barcelona Price (1973) for his work Seqüències sobre una mort (Sequences on a death), and the first Price of the Ministry of Education and Science for Biogénesis (1976). He has received assignments from the International Contest Arthur Rubinstein of Israel (1974), from the General Music Commissioner’s Office (1975), from the Orchestra City of Barcelona (1982) and OBC (2002) , from the cultural Olympiad of Barcelona (1991), from the Andorra Government (1997), etc.
    His works are known in many European cities, in the United States, in Mexico, Colombia and Israel, and they have been played by orchestral groups such as the Orchestra City of Barcelona, the Symphonic Orchestra of RTVE (Radio and Television of Spain), the National Orchestra of Spain, the University of Ohio Orchestra, the Israel Radio Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bogota, the Philarminic of Buenos Aires, the Symphonic Orchestra of Tenerife, the Academic Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg, etc.
    Among the chamber orchestras that have played his works we would like to point out The Classic Chamber Orchestra of New York, the Young Israel Strings, the Dutch Chamber Orchestra, the Virtuosi of Moscow and the Camerata of St. Petersburg, the Camerata Lysy Gstaad of Switzerland, the Pro Art Orchestra of Lodz (Poland), the Chamber Orchestra of Rouen (France) and the English Chamber Orchestra.

  • Charles, Agustí

    Born in Manresa, Agustí Charles began his music studies at an early age. His first works in composition date from the 80s, under the guidance of his first composition teachers: Miquel Roger, Albert Sardà and Josep Soler. Later he studied with Franco Donatoni, Luigi Nono and Samuel Adler, as well as working with other composers and conductors including Joan Guinjoan, Cristóbal Halffter, J.R. Encinar and Ros Marbà. 

    He has had much recognition for his work, receiving nearly fifty awards, among these are the most important national and international composition prizes. He has also received commissions from important institutions and prestigious performers, as a result of which his music is performed worldwide. His work “Seven looks” was awarded the prize of the Association of Spanish Symphonic Orchestras (AEOS) and has been played by all the major Spanish orchestras between the 2004 and 2008 seasons. His first opera “La Cuzzoni, esperpent d’una veu”, was premiered in October 2007 at the Darmstadt Staatstheater in Germany with great success. Recently, in 2008, the Italian Stradivarius Records Co. has published a new monographic CD with part of his orchestral work, played by the Orchestra of the Community of Madrid and directed by José Ramón Encinar. The Tritó Records Company edited a new monographic CD in 2010 with the Symphonic Orchestra of Barcelona and National of Catalunya, directed by Jaime Martin. In March 2011 the premiere of his second opera, “Lord Byron, un estiu sense estiu”, will take place in the Staatstheater of Darmstadt, Germany. The libretto is by Marc Rosich with stage direction by Alfonso Romero Mora. At August 2012, primered his third opera JAVA SUITE, in the Perelada Festival (Girona, Spain)

    He is also author of texts and books related to musical composition and analysis, among which stand out the following: “Análisis de la música española del siglo XX (2002)”, “Dodecafonismo y serialismo en España” (2005), “Instrumentación y orquestación clásica y contemporánea” (2005).

    At the present time he teaches composition, occupying the chair in composition at the Superior  Conservatory  of Music of Aragón (Spain), and now he is the Director of the same Conservatory.

     
  • Civilotti, Alejandro

    Alejandro Civilotti was born in La Plata (the Argentine) in 1959. From an early age, he developed an interest in music in an intuitive way playing the guitar and performing Latin American traditional music on TV, radio, theatres, and taking part in recordings.
    In later years, 1978-1983, he studied harmony, counterpoint, fugue, morphology and composition under Enrique Gerardi; he studied clarinet first and then viola at the Provincial Conservatoire in La Plata in this stage.
    In 1984 he moved to Barcelona and worked composition and instrumentation with Josep Soler and was also tutored on these subjects by Joan Guinjoan reaching full maturity as a composer.
    At present he is a member of the Catalan Composer Association and is a professor of harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Professional-Higher Conservatoire of Music in Badalona. He also works for different soloists in Spain and abroad.

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