SLAM Festival - Composers


			Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez was born in Mexico City in 1964 and now lives in the New York Tundra, where he teaches composition at the Eastman School of Music. He studied with Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Steven Mackey and Henri Dutilleux at Yale, Princeton and Tanglewood, respectively. He has received many of the standard awards in the field (e.g. Guggenheim, Fulbright, Koussevitzky, Fromm, American Academy of Arts and Letters.) He likes machines with hiccups and spiders with missing legs, looks at Paul Klee's Notebooks everyday, hasn't grown much since he reached adulthood at age 14, and tries to use the same set of ears to listen to Bach, Radiohead, Ligeti or Deep Purple.






			Argentine composer and sound artist who lives and works in Seattle, where he is professor of composition at University of Washington and faculty member of the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media (DXARTS). His music explores the territory articulated by the concepts of space, memory, and material, using mostly systemic strategies and software tools of his own development. Juan Pampin's compositions, including works for instrumental, digital, and mixed media, have been performed around the world by world-class soloists and ensembles such as Les Percussions de Strasbourg, the Arditti String Quartet, Sinfonia 21, and many others. Juan's music has been recorded in Europe and America, he is currently working on a 5.1 release of his Percussion Cycle recorded by Les Percussions de Strasbourg. For more information about Juan Pampin and his works, please visit his web site at: www.pampin.tk


			Eddie Mora Bermúdez (b. 1965) is a Costa-Rican composer and violinist. He studied violin and composition in the Castella Conservatory, the School of Music of the University of Costa Rica, and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Moscow, Russia. Mora was awarded the Aquileo J. Echeverria National Prize in Music (Composition) in 1997, 1998, 2001, and 2004. His works have been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, the University of Northern Iowa Symphony Orchestra, the Municipal Orchestra of Heredia, and the Latin American Camerata. His chamber music has been performed and recorded by the most prominent groups in Costa Rica, and by groups in Holland, Russia, Mexico, Chile, Canada, and the United States. Eddie Mora has participated in several music festivals, including “Moscow Autumn Festival” in Moscow, “Cervantino” in Mexico, and the “International Music Festival” in Costa Rica. His music can be heard on the following recordings: “Diálogos” (“Dialogues”), “Música de Eddie Mora” (“Eddie Mora’s Music”), “Canciones Infantiles” (Children’s Songs), and “Música para Cuerdas” (“Music for Strings”). As the violinist in the Mora-Duarte Duet, he took part in the recording of “100 años de música clásica costarricense” (“One-hundred years of classical Costa Rican music”). Several of his works have been published by the University of Costa Rica Press. Eddie Mora is currently a professor of violin in the School of Music of the University of Costa Rica. Every year, he organizes a composition seminar and contemporary music festival in his university.


			Mauricio Kagel, born in Buenos Aires on 24 December 1931, is among the most distinctive composers of contemporary music. From the very beginning his name has been associated above all with music theatre, the genre in which he has perhaps exerted the greatest impact. Besides his radical innovations in this area, however, he has also developed a highly personal aesthetic in his absolute music. Kagel¹s creative output has been enormous. It encompasses not only stage, orchestral and chamber music in an extremely wide range of instrumental settings, but also film scores, radio plays and essays. Throughout its broad spectrum, his music reveals a breach with any and all forms of academicism as well as close ties to tradition, especially to the German tradition.


			Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla (March 11, 1921 July 4, 1992) was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music. He is therefore widely considered the most important tango composer of the latter half of the twentieth century. A formidable bandoneonist, he continuously performed his own compositions with different ensembles. He is known in his native land as "El Gran Ástor" ("The Great Astor").


			Alberto Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires on 11 April 1916 and died on 25 June 1983 in Geneva. Several of the fifty-five works he composed stand as landmarks of Latin-American artistic creation and have earned him a place among the greatest composers of the twentieth century. As well as two concertos for piano, one for violin, two for cello, and one for harp, he wrote two operas, ballet music, orchestral music, chamber music and a dozen works for solo piano. Late works, in which folk influences are fully subsumed into a rich and multi-coloured modern idiom, include opera Beatrix Cenci, Glosses for orchestra, Piano Concerto No.2 and two cello concertos.


			Mario Davidovsky (b. 1934) Born in Mendanos, Argentina, where he was one of eleven brothers and sisters, all of whom played musical instruments or sang. After first coming to America at the suggestion of Aaron Copland to study at Tanglewood, Davidovsky settled in New York City in 1960 and began a close association with the Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Center. He is perhaps most widely recognized for his contributions in the realm of electro-acoustic music, with his series of Synchronisms for instrument(s) and tape, and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1971 for Synchronism #6 for piano and tape. Davidovsky has also composed numerous acoustic works, including his recent Concertino for violin and orchestra for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Recent recordings recommended by soundout include the Divertimento for cello and orchestra, played by Fred Sherry with George Rothman leading the Riverside Symphony; and, Synchronisms #10 for guitar and electronic sounds (1992) played by David Starobin. Since 1993 he has taught at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he is the Fanny P. Mason Professor of Composition. Recordings of his music can be found on the Bridge, Centaur, CRI, Delos, and New World labels.


			Through some one hundred and twenty works composed for a wide range of performance genres, Orlando Jacinto Garcia has established himself as an important figure in the new music world. The distinctive character of his music has been described as "time suspended - haunting sonic explorations" qualities he developed from his studies with Morton Feldman among others. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1954, Garcia migrated to the United States in 1961. In demand as a guest composer and lecturer, he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards from a variety of organizations and cultural institutions, including Nuevas Resonancias, Sonic Circuits, Salvatore Martirano, Rockefeller, Fulbright, Dutka, and Cintas Foundations, and the State of Florida Council for the Arts. With performances in most of the major capitols of the world by distinguished performers and ensembles, his works are recorded on O.O. Discs, CRI/New World (Emergency Music and eXchange labels), Albany, North/South, CRS, Rugginenti, Capstone, Opus One, and New Albion and published by Kallisti Music Press, the American Composers Alliance, BHE, and North/South Editions. The founder and director of the New Music Miami ISCM Festival and the NODUS Ensemble, he is Professor of Music at Florida International University.


			Roberto Sierra (born 1953) For more than a decade the works of American composer Roberto Sierra have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading orchestras, ensembles and festivals in the USA and Europe. At the inaugural concert of the 2002 world renowned Proms in London, his Fandangos was performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a concert that was broadcast by both the BBC Radio and Television throughout the UK and Europe. Sierra's numerous commissions include works for many of the major American and European orchestras. International ensembles that have performed his works include the orchestras of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Mexico, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit, San Antonio and Phoenix, as well as by the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, the Spanish orchestras of Madrid, Galicia, Castilla y León and Barcelona, among others. In 2003 he was awarded the Academy Award in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Roberto Sierra was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, and studied composition both in Puerto Rico and Europe, where one of his teachers was György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg, Germany.


			Cuban-born Canadian composer Sergio Barroso (b. March 4, 1946) studied at the Havana National Conservatory, did his post-graduate studies in composition at the Prague Superior Academy of Music (AMU), and studied computer music at the CCRMA, Stanford University (USA). Among his many honors are a prize in the Bourges electroacoustic competition (1980), the New York Cintra/Arts International Composition Award (1999) and the Victor M. Lynch-Staunton Award from the Canada Council for the Arts (2000). His music has represented both Canada and Cuba at the IMC Rostrum of Latin American Music (1979), the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers in Paris (1980, 1995) and the UNESCO International Rostrum of Electroacoustic Music (1990, 1994). His works have been performed throughout the Americas, as well as in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Monaco, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, and the UK.


			Tania León (b.1943) Born in Cuba, Tania Leon is a vital personality on today’s music scene and is highly regarded as a composer and conductor. She has been the subject of profiles on ABC, CBS, CNN, PBS, Univision (including their noted series “Orgullo Hispano” which celebrates living American Latinos whose contributions in society have been invaluable), Telemundo and independent films. She has received commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts; American Composers Orchestra; Queens Symphony; Dance Theatre of Harlem; the Kennedy Center; Whitney Museum; Affiliate Artists; and National Public Radio, which commissioned her to write the theme music for its Latin File program. León has been Visiting Lecturer at Harvard University, Visiting Professor at Yale University, the University of Michigan and the Musikschule in Hamburg. She has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University and Oberlin College. In 2000 she was named the Claire and Leonard Tow Professor at Brooklyn College, where she has taught since 1985. In 2006 Tania León was named Distinguished Professor of the City University of New York.


			The music of Mexican-born composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon is characterized by detailed sculpting of concise musical ideas that unfold in contrapuntal “kaleidoscopes” of intense rhythm and color. Mexican literature and contemporary culture have provided the point of departure for many of his composition, including the scenic cantata Comala , based on Juan Rulfo's Pedro Páramo and the upcoming Silueta como Sirena , based on songs by distinguished songwriter Alfredo Sánchez. Zohn-Muldoon received a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Pennsylvania, where his principal teacher was George Crumb. He has received fellowships and commissions from noted institutions and ensembles in México, the U.S., and Europe. He joined the composition faculty of the Eastman School of Music in 2002. More information can be found at www.zohnmuldoon.com


			Jorge E. Campos (b. 1963) was born in Quito, Ecuador, South America and graduated from the Concervatorio Nacional de Musica. In 1983 and 1984 he won the first and second Prize of Composers of Ecuador and until 1986 participated in many concerts in several countries in South America as composer and pianist. In 1987 Campos entered the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Russia and graduated in 1992 in piano and composition. He graduated from the post-graduate department of the Conservatory in 1994. Until 1999 he worked at the Theremin Center of electronic music in Moscow and then moved to Paris. In 2000 he was composer in residence at Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Virginia, USA. He is now composer-associate at the CERPS (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherche Pierre Schaeffer (France) and teaches instrumental and electroacoustic composition at the Institut Charles Cros (Université de Marne la Vallée), France. Campos has participated in many festivals of contemporary music in Europe, Russia and Latin America, including the Bartok Festival in Hungary (1987), Avignon Summer (1988), Alternativa festival in Moscow (1994, 1996) and others. In 1999 he received the Unesco-Aschberg prize for artists.


			Born in Mexico City in 1943, Mario Lavista began piano studies as a child and enrolled at the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica in 1963 and continued his studies at the Schola Cantorum in Paris (1967-1969), where he also attended courses given by Henri Pousseur, Nadia Boulanger, Christoph Caskel and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Upon his return to Mexico he founded Quanta, a collective improvisation group. In 1972, he worked at the electronic music studio of radio and television in Tokyo, Japan. He has worked on interdisciplinary projects, such as Jaula (1976), and in the creation of multiple scores for films produced by Nicolas Echevarria. In 1987. he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his first and only opera Aura, based on the short story by Carlos Fuentes. He has received many awards, such as the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes and the Medalla Mozart. Since 1998, Lavista has been a member of the prestigious EI Colegio Nacional. He has taught in Mexico and abroad, especially in North American institutions, including the University of Chicago, Cornell University, the University of California San Diego, Indiana University and McGill University. His works are frequently performed by some of the most distinguished chamber and orchestral groups.


			Hugo Solís was born in Mexico City in 1976. His main interests are musical structure of improvised music, human computer musical interaction, and audiovisual systems. Currently he works on the development of sonic and visual extensions for acoustic pianos, the production of tools for collective creation, and also plays with the Juum duet. He has played piano and electronics collaborating in many interdisciplinary projects in conjunction with dancers, painters, film-makers and radio-artists. He founded the EsAmble Crumbe in Barcelona Spain and the Nicrom Trio in Mexico City. He is currently a PhD student at DXARTS at University of Washington. He holds a DEA of Computer Sciences and Digital Communication from the Pompeu Fabra Univeristy where he was member of the Music Technology Group. He also got a Masters degree in Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT Media Laboratory at the Opera of the Future. As an undergrad, he studied piano, composition, and music technology at the Escuela Nacional de Música of the UNAM in Mexico City. He also studied computer music at NYU. For more information about Hugo Solís and his works, please visit his web site at: www.HugoSolis.net


			Nicolás Varchausky (Buenos Aires, 1973) has a Degree in Electroacoustic Composition at the University of Quilmes ( Argentina ), where he works as an assistant professor and directs P.A.I.S. (Project Art In Situ-Acoustic Theatre Program-UNQ), a research project on the musical relations between space, sound and speech. Since 2001, his artistic production has been oriented not only to electronic and instrumental composition but to interdisciplinary projects in public spaces. He released “Intervenciones 99/00” (BAU Records 2002) and “La estupidez/La modestia” (BAU Records 2003), among other records. He is currently starting the DX ARTS PhD program at the UW. More information can be found at www.varchausky.com.ar