Benet CASABLANCAS, guest composer

Benet Casablancas is musically trained in Barcelona and Vienna, where she worked, among others, with Friedrich Cerha and Karl-Heinz Füssl. He also has a degree in philosophy from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and a doctorate in Musicology from the same university. His works, distinguished with numerous commissions and awards (Ciutat de Barcelona, ​​Musician's Accord in New York, National Record Award from the Ministry of Culture, Composer's Arena in Amsterdam, JJ.MM. de Barcelona, ​​Oscar Esplà, Ferràn Sors, ​​etc.) , are performed in the main countries of Europe, Canada, the USA and Hispano-America by prestigious soloists, ensembles and conductors (London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble 13 de Baden-Baden, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Notabu de Düsseldorf, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Perspectives Ensemble New York, Seattle Chamber Players, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble Modern Academie, Trio à cordes de Paris, Grupo Encuentros de Buenos Aires, Orquestra de Cambra Teatre Lliure, Solistes de Cadaqués, Ensemble 88 Maastricht, Ensemble Insomnio de Utrecht, Leipziger Streichquartett, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Kammerphilarmonie Bremen, Orchester de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchester National de Belgique, Hermitage de San Petersburgo, Symfoni Orkester Malmö, National Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Netherlands, Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya, Sinfónicas de Galicia, Granada, Tenerife, RTVE, JONDE , Castilla y León, Community of Madrid, Filarmonía de Galicia, Barcelona 216, Plural Ensemble, Trio Arbós, Trio Kandinsky, Proyecto Gerhard, Sax-Ensemble, Brouwer Trio, Grupo Enigma J. Colom, J. Masó, Kristiina Junttu, M. Villalba, D. Fernández Magdaleno, José Enrique Bagaria, Moisès Fernández, Daniel Ligorio, A. Sukarlan, Trio Kandinsky, Grupo Modus Novus, J. Pons, V. Jurowski, O. Knussen, MA Schlingensiepen, V. Petrenko, T. Weiss, B. Sipus, C. Rundell, A. Ros-Marbà, E. Colomer, J.R. Encinar, U. Pöhl, S. Mas, M. Reichert, F.P. Decker, L. Foster, Á. Gil-Ordóñez, B. Güller, E. Martínez, R. Freisitzer, F. Ollu, J.J. Olives, Rubén Gimeno, A. Terzian, S. Serrate, M. Valdivieso, A. Soriano, J.L. You fear, etc.). His work 'The Dark Backward of Time', for orchestra, was a finalist in the 2007 Prix de Composition Prince Pierre de Monaco.

From an early age he combines composition with teaching and research. Advisor to different institutions and patron of various foundations, he has published numerous articles on historical and analytical topics ('The New Grove', 'Arietta', Quodlibet), as well as the book 'Humor in music. Joke, parody and irony '(Reichenberger, 2000). He has been responsible for theoretical subjects in different conservatories in the country, pedagogical director of the JONC (Jove Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya) and associate professor at the Pompeu Fabra University of Barcelona, ​​being frequently required as a jury in European musical composition and interpretation competitions and developing an intense activity as a visiting professor in different centers of international scope. He currently maintains his close collaboration with the 'Musical Specialization Courses' of the University of Alcalá de Henares. In 2002 he assumed the direction of the Superior Conservatory of Music of the Liceu, a responsibility that he today combines with composition and research.
He has taught masterclasses in New York, Vienna, Munich, Apeldoorn, Buenos Aires, Brussels, Tokyo, Malmö, Saint Petersburg, Cairo, etc.

His extensive production, presided over by the search for a radical personal and aesthetic independence, embraces the most diverse genres and formats. Criticism has highlighted the concern for balancing constructive rigor and expressive force, dramatic temper and playful register, within the framework of a discourse in which a progressively luminous harmonic language, rhythmic liveliness, a growing timbral refinement and the virtuosity of instrumental writing. On the occasion of his 50th anniversary in the 2006-07 season, two monographic concerts dedicated to the integral of his piano music were dedicated to him, by J. Masó and M. Villalba (Girona), later recorded on disk, to music for small formations and vocals (Tribute to Benet Casablancas, Auditori Josep Carreras de Vila-seca) and to chamber music, by the Grup Modus Novus, under the direction of Santiago Serrate (Madrid and Sabadell). He is currently working on both commissions for the Arditti Quartet, the Modus Novus Group and the Palau Chamber Choir, as well as a new work for orchestra. Recent reruns include those of 'Alter Klang' (Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, 2007; National Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Netherlands, 2008; Malmö Symfoni Orkester, 2009; Orchester National de Belgique, 2009), 'Tres Epigrames' (Orquesta de la RTVE, 2007), 'New Epigrams' (Contemporary Music Ensemble Oberlin, Ohio, 2007) and 'Set Escenes de Hamlet' (BBC Symphony Orchestra, 2008).

In 2007 he was distinguished with the National Music Prize awarded by the Generalitat de Catalunya, the highest recognition granted by the regional government in this field.

His upcoming commitments include new commissions and collaborations with the Nomade Ensemble of Japan (2010), the Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen (2011), Tokyo Sinfonietta (2011), Perpectives Ensemble New York, BCMG of Birmingham, Munich Chamber Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra (2012).

He has been appointed Composer in Residence of the Orquestra Simfònica i Nacional de Catalunya during the 2013-14 and 2014-2015 seasons.

In November 2013 he was distinguished with the 2013 National Music Prize awarded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, for 'the maturity he has reached with his work, as well as for the diversity of genres it encompasses and for its wide international reach. '.

Mark ANDRE, guest composer

Born in Paris in 1964 Mark Andre studied composition, counterpoint, harmony, analysis and musical research at the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique de Paris (CNSMP), where his teachers included Claude Ballif, Gérard Grisey and Helmut Lachenmann.

In 1993, after studying at the École Normale Supérieure, Paris (Ulm), and the Centre d'Études Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours), he took a doctorate in musicology with a dissertation on “Le compossible musical de l'Ars subtilior.” He completed an Advanced degree (‘Großes Kompositionsexamen’) in composition with Helmut Lachenmann at the Stuttgart Musikhochschule on a scholarship from the French Foreign Ministry.

He held a Fellowship at the Schloss Solitude Academy, Stuttgart between 1995 and 1996 and was awarded a scholarship from the German Academic Exhange Service (DAAD) in 1996. In the same year he received the Kranichstein Music Prize for un-fini I and le loin et le profondfrom the Darmstadt Ferienkurse for New Music, where he also participated in a master class with Wolfgang Rihm. He was awarded a residency in Germany from the Villa Medici-hors-les-murs.

In 1997 Andre studied electronic music with André Richard at the Experimental Studio of the Heinrich Strobel Foundation, SWR (Freiburg). He won first prize at the Stuttgart International Composers’ Competition for Le Trou noir univers (1992-93) for orchestra, vocalists and live electronics. He was also awarded a scholarship by SWR and the City of Baden-Baden. Since 1997 Andre has taught counterpoint and orchestration at the Conservatoire National de Région de Strasbourg and the Frankfurt Musikhochschule.

In 1998 (and again in 2006 and 2010) Andre returned to the Darmstadt Ferienkurse as a tutor for compostition. Between 1998 and 2000 he held a Fellowship at Villa Medici, Rome and was a Fellowship holder at the Frankfurt Opera. He received the Internationaler Kompositionspreis from the Frankfurt Opera for …das O… (Part I of …22,13…), which was premiered by Ensemble Modern under Johannes Debus. He was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Förderpreis in 2002. …22,13… (Musiktheater Passion in drei Teilen) was written for the Munich Biennale and Mainz City Theatre and premiered in Munich, with Georges Delnon as stage director, on 20 May 2004. Further performances in Munich, Mainz and at the Festival d'Automne at the Opéra Bastille, Paris, followed.

Andre was invited to join the DAAD Artist Program in Berlin in 2005 and in 2006 received the Christoph and Stefan Kaske Composition Prize, the Giga Hertz Production Prize for electronic music, and was awarded the Orchestral prize from Donaueschingen Festival for …auf…III by the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg.

In 2008 Andre was awarded the Berlin Art Prize Förderpreis for Music by the Berlin Academy of Arts. The first complete performance of the cycle ...auf… (2005-7) was given in Berlin in 2009. Conceived as a triptych of three pieces, forming a unified whole, each piece is also intended to be able to stand alone in performance. In 2009 Andre was also made a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and appoint Professor of Composition at the Dresden Musikhochschule.

In addition to acting as tutor for composition at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse in 2010, Andre was also a tutor at the European Academy of Music Festival d'Aix en Provence and composer in residence and tutor at the 21st Takefu International Music Festival. Since 2010 he has been a member of the Saxon Academy of Arts.

The French Ministry of Culture appointed Andre ‘chevalier des arts et des lettre’ in 2011 and the following year he was Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin and composer in residence at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. He was also named an honorary member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. The same year he received the composition prize of the Gerhart and Renate Baum Foundation.

Mark Andre has written works commissioned by the Ensemble Modern, ensemble recherche, Trio Accanto, Klangforum Wien, KNM Berlin, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble Alternance, EIC, and others. He currently lives in Berlin.

BARCELONA MODERN ENSEMBLE, resident ensemble

Founded in 2004 and completely renewed since in 2013 the composer Demian Luna assumes his artistic direction.

The task of these last years is based mainly on contemporary music, current and newly created, and on the interpretation and subsequent dissemination of the young emerging values ​​of contemporary Spanish and world music, as well as the already established composers: Pierre Boulez, Helmut Lachenmann, Martin Matalon, Hèctor Parra, Raphaël Cendo, Kaija Saariaho, José Manuel López López, Jonathan Harvey, Benet Casablancas, Philippe Hurel, Alberto Posadas, Ramón Lazkano, Cristóbal Halfter, Gabriel Erkoreka, Luis De Pablo, etc.

Since 2014 is the resident ensemble of the Barcelona Modern International Composition Course, working on the work of guest composers Martin Matalon (2014/15), Héctor Parra (2015/16), Raphaël Cendo (2016/17), José Manuel López López (2017/18), Philippe Hurel (2018/19), Alberto Posadas (2019/20), Francesco Filidei / Oscar Bianchi (2020/21) and premiered 15 works by young composers every year, among them: Diego Jiménez Tamame, Frédéric Le Bel, Ariadna Alsina, Jeremías Iturra, Demian Rudel Rey, Pablo Andoni Gómez Olabarría, etc.

The ensemble has performed in prestigious halls and festivals, among which stand out: the Sampler Sèries cycle at the Barcelona Auditorium, the Tarragona Spring Festival, the Josep Carreras Auditorium in Vila-seca, the Palau Robert in Barcelona, ​​the 400 MNCARS Auditorium in Madrid, the Auditorium of CatalunyaCaixa in La Pedrera, Sala Mompou (SGAE / Barcelona), Spanien Modern Festival 2009 and 2011 in Vienna, Arnold Schönberg Center, Institute of North American Studies in Barcelona, ​​Joan Miró Foundation in Barcelona, ​​Instituto Cervantes in Bremen, Aujord'hui Musiques Festival of Perpignan, National Theater of Catalonia, Museum of the University of Navarra, Institut Français-Barcelona, ​​Phonos Foundation, Mostra Sonora de Sueca, ME_MMIX Festival of Mallorca, Festival Turbulences Sonores de Montpellier, etc.

Formed by elite players specialized in contemporary repertoire, the ensemble evolves and advances at a steady pace, being already a reference of the country's current music.