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Barcelona Modern International Composition Course

Demian LUNA, general director / artistic co-director

Argentine composer born in Córdoba. He studied musical composition and piano at the School of Arts of the National University of Córdoba, Argentina. In 2002, he traveled to Barcelona to study Perfection and Musical Specialization in Composition and Instrumentation at the Higher Conservatory of Music of the Liceu, as a student of the Catalan composer Benet Casablancas. Later he expanded his training with Martin Matalon, in the CRR93 of Aubervilliers-Paris. He has attended as an active student in numerous master classes and composition courses given by prestigious musicians, among others: Jonathan Harvey, G. Aperghis, B. Ferneyhough, F. Cerha, Kaija Saariaho, Luis De Pablo, Cristóbal Halffter, Héctor Parra , Alberto Posadas, Martín Matalón, César Camarero, Giacomo Manzoni, Franco Donatoni, Arditti Quartet (Workshop).

His works have received several awards and distinctions: "2nd Vocal Composition Contest Friends of the Liceo" (Barcelona), "Francisco Guerrero Marín" Prize of the XIX Young Composers contest, granted by the CDMC and the Author Foundation, "V contest Musici Mojanesi 2009" (Treviso, Italy), "Incentive to the creation of symphonic works 2010" granted by the Author Foundation and the AEOS (Spanish Association of Symphonic Orchestras), "Grant for the Creation 2010" of the National Council of Culture and Arts (CONCA) and the Generalitat of Catalonia, "Trinac 2010" and "Trinac 2012" (National Tribune of Composers) Argentina.

He has received commissions from the Junta de Andalucía, Private Foundation of the Auditorium and The Orchestra, Contemporary Music Festival of Barcelona Nous Sons, Student Residence of Madrid, Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra, Author-AEOS Foundation, National Council of Culture and Arts-Generalitat of Catalonia, Valencian Institute of Music, Ensems Festival, Mixtur Festival, among others.

In 2012 is selected to represent Argentina in the "World Music Days 2012" in Belgium, organized by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).

His music has been performed in prestigious halls: Auditorium of the Liceu Conservatory (Barcelona), Ateneu Barcelonès, Auditorium 400 of the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum (Madrid), L'Auditori (Barcelona), Student Residence (Madrid) , Palau de la Música de Valencia, Großer Saal Akademie für Tonkunst (Darmstadt, Germany), Auditorium Professional Council of Economic Sciences (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Auditorium of the Conservatory of Perpignan (France), Palau de la Música Catalana, Palau de las Artes de Valencia, Teatro Cervantes (Málaga), or the Arnold Schönberg Center (Vienna).

He has composed music for solo instruments, vocal, chamber and symphonic music.

Since 2013 he is the artistic and pedagogical director of the Barcelona Modern Ensemble, and director of the Barcelona Modern International Composition Course and the Barcelona Modern Festival.

Since 2016 he is professor of composition and theory at the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo.

www.demianluna.com

 

 

David CASANOVA, artistic co-director

Pianist born in Sabadell (Barcelona). He studied at the Conservatory of Music of Barcelona with maestro Miquel Farré. He has received advice from composer and pianist Frederic Rwesky (Bursel·les) and María Garzón (London), as well as master class with Jean-Pierre Dupuy, Antoni Besses and Frederic Gevers.

He has recorded the integral music for piano by composer Xavier Benguerel (Ars Harmonica) and Joan-Carles Blanch (Darmosmusic Projects). He has recorded for RNE's classic radio, CatalunyaMúsica, and for Radio de Bremen in homage to the Spanish composer Cristóbal Halffter.

He has performed in the Auditorium of the French Institute of Barcelona, ​​the Auditorium of the Fortuny Theater of Reus (being soloist of the Concerto for piano and five wind instruments of Falla), Palau de la Música Catalana (in collaboration with the Instrumental Group BCN216) , Auditorium of Barcelona, ​​the concert hall of the Cervantes Institute of Vienna, the concert hall of the Perpignan Conservatory, the Sendsaal of the Radio of Bremen, the Arnold Schoenberg Center of Vienna apart from numerous performances throughout the Spanish geography and beyond our borders (Brazil, Argentina and Algeria).

His interpretations bring together both the classics of the twentieth century (Boulez, Messian, Carter, Schoenberg) and living composers of recognized prestige (Hector Parra, Jose Manuel Lopez Lopez, Raphael Cendo, Martin Matalon, among others).

Founder of the Barcelona Modern Ensemble develops a work of dissemination and promotion of young composers, this has allowed him to contact and premiere works by authors of the likes of Enrique Busto, Alessandro Ratoci, Frédéric Le Bel, Adrian Mocanu, Ariadna Alsina, Pablo Andoni Gómez Olabarría, Demian Rudel Rey, Filippos Sakagian, Ugurkan Oztekin, Francisco Uberto, Jeremias Iturra, Daniel Cabanzo, among others.

The criticism has highlighted its strength and intensity in all its interpretations full of emotion and personality.

Carolina SANTIAGO MARTÍNEZ, co-coordinator

Classical and Contemporary Music Pianist, Carolina Santiago combines her concert soloist career with chamber and new music at concert halls in all Europe such as the Kasteel d’Ursell (Brussels), L’Auditori of Barcelona, the Catalonian Parliament,  the Marcel Hastir’s Atelier (Brussels) or the Royal College of Music of Stockholm (Sweden).

Nowadays, Carolina Santiago is studying the European Master Degree in Contemporary Music CoPeCo, held between 2020 and 2022 in Tallinn (Estonia), Stockholm (Sweden), Lyon (France) and Hamburg (Germany). In addition, she is doing a PhD in Artistic Research in Music at the University of Aveiro (Portugal) with Luca Chiantore -with the scholarship granted by the Spanish Society of Artists, Performers and Executors- and she complements it with the Advanced Chamber Music Course at the Orpheus Instituut (Ghent, Belgium) with Syntagma Piano Duo.

Carolina Santiago has studied Master and Bachelor Degree of Music in Piano Performance at the Liceu Conservatory (Barcelona) with Albert Attenelle, and she has won prizes and scholarships such as the Música Clásica Emprende 2020 scholarship in Madrid, II Prize at Piano Meeting 2018 (Ourense, Spain), Corhyund Prize at the Piano Córdoba Competition, AIE scholarship for the Manuel de Falla course (2016, Granada) with Galina Eguiazarova, the Yamaha Scholarship awarded by the VI Barcelona Piano Academy 2017 to the best Spanish pianist, the Conservatori del Liceu’s scholarship for Master Degree 2017-2018 and the AIE 2018-21 Scholarship for her PhD studies.

In the field of contemporary music, she is the pianist of the Barcelona Modern Ensemble  and coordinator of the International Composition Course Barcelona Modern (Institut Français Barcelona), and she has premiered works for piano solo and ensemble as well as with Syntagma Piano Duo. Carolina Santiago has worked with many renowned composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Philippe Hurel, José Manuel López López, Alberto Posadas, etc. She has participated at the Voix Nouvelles Académie 2020 (Royaumont, Paris), Sound Plasma Festival 2020 in Tallinn (Estonia), the Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt 2018 (Germany), the Stockholm’s Aurora Music Festival 2019 and she has been specialised in extended techniques for piano with Ricardo Descalzo.

She has received classes from great pianists like Josep Colom, Pilar Valero, Christopher Elton, Aquiles delle Vigne, Jacques Rouvier, M. Wladowski, Marta Gulyàs, Mark Knoop and others.  Her passion for chamber music has led her to improve herself in that field with strings and piano groups and piano duets with Vesko Stambolov and Catherine Ordronneau. In 2019 she published her first CD edited by the AAMY.

Since 2017, Carolina Santiago has been devoting all her artistic activity to performing concerts in venues all over the world, with different solo and chamber music projects of classical and contemporary music.

Daniel MUÑOZ-OSORIO, co-coordinator

Born in Barcelona, in 1987. Studies Piano at Professional Music Conservatory of Badalona and at Superior Music Conservatory Liceu of Barcelona with Michel Wagemans. Subsequently learns Composition there with Benet Casablancas and also at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz with Beat Furrer. Currently he studies Master Composition at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden with Mark Andre, Stefan Prins and Manos Tsangaris. 

He receives composition lessons from Tristan Murail, Stefano Gervasoni, Hèctor Parra, José Manuel López López, Dmitri Kourliandski, Carola Bauckholt, Agustí Charles and Jorge Sánchez-Chiong, among others. He participates in music festivals and concert series such as Impuls Ensemble&Composers Academy for Contemporary Music Graz, Open Cube (IEM Graz), Festival New Horizons Tilburg, Festival Mixtur Barcelona, Festival Barcelona Modern, and International Music Festival Tarragona.

He is awarded Honourable Mention Young Composers Award Fundación SGAE-CNDM 2016, Special Award Composition by Conservatory Liceu 2017, First Prize Noosa ISAM 2018 and Förderpreis der Leipzigmusikstiftung 2021. His music is performed in Spain, Germany, United Kingdom, Austria and the Netherlands.

Among his future projects there are collaborations with the Dresden Sinfonietta and the Arditti quartet.