Kideak

Born in Andoain (Gipuzkoa), he is currently the canon and chapel master of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Valladolid. He holds degrees in Philosophy and Theology from the Pontifical University of Comillas (Santander) and served for six years as organist of the renowned Schola Cantorum founded by Father Otaño. He studied piano, organ, and harmony with Luis Urtega, composition with Francisco Escudero, and was introduced to contemporary music by Luis de Pablo. A professor and former director of the Valladolid Conservatory of Music, he has published three volumes of choral music. He is the author of choral, orchestral, and organ works, as well as compositions for two pianos, some of which have been performed in Europe, Russia, and the United States. A student of Jacques Chailley in musicology courses, several of his research works have been published in the Revista Española de Musicología. He is also an academic member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Valladolid.

Leonel Aldino (1996) is a Mexican composer based in Spain. He began his composition studies at the Higher School of Music of Mexico with Jorge Torres Sáenz and is currently pursuing a master's degree in contemporary creation with Ramón Lazkano at the Center for Higher Musical Studies of the Basque Country, Spain.   He has won different awards, such as the "Maurice Ravel'' award from the Ravel academy in France, the “Salvador Contreras” national composition competition and the “Leona Vicario” Orchestration award organized by CENIDIM INBA México, Ibermúsicas residence for composers. He has had the opportunity to work with different ensembles, among which Cepromusic México, José White Quartet and Klangformun Wien. He has taken courses with Michael Jarell, Toshio Hosokawa, James Dillon and Helmut Lachenmann, among others.

Born in Segovia (1987), she began her musical studies at the age of ten, completing the Professional Degree in Flute at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Segovia. At the same institution, she started studying Composition with professor Beatriz Fraile during her last three years there. In 2009, she was admitted to Musikene (Higher Conservatory of Music of the Basque Country) to study Composition with Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramón Lazkano, Stefano Scarani, and Jesús Rueda. During this period, she complemented her training with a Teaching Diploma in Music Education (2011). She has also attended various courses on children’s choir conducting (Coral Ágora de Segovia) and is currently completing her final year of the Primary Education Teaching Degree at the University of Valladolid, Segovia Campus (2013/14). She has received several awards, including the Caja Segovia Performance Prize in the chamber music category and the “Estrénate” Composition Competition, organized by Segovia, Candidate for European Capital of Culture 2016. Her work has been featured in festivals such as the Segovia Contemporary Music Week, Segovia: Noche de Luna Llena, Musikaste, and the Women in Music Festival. She has received commissions from the Lut Chamber Choir, Ezmugak, the Women in Music Association, and the Segovia Contemporary Music Ensemble, and has made arrangements for bands and instrumental groups of various types, including the Kuraia Ensemble.

He was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz in 1905 and received his first musical training from his father, Juan Santiago. He studied harmony with Father José Domingo de Santa Teresa and completed his studies in piano, organ, cello, and horn at the Conservatory of Bilbao. He passed away in Vitoria-Gasteiz on May 5, 1999. A prolific composer, he won every composition competition he entered. His catalog shows a strong focus on sacred music, including 25 masses, 50 hymns, motets, carols, psalms, and more. However, he also composed a vast collection of romances and choral works (over 50), as well as music for txistu, symphonic works, and other pieces for smaller instrumental groups, most of which remain little known.

He began his composition studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Granada (RCSM), later expanding his training in Milan and Parma with Javier Torres Maldonado. He then continued studying electronic music at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna under Karlheinz Essl, and completed a postgraduate degree in composition at the Kunstuniversität Graz with Beat Furrer. At the same time, he received instruction from composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Chaya Czernowin, Georg Friedrich Haas, Toshio Hosokawa, Pierluigi Billone, Isabel Mundry, Mark André, Alberto Posadas, and Gabriel Erkoreka, among others. He also participated in masterclasses with Helmuth Lachenmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Philippe Manoury, José María Sánchez Verdú, and Daniel Teruggi. His works have been performed across Europe, America, and Asia, including at events such as the ISCM World Music Days in Tongyeong (South Korea), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Donaueschinger Musiktage (Next Generation), DRK Singapore, CMC Toronto, Konzerthaus Berlin, Mixtur Festival (Barcelona), Atlantic Music Festival (Maine, USA), Foro Internacional de Música Nueva (Mexico), Domaine Forget (Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne, Canada), Casa del Suono (Parma, Italy), Etchings Festival (France), Echoraum Vienna, Experimentalstudio Academy (SWR, Freiburg), 3rd International Forum for Young Composers (Sond’ar-te, Portugal), Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik (Germany), and Sonutopias 2014 (Santiago de Compostela). His music has been performed by ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble SurPlus, International Ensemble Modern Academy (IEMA), Vertixe Sonora, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, ECCE Ensemble, Taller Sonoro, Sond’arte Electric Ensemble, Ensemble Cepromusic, and Ensemble Progress Berlin, among others. In April 2016, he represented the Basque-Navarrese Composers Association (Musikagileak) at the ISCM World Music Days in Tongyeong (South Korea). Recently, he completed a postgraduate degree in Electronic Music at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien under Karlheinz Essl, supported by a training grant from the SGAE. His music focuses on the exploration of microscopic variations in sound phenomena and the relationship between acoustic and electronic resonance.

Born in Arrasate-Mondragón, she began her musical career in the Arrasate Musikal Youth Symphony Orchestra, founded and conducted by her father, Juan. She continued her violin studies with Julia Frape in London (1984 and 1985). Later, she earned degrees as Professor of Violin, Professor of Advanced Composition (with Honors), Orchestral Conducting, and Choral Conducting from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid. She has attended specialization and advanced courses in orchestral conducting with Antonio Ros Marbá, Sergio Celibidache, Helmuth Rilling, Sergiu Comisiona, and Alexander C. Machat, and in composition with Luis de Pablo, Joan Guinjoan, Mario Nascimbene, Georges Delerue, Armando Gentilucci, Jesús Villa-Rojo, Ramón Barce, among others. Since 2010, she has worked at the Teatros del Canal (Madrid), where she serves as Music and Choreographic Center Coordinator. She was Vice President of the Association of Women in Music (2010–2014), and is a member of Musikagileak (Basque Composers Association) and the Madrid Composers Association (AMCC). Her works have been performed in numerous venues and festivals across Europe, America, and Asia, including the National Auditorium of Music (Madrid), Teatro Monumental, Teatros del Canal, Carnegie Hall (New York, USA), Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), Rudolfinum Hall (Prague, Czech Republic), Chamber Hall of the Seoul Art Center (Korea), Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (California, USA), Museo Reina Sofía, Auditorio Ciudad de León, Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (Madrid), Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria (Santander), Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao), Teatro de la Zarzuela, Auditorio Baluarte (Pamplona), Kursaal (Donostia), Palacio Euskalduna (Bilbao), Museo Nacional del Virreinato (Tepotzotlán, Mexico), Museu Nacional dos Coches (Lisbon), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg, Germany), and the Norton Museum of Art (Florida), among others. In 2021, she received a commission from the Santander International Music Festival, premiered under Elim Chan conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias. That same year, she was selected by the SGAE Foundation and the Spanish Association of Symphony Orchestras (AEOS) to compose a symphonic work for the Navarra Symphony Orchestra under Perry So. She has been invited as a speaker at numerous symposia, panels, and workshops on the role of women in music, contemporary composition, and cultural management.

He was born in Ondarroa in 1940. From a young age, he began his musical studies, which he completed in 1963 at the Conservatory of San Sebastián, studying piano with Cabanas and harmony and composition with Maestro Escudero. In 1964, he received the First Prize (end-of-degree award) in Harmony, and in 1966, the same distinction in Fugue. He furthered and refined his training in Paris under Olivier Messiaen. In 1968, he moved to Madrid, where he served as organist for the Recollect Fathers while studying dodecaphonic and serial music with Gerardo Gombau. He later returned to San Sebastián, where he worked as organist of the Holy Cathedral and professor of harmony and composition at the Conservatory. His body of work includes religious, didactic, choral, chamber, and symphonic compositions. He passed away in 2003.

He was born in Tolosa (Gipuzkoa) in 1968 and holds a degree in Fine Arts. He trained as a countertenor under Isabel Álvarez and received the Lucrecia Arana Extraordinary Singing Prize at the Royal Conservatory of Madrid. He is a member of the vocal ensembles Capilla Peñaflorida (early music) and KEA (contemporary music). He has collaborated with numerous vocal, instrumental, and orchestral groups on a wide range of projects both in Spain and abroad. He has taken part in various world premieres and first recordings of contemporary operas by Tomás Marco (2003), Mauricio Sotelo (2006), Eduardo Pérez Maseda (2006), José Mª Sánchez Verdú (2007), Luis de Pablo (2010), Pilar Jurado (2011), and Juan José Eslava (2011). A self-taught composer, his work focuses exclusively on the vocal field. He has over 80 published works, including choral arrangements, original compositions, musical tales, and a chamber opera (Altzoko Haundia, txikien opera, 2011), released under Oihu hau Musika, the publishing label he founded in 2004 to promote his own music.

Fran Barajas (1995) is a Spanish-Colombian composer. His music has explored, among other aspects, the idea of memory, in a kind of musical archaeology through the relationship with other music. He began his musical training in cello and piano (pre-college) in Torrevieja, Spain. He studied composition (bachelor) in Alicante with Marc García Vitoria, and a Master’s Degree in Contemporary Music Creation with Ramón Lazkano in Musikene, Basque Country. He's currently stuyding a postgraduate course in Kunstuniversität Graz with Franck Bedrossian.  Additionally, he’s received masterclasses and lessons from Francesco Filidei, Bernhard Lang, Sivan Eldar, Joan Magrané, Pierluigi Billone, Francesca Verunelli, Pascal Dusapin, Clara Iannotta and Johannes Schöllhorn, among others. In 2019 he participated in the Composition Workshop with Francisco Coll at the Palau de la Música in Valencia, for which he wrote A Mad Tea-Party for orchestra. He was awarded with a commission of mutatis mutandis, which was premiered in 2023 by the Orchestra of Valencia, conducted by Nacho de Paz, in the 45th edition of ENSEMS. As part of the master’s degree, he wrote The Quartet in my life for Quatuor Diotima, premiered in Donostia on 30th April 2021, and Les Voix Humaines for the Ensemble Intercontemporain, conducted by Jean-Christophe Vervoitte and premiered on the same city, 30th April 2022. He was selected for the Open Call NODUS Artistic Residency with David Moliner and Carlos Tena, where he wrote Canto, premiered on 15th July 2022 in Les Coves de Vinromà, Castelló. Kelly Smestad commissioned and premiered El olor de la guayaba #1 – Caña de millo, for solo oboe, in Stony Brook University, New York, on 19th september of the same year. He received a commission from the Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC), with support of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung, of El olor de la guayaba #3, written for Trio Feedback and premiered in 2023 in Ensems, Valencia. In 2023 he participated in the IMPULS Festival and Academy, in Graz, Austria, receiving advice from several composers and working with the Klangforum Wien, conducted by Johannes Kalitzke (reading sessions). His music has been present at various festivals such as MIXTUR (Barcelona), Bernola Zikloa (Vitoria), De Link (Tilburg), among others. He has worked with performers such as Schallfeld Ensemble, Miguel Ituarte, Valeria Kafelnikov, Jordi Francés, Ensemble O Vos Omnes, Ensemble Sinkro, Ensemble Taller Sonoro, Trio Agora, Trío Apellániz, and Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, among others. His work has received various recognitions, among which stands out the Honorable Mention in the XXVIII Musical Composition Prize of the College of Spain in Paris – INAEM. He also received the “Grand Rector Prize of Loyola University” in the “I Young Loyola Emerging Composers Creation Contest 2023”, in Seville. He has been awarded by the SGAE Foundation with a scholarship for his master's studies at Musikene, academic year 2021-22. For the upcoming projects in 2024, he’s been selected for a ULYSSES Network Journey for composers, participating in Royaumont’s Voix Nouvelles Academy, taking part in the composition of a collective opera, and Warsaw Autumn Festival. On the other hand, he is currently working under the advice of Luca Francesconi in a workshop with the Gulbenkian Orchestra, organized by the ENOA Community, in which El olor de la guayaba 4 for baritone and orchestra will be premiered.

I was born in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain) in May 2002. I started my musical studies at ten years of age, at the music conservatory of the city “Jesús Guridi”, where I studied harmony and fundamentals of composition with Antonio Lauzurika. Currently I study in Musikene (superior music conservatory of the Basque Country), 4th year of Composition and 2nd year of Orchestra Conducting. My Composition teachers have been Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramón Lazkano, Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena, Mª Eugenia Luc and Stefano Scarani; and my Conducting teachers have been Arturo Tamayo, Margarita Lorenzo de Reizábal, Jon Malaxetxebarria y Basilio Astúlez. In Musikene I have also received Composition masterclasses by the composers that have been invited, to name a few; Pascal Dusapin, Johannes Schollhorn, Luis Tinoco, Toshio Hosokawa, Jaime Reis, Patricia Alessandrini, Alberto Posadas, Aureliano Cattaneo, Franck Bedrossian and George Benjamin. I have obtained various Composition awards: In march 2019 I obtained the first price in the Composition category in the contest “Jóvenes músicos de Euskadi”. (young Basque composers). In 2020 I was named composer young talent in the contest “Vienna New Year’s Concert International Music Competition”. In 2021 I was given one of the prizes in the Composition contest “Txistu Composition Competition, EHTE” and I wrote a piece that was premiered in 2022 in the winner’s concert. In 2023 the “Kuraia” contemporary music ensemble premiered my piece “Egunsentiak” in the 29th contemporary music encounter in the “J.C.Arriaga” conservatory of Bilbao. This same year, the Bilbao Municipal Symphonic Band premiered my piece “Olatuak” in the Bilbao Euskalduna Auditorium.  This school year 2023-24, the SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) awarded me the composition grant that is given every year to one student in Musikene. Moreover, this 2024 the BOS (Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao) recorded my piece for orchestra “Nebulosas”.

Javier Bello Portu, a Basque conductor and composer born in Tolosa in 1920, began his musical studies in piano, harmony, and composition with Eduardo and Ignacio Mocoroa and Felipe Gorriti, later completing his instrumental training with César Figuerido in San Sebastián. He studied Philosophy and Letters in Madrid, where he met the Baroja family, whose influence would be crucial in shaping his musical aesthetics. Upon returning to Tolosa in 1943, he founded the Escolanía Felipe Gorriti, with which he toured much of Spain and several French cities, promoting the repertoire of Basque composers. He continued his orchestral conducting studies at the Paris Conservatory, the Chigiana Academy of Siena, and in Salzburg, under Von Karajan, Dixon, and Leopold Hager. He served as principal conductor of the San Sebastián Symphony Orchestra, the Zaragoza Symphony Orchestra, and the Santa Cecilia Orchestra (1963–1983), and collaborated with ensembles such as the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg, the Madrid and Bilbao symphonies, and the Basque National Orchestra. He also conducted the Easo Choir of San Sebastián and the Basque Country Choir of Bayonne. Bello Portu was artistic director of the Loyola International Festival from 1971, Honorary President of the Friends of Basque Opera Association, and President of the Basque Txistularis Association. A lover of art and literature, he authored several musical essays on topics such as the txistu, Felipe Gorriti, Manterola and Santesteban, music in Gipuzkoa, and the musical ideas of Pío Baroja. In 2001, the Aus Art Records label released several albums featuring works by Gorriti, Ledesma, Manterola, and Xabier Munibe, conducted by Bello Portu himself. Javier Bello Portu is considered one of the key figures in Basque music of the last decades. He passed away in San Sebastián in February 2004.

He was born in Otxandio (Bizkaia) in 1929. He began his musical studies in Medina de Pomar, later continuing in Burgos, where he was a singer in the Orfeón Burgalés, clarinetist in the Engineers Regiment Band, and professor in the Burgos Symphony Orchestra. Among his teachers were Blanco, Mesanza, Forns, Massó, Calés, and Julio Gómez at the Madrid Conservatory, where he obtained in 1958 the First Prize and Extraordinary Prize in Composition. In 1959, he received the Rome Prize, studying there with Petrassi and Panni; in Darmstadt, he studied with Maderna and attended courses taught by Celibidache, Tansman, and Jolivet. He won the National Prize in 1962 and the Juventudes Musicales Prize in 1967. In 1977, he received the Queen Sofía Scholarship from the Madrid City Council. The 1990s brought numerous awards and honors, including his second National Music Prize (1992). He was a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, received the Medal for Artistic Merit from the Madrid City Council, and the Sabino Arana Prize in the Fine Arts category. He also worked as a professor at the Madrid Conservatory and director of the Jesús Guridi School of Music in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where he mentored an important generation of young composers. His works have been performed at major international venues and festivals such as Nuremberg, Washington, Baden-Baden, Warsaw, Granada, Paris, New York, Strasbourg, Madrid, Barcelona, and Lisbon, among others. Carmelo Bernaola passed away in Madrid in 2002.

He studied composition in Buenos Aires between 1969 and 1975 under the direction of Jacobo Ficher. With a scholarship from the French Government, he settled permanently in Paris, completing his training between 1979 and 1985 with Ivo Malec for composition and Guy Reibel for electroacoustics. Between 1986 and 1992, he taught musical analysis at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris. World premieres, masterclasses and composition seminars: Internationales Musikinstitut Darmstadt (Darmstadt Courses). Radio BadenBaden-Festival Donaueschinguen. Presencias Festival Radio France. Strasbourg Music Festival. IRCAM - Commissioned by Pierre Boulez. Venice Biennale. New Consonanza of Rome. Antidogma Musica-Torino. Verdi-Parma Festival Conservatoires National Supérieurs de Musique de Paris and Lyon. Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar. Mozarteum Conservatory in Salzburg. WDR-Radio Köln Franco-German Encounters in Bremen (Germany). Contemporary Art Centre of Seville. San Sebastian Musical Fortnight. ISCM Copenhagen, ISCM Frankfurt, ISCM Switzerland. Leonard Bernstein" Selection / Jerusalem. University of Orsay Paris XI. Teatro Colón, National Conservatoire and CCRecoleta (Buenos Aires), etc. Editions G. Billaudot, Henry Lemoine and BABELSCORES in Paris.

Born in Bilbao in 1985, he completed his Intermediate Piano Studies at the “Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga” Conservatory of Bilbao in 2004, under Agustín Vergara. In 2008, he obtained his degree in Composition at the “Pablo Sarasate” Higher Conservatory of Music of Navarra, studying under Joseba Torre. In 2012, he graduated in Piano Performance from ESMuC (Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya) in Barcelona, under the guidance of Eulàlia Solé. He has received numerous awards both as a performer and composer, notably the First Prize “Xavier Montsalvatge” at the 30th Fundación SGAE–CNDM Young Composers Award (2019), and the First Prize in the 4th, 6th, and 8th editions of the International Chamber Music Composition Competition for Txistu “Durango Hiria”. Together with flutist Antonio Íñigo, he formed the flute and piano duo “Iceberg”, winning First Prize at both the 3rd “Higini Anglès” Chamber Music Competition (Reus) and the 9th “Fernando Remacha” Chamber Music Competition (Pamplona), among others. They were also finalists in the Juventudes Musicales de España Permanent Competition (2009), in the chamber music category. Since 2011, he has been an active composer and performer with the contemporary music group “Garaikideak” (Pamplona), for which he has written and premiered numerous works. His music has been performed across Spain, as well as in New York, Berlin, and Rome, by ensembles such as the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, KOAN 2, Sigma Project, Garaikideak, Dúo Xistra, Silboberri, Synthèse Quartet, Kuarist, and Resonare Vocal Ensemble, and by performers including David Johnstone (cello), Salomé Osca (viola), Ismael Arroyo and Sergio Eslava (saxophones), Roberto Casado and Cristina Granero (flutes), Adrián Blanco (piano), and Luis Fonseca (double bass). His works have been conducted by Joseba Torre, Pietro Consoloni, and José Ramón Encinar, and featured in festivals such as “NAK” (Navarra), “Radical dB” (Zaragoza), “Kuraia” (Basque Country), “FestMus” (Castellón de la Plana), “SoXXI” (Valencia), “Encuentros de Pamplona 72/24”, and concert series like “Musikagileak”, “MusaE”, “Fundación BBVA”, “Fundación SGAE”, and the JME Music Network, as well as at the 19th World Saxophone Congress. His works have been recorded by Columna Música, Orpheus Classical, and Da_sh Recordings, and published by Silboberri, Dasi Flautas Ediciones, and Da_sh Editions. In 2024, Da_sh Recordings released a monographic album dedicated to his music, titled “Dark Chamber Works”.

He began his music studies at the “Albéniz School of Music” in 2004, and in 2008 entered the “Antonio Viñuales” Professional Conservatory of Music in Huesca, specializing in trombone. In 2015, he began combining trombone studies with cello, continuing until 2019, the year he was admitted to the Bachelor’s Degree in Composition at the Basque Country Higher Music Center (Musikene), where he studied under Gabriel Erkoreka. During this time, he had the opportunity to attend masterclasses with composers such as Pascal Dusapin, Johannes Schöllhorn, Kaija Saariaho, Edith Canat de Chizy, Toshio Hosokawa, Luis Codera, and Raquel García Tomás, among others. He completed his composition studies in 2023 with honors (matrícula de honor) and entered the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Music Creation at the same institution. There, he had the opportunity to compose for and collaborate with the Ensemble Ascolta (based in Stuttgart), and will soon work with the Ensemble Court-Circuit (Paris). Among his most recent projects are a commission for a symphonic band piece from Bilbao Musika, several works for the Ensemble Kuraia, and an orchestral work for the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra.

She was born in Pamplona, where she completed her musical studies, earning degrees in Piano and Composition. Her formation as a composer in Spain and Italy was guided by Ramón Barce and Agustín González Acilu. She holds a Master’s Degree in Aesthetics and Musical Creativity and a PhD in the Philosophy of Art from the University of Valencia. She has received numerous awards, including the National Music Prize (2017), the Prince of Viana Prize for Culture (2021), the Eusko Ikaskuntza Prize for Humanities, Culture, Arts, and Social Sciences (2022), the Gold Medal of the Royal Higher Conservatory of Music of Madrid (2023), and the Honorary Fernando Remacha Award (2023). She has also been granted the Commandership of the Order of Civil Merit (2011) and the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts (2021). She is an elected full member of JAKIUNDE, the Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of the Basque Country. She was a founding member of the Pamplona Group of Composers and has served on the State Council for Performing Arts and Music, as well as the Artistic Council for Music (National Institute of Performing Arts and Music, Ministry of Culture). She currently sits on the National Council for Music, the Board of the Teatro Real, and the Social Council of the Public University of Navarra. She has directed the music sections of several courses, meetings, and international festivals, including the Navarra Festivals, Veruela Festivals and Summer Courses, and Basque New Music Days. She has received commissions from numerous performers and national and international institutions and regularly gives courses and lectures at festivals, conservatories, universities, and music institutions around the world — notably at the P. Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Moscow, where she was an invited guest. She is the author of Sistemas compositivos temperados en el siglo XX (2nd edition) and co-author of Música no tonal. Las propuestas de Julien Falk y Ernst Krenek. She has published numerous articles, scores, CDs, and works in Spain, Hungary, and Germany. Her compositions are regularly performed across Europe and America, and she has received commissions from major institutions, orchestras, and performers. By public examination, she became Professor of Composition at the Royal Higher Conservatory of Music of Madrid (RCSMM), where she has been named Professor Emeritus. She also collaborates in the doctoral program “Music and its Science and Technology”, jointly organized by the RCSMM and the Polytechnic University of Madrid.

Bertrand Chavarría-Aldrete (Spanish-Mexican, born in France) pursued his studies in Mexico (with Gregorio Rangel, Édgar Cortés, Andrés Liceága, Pedro Salcedo, Martín Madrigal), France (with Raymond Gratien, Judicaël Perroy, Thanh Nguyen), the Netherlands (with Zoran Dukic), and Portugal (Faculdade de Belas Artes, Porto). He has performed at numerous festivals, including Time of Music (Finland), ContemPuls and Stekávání Nové Hudby Plus (Czech Republic), Ars Musica (Belgium), IRCAM, Cité de la Musique, Festival d’Automne à Paris, Fondation Royaumont (France), Festival Internacional de Guitarra de México, Festival Visiones Sonoras, Festival Internacional de Guitarra de Monterrey (Mexico), Inter Arts Center (Sweden), Gaida Festival (Lithuania), Frankfurter Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (Germany), Susa Festival (Denmark), Sound 59 Festival (Russia), Quincena Musical Donostiarra, L’Auditori, Fundación BBVA Contemporary Music Series, Festival ENSEMS, Auditorio Nacional, Serie 20/21 CNDM - Museo Reina Sofia, and the Alicante Music Festival (Spain). To date, he has premiered around 70 works for guitar, guitar and electronics, and electric guitar, collaborating with composers such as Rebecca Saunders, José Luis Torá, Michael Finnissy, Frédéric Pattar, Fernando Fiszbein, Gérard Pesson, Ramon Lazkano, Alberto Hortigüela, and Felix Ibarrondo. He has recorded for Radio France, Radio Nacional de España, Finnish Radio, and for labels such as Sismal Records (France), 3D Classics (France), LH Production (Czech Republic), Odradek Records (Italy/USA), and Moving Furniture Records (Netherlands). He has also collaborated with ensembles including Ensemble Linea, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Multilatérale, Ensemble Arcema, and L’Instant Donné. Between 2006 and 2016, he directed SMASH Association in Spain (SMASH Ensemble and SMASH International Contemporary Music Festival), dedicated to the promotion and creation of contemporary music. He currently teaches at the Claude Debussy Conservatory of Paris (17th arrondissement) and the Courbevoie Conservatory in Paris. His creative work as an artist spans several disciplines, expanding into a broader artistic expression. His musical creativity is focused on developing pieces that combine visual and auditory media, designed to be experienced live and in situ (La nef des fous, Stupid Mechanical Monkeys), as well as traditional-format works such as the string quartet douleur exquise, which premiered in Montréal, Canada, performed by the Molinari Quartet and received an award. As a filmmaker, he has directed two documentaries (75 Centavos, Diario Portuense) and several videos (Folias de España, Fuga (soiseubuda)). In the field of visual and multimedia arts, his current work centers on a series of structures (pulsações dilatadas), a plastic/visual extension of the musical works he performs. Some of his recent pieces have already been exhibited in Portugal and Spain.

Born in San Sebastián-Donostia (Gipuzkoa) in 1969, he studied Harmony at the Conservatory of his hometown, where he obtained Honorable Mention. At the same time, he pursued Organ studies at the Conservatoire National de Région de Bayonne and, under Peio Çabalette, studied Writing, Analysis, and Orchestration, earning two Gold Medals. He was later admitted to Loïc Mallié’s composition class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, where he studied Writing, Analysis, Orchestration, Early Counterpoint, and Film Music, graduating with First Prize, unanimously awarded with Jury Congratulations. He later expanded his composition studies with Edith Canat de Chizy at the Erik Satie Conservatory in Paris. He has received commissions from numerous institutions, such as the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, the National Orchestra of Lyon, the Pagoarte Cultural Association, the Loyola Cultural Center, the Asociación del Órgano Hispano, and Orgelpark Amsterdam, among others, and has been awarded in several composition competitions. Among his distinctions are: First Prize (ex-aequo) at the 3rd European Composition Competition for Organ “Rocco Rodio” (Italy, 2004), Cristóbal Halffter Prize (2008), Special Organ Prize at the 1st Sacred Music Composition Competition of the Cathedral of Monaco (2009), Honor Diploma at the XII Torneo Internazionale della Musica in Rome (2006, Composition section), Mention of Honor (2nd Prize) at the VII International Composition Competition of the Chamber Choir of Pamplona (2014). He has been a professor at Musikene and, since 1989, one of the organists at the Basilica of Santa María del Coro in San Sebastián-Donostia, being appointed titular organist of the same basilica in 2009.

Born in Bilbao in 1993, she began studying solfège and violin at the age of 10 and started composing at 14. She earned her Professional Degree in Violin from the Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga Conservatory in Bilbao, graduating with honors in Violin and Chamber Music, where her teachers were Miren Bustamante and Enrique Campos, and in Composition Fundamentals, where her teacher was Olatz Ayastuy. She also received high marks in Piano Studies with José Antonio Latorre and Orchestra with Maite Aurrekoetxea. She has also studied Baroque violin with professors Enrique Campos and Pedro Gandía. At 17, she received an honorable mention in the Young Musicians of the Basque Country Competition in the Composition category (2011), and the following year (2012), she won First Prize in the same competition. In 2015, she received an honorable mention in The Matan Givol International Composers Competition. She studied Composition at the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country (Musikene) with Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramon Lazkano, Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena, and Stefano Scarani, among others. She has also received instruction from the composer Jesús Rueda. She has attended masterclasses and courses given by composers Hèctor Parra, Rebecca Saunders, Gérard Pesson, Helmut Lachenmann, Dmitri Kourliandski, Jesús Torres, Philippe Manoury, Benet Casablancas, and José Manuel López López, among others.

He was born in Bilbao on January 28, 1930. He began his musical studies in 1937 at the school in Hondarribia. Moving to Madrid in 1939, where he lived until 1952, he studied Law and continued his musical studies privately. He attended courses in Darmstadt and studied with Messiaen, Boulez, and Stockhausen. His contact with Max Deutsch, a disciple of Schoenberg, influenced the evolution of his musical aesthetic. He founded Tiempo y Música (1959-1964) and Alea (1965), a platform for open music and an electronic laboratory. He organized avant-garde music festivals and was the Spanish representative of experimental music at international festivals. He taught at the Universities of Ottawa and Montreal and was the first director of the Center for the Dissemination of Contemporary Music. He has received, among others, the People's Choice Award (1967), the Grand Prize of the Charles Cros Academy (1969), and the Luigi Dallapiccola Prize (1979). He is also the recipient of, among other distinctions, the Gold Medal for Fine Arts, the National Music Prize, the Honegger Prize from the Fondation France, and the Guerrero Foundation Prize.

Francesca Romana Di Nicola is an eclectic harpist with a long and creative professional career. A versatile musician, Francesca performs a wide range of repertoire as a solo harpist, in chamber ensembles, and with major orchestras and institutions, collaborating with renowned conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Daniel Oren, Peter Eötvös, Robert Trevino, Eliahu Inbal, Antoni Wit, Jun Märkl, Pinchas Steinberg, Pierre Boulez, and Valerij Gergiev, among others. She has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Royal Festival Hall (London), KKL Auditorium (Lucerne), Salle Pleyel (Paris), Prinzenregententheater (Munich), Teatro Real, Auditorio Nacional, and Auditorio Reina Sofía (Madrid), as well as the Saint Petersburg Conservatory Concert Hall and the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg). She has taken part in major tours, such as the 2019 tour with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint Petersburg under Valerij Gergiev, and the 2011 European tour with the Ensemble Intercontemporain of Paris under Pierre Boulez. Francesca is regularly invited to perform as a guest solo harpist with ensembles and orchestras worldwide, including the Ensemble Intercontemporain (France), Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra (Russia), Annapolis Symphony Orchestra (USA), Das Neue Orchester (Germany), Symphony Orchestras of Syria and Algeria, and in Spain, with the Valencia Opera Orchestra (Palau de les Arts), Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Oviedo Philharmonic, Málaga Symphony, Navarra Symphony, Zahir Ensemble (Seville), Basque National Orchestra (Euskadi), and the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. In Italy, she has worked with Officina Musicale Italiana, Orchestra Sinfonica Umbra, and Camerata Strumentale di Prato. Francesca began her music studies at the age of six in her native Italy, graduating with top honors in harp performance from the A. Casella Conservatory of L’Aquila, and continuing her training abroad with Fabrice Pierre, Anna Loro, E. Fontane Binoche, Judith Liber, and Marie-Pierre Langlamet. A winner of multiple scholarships, she joined the Italian Youth Orchestra (OGI) and, in 2006, obtained a Master’s in Orchestral Repertoire from the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Theatre (Florence) under Zubin Mehta. In 2007, she earned another advanced degree in Spain at Musikene (Basque Country Higher Music Center) under Frédérique Cambreling, and later completed a Master’s in Music Pedagogy at UNIR University (La Rioja). Her artistic spirit has led her to explore many musical genres. In addition to the classical harp, she performs on Celtic, South American, and the Italian triple-barreled baroque harp, studying under Mara Galassi at the ESMUC in Barcelona. Deeply drawn to contemporary music, she earned a Master’s Certificate in Contemporary Harp and Orchestral Repertoire from the Lucerne Festival Academy (Switzerland) in 2011, under Pierre Boulez. Her career also embraces jazz and contemporary pop music, performing with artists such as Gregory Porter, Quincy Jones, Gil Goldstein, Hildegard Lernt Fliegen, Ryan Truesdell, Paolo Fresu, Steve Wilson, Lewis Nash, Jay Anderson, Take 6, Dee Dee Bridgewater, John Clayton, Ivan Lins, Noa, Alfredo Rodríguez, Patti Austin, John Scofield, and Stewart Copeland. Francesca divides her time between performance, composition, teaching, and artistic creation. Within classical, traditional, baroque, and contemporary fields, she develops original projects to promote the harp to broader audiences. She has premiered harp music sponsored by the Italian Institute of Culture and the Italian Embassies in Algeria and Russia, and works to rediscover forgotten harp repertoire. Her instrument and projects have been featured in radio and television interviews—in Italy (Radio Rai3, Radio Mondo, Opus Musik), in Quebec (Radio Cibl 101.5), and in Algeria (National Radio and Television). Since 2014, Francesca has composed and arranged works for harp and other instruments. Her major project, “Miniature” (2020)—a collection of harp solos inspired by her memories of Italy and the Basque Country—won an international award for composition and performance. It premiered at the San Telmo Museum (San Sebastián) and the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao). Sponsored by the SGAE Foundation and the Basque Government, she released the CD Miniature for Harp (Convivium Records, UK, 2023) and published the scores with Da Vinci Publishing (Japan). She frequently participates in orchestral and chamber recordings for prestigious labels such as Naxos, Deutsche Grammophon, Equilibrium Music, Elkar, Claves, Orpheus, IBS Classical, and Ondine, as well as for Radio Rai3. As a soloist and ensemble player, she has recorded contemporary works by Toshio Hosokawa, Luis de Pablo (Zahir Ensemble), and María Eugenia Luc (Kuraia Ensemble), traditional harp and vocal music with Kalakan and Solange Añorga, and film soundtracks for Spanish cinema, including works by Fernando Velázquez (Goya Award 2017). She taught Italian language and applied phonetics for singers for four years at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Pamplona, and was appointed artistic director of the Stradella Young Project, an innovative Italian program promoting baroque music among young singers and instrumentalists, particularly focusing on Alessandro Stradella. Currently, Francesca combines her performing career with teaching harp and chamber music at the Francisco Escudero Conservatory (San Sebastián) and the J.C. Arriaga Conservatory (Bilbao).

Francisco Domínguez (born in 1993) studied composition with Gabriel Erkoreka at Musikene (Spain), graduating with honors. He later completed a Master’s Degree in Composition at the Kunst Universität Graz (Austria) under the guidance of Beat Furrer and Klaus Lang. He has also attended classes and masterclasses with Helmut Lachenmann, Ramon Lazkano, Hèctor Parra, Alberto Posadas, and Rebecca Saunders, among others. Francisco Domínguez has received numerous internationally recognized awards, including the “Pablo Sorozabal” Composition Prize (1st Prize, 15th edition), the “Francisco Escudero” Competition (1st Prize, 7th and 9th editions), the “Franz Schubert” Competition (Honorable Mention, 10th edition), and the “Young Composers Competition of the SGAE Foundation” (Honorable Mention, 26th edition). In 2016, he participated in the Peter Eötvös Foundation Academy, receiving lessons from Peter Eötvös himself and Toshio Hosokawa. That same year, he was selected by Peter Eötvös to take part in the Gargonza Arts artistic residency (Germany–Italy). His works have been performed at renowned festivals such as Fundación BBVA, IMPULS, and Fundación Juan March, and he has collaborated with prominent performers and ensembles such as Iñaki Alberdi, Michael Faust, Henri Bok, L’Instant Donné, THReNSeMBLe, Schallfeld Ensemble, the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra, and the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, among others. In addition, he completed his Higher Degree in Viola Performance at Musikene, studying with David Quiggle and Natasha Twitch.

He studied Orchestral Conducting at the Vienna Conservatory and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In London, he founded The European Sinfonia. He inaugurated the Compostela 93 program with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony alongside The London Philharmonic Choir, Obraztsova, and Ricciarelli. He has conducted at major venues such as the Palau de la Música in Barcelona and Valencia, the Arriaga Theatre and Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, the Kursaal and Victoria Eugenia Theatre in San Sebastián, the Teatro Principal in Córdoba, Baluarte in Pamplona, the Palacio de Festivales in Cantabria, the Auditorio de Santiago de Compostela, RiojaForum, and the Auditorio de Zaragoza, among others. Since 1988, he has conducted the Navarra Symphony Orchestra and the Basque National Orchestra. He has also conducted the Latvian Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Lublin Theatre Orchestra, and the Musikene Symphony Orchestra. He has toured Japan and Poland, where he also conducted an Anthology of Zarzuela in Lublin. He has conducted and recorded opera, zarzuela, and symphonic-choral music, with notable highlights including Les pêcheurs de perles and Die Entführung aus dem Serail. He recorded on DVD Hilarión Eslava’s Gran Miserere and Requiem Mass, and conducted the operatic version of Las Golondrinas by Usandizaga. He studied composition with González Acilu, Escudero, Marco, Darias, Halffter, and Sotelo. The Contemporary Music Foundation released a CD featuring his work Dos Bocetos. He received the INJUVE Composition Award in 1998 and 1999, the Pablo Sorozábal Prize for his String Quartet No. 2, and the XVIII Joaquín Turina Prize for his Requiem Sine Verbis. He was commissioned by the Center for the Dissemination of Contemporary Music (CDMC), where his piece Diálogos premiered at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. He won the XV Ciutat d’Alcoi Composition Prize (2000), and his works have premiered at the Quincena Musical and the Musikaste Festival. He also received commissions from the Fundación Autor. In 2019, his Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra—commissioned by the Navarra Symphony Orchestra (OSN)—was premiered. That same year, his opera D’Artagnan premiered, which he conducted himself, performed by the OSN and the Navarra Chamber Opera Company, who commissioned the work. He served as Associate Conductor of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra (2015–2018) and Principal Conductor of the La Rioja Symphony Orchestra (2018–2023). He is currently Deputy Director of External Relations and Professor of Analysis at Musikene.

He studied Orchestral Conducting at the Vienna Conservatory and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In London, he founded The European Sinfonia. He inaugurated the Compostela 93 program with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony alongside The London Philharmonic Choir, Obraztsova, and Ricciarelli. He has conducted at major venues such as the Palau de la Música in Barcelona and Valencia, the Arriaga Theatre and Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, the Kursaal and Victoria Eugenia Theatre in San Sebastián, the Teatro Principal in Córdoba, Baluarte in Pamplona, the Palacio de Festivales in Cantabria, the Auditorio de Santiago de Compostela, RiojaForum, and the Auditorio de Zaragoza, among others. Since 1988, he has conducted the Navarra Symphony Orchestra and the Basque National Orchestra. He has also conducted the Latvian Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Lublin Theatre Orchestra, and the Musikene Symphony Orchestra. He has toured Japan and Poland, where he also conducted an Anthology of Zarzuela in Lublin. He has conducted and recorded opera, zarzuela, and symphonic-choral music, with notable highlights including Les pêcheurs de perles and Die Entführung aus dem Serail. He recorded on DVD Hilarión Eslava’s Gran Miserere and Requiem Mass, and conducted the operatic version of Las Golondrinas by Usandizaga. He studied composition with González Acilu, Escudero, Marco, Darias, Halffter, and Sotelo. The Contemporary Music Foundation released a CD featuring his work Dos Bocetos. He received the INJUVE Composition Award in 1998 and 1999, the Pablo Sorozábal Prize for his String Quartet No. 2, and the XVIII Joaquín Turina Prize for his Requiem Sine Verbis. He was commissioned by the Center for the Dissemination of Contemporary Music (CDMC), where his piece Diálogos premiered at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. He won the XV Ciutat d’Alcoi Composition Prize (2000), and his works have premiered at the Quincena Musical and the Musikaste Festival. He also received commissions from the Fundación Autor. In 2019, his Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra—commissioned by the Navarra Symphony Orchestra (OSN)—was premiered. That same year, his opera D’Artagnan premiered, which he conducted himself, performed by the OSN and the Navarra Chamber Opera Company, who commissioned the work. He served as Associate Conductor of the Navarra Symphony Orchestra (2015–2018) and Principal Conductor of the La Rioja Symphony Orchestra (2018–2023). He is currently Deputy Director of External Relations and Professor of Analysis at Musikene.

ChatGPT Plus 🇬🇧 English Translation He holds a Degree in Guitar from the Federal University of Brazil with Daniel Wolff, a Degree in Composition from the Basque Country Higher Music Center – Musikene with Gabriel Erkoreka, and a Master’s in Composition from the Hochschule der Künste Bern with Georges Aperghis. He also completed the Cursus in Composition and Musical Informatics at IRCAM–Centre Pompidou in Paris. His training has been further enriched through academies such as Injuve, Cátedra Manuel de Falla, Impuls, Matrix, and Acanthes. As a composer with an intense creative activity, he has collaborated with renowned soloists and ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, MusikFabrik, Quatuor Diotima, Nieuw Ensemble, L’Itinéraire, Mosaik, Taller Sonoro, and orchestras including those of Bilbao, Euskadi, Lorraine (France), São Paulo, and Minas Gerais (Brazil), among others. His works have been performed in prestigious venues such as the Cité de la Musique–Philharmonie de Paris, Concertgebouw, Auditorio Reina Sofía, Auditorio Nacional de Madrid, Radio de Genève, Radio SWR-Freiburg, Espace de Projection–IRCAM, Opéra de Bordeaux, Suginame Koukaidou in Tokyo, Volksbühne in Berlin, Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna, and Wigmore Hall in London. He has received commissions from institutions including the Basque Government, French Government, Southern Region of Brazil, BBVA Foundation, SGAE Foundation, Phonos Foundation, KREA, Wigmore Hall, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Mosaik, Vortex, Taller Sonoro, and Nieuw Ensemble, among others. He has been awarded in more than thirty international composition competitions, including the Injuve Prize, New Forum Jeune Création, and the Georges Wildenstein Prize from the French Academy of Fine Arts. He has been composer-in-residence at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome (2010–2011), KulturKontakt Vienna – Austrian Ministry of Culture (2015), and French Academy in Madrid – Casa de Velázquez (2011–2012). He has also worked in residence at institutions such as GMEM Marseille, GRAME Lyon, Royaumont Foundation, and SCRIME Bordeaux.

He holds advanced degrees in Composition, Choral Conducting, and Orchestral Conducting. He obtained the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Orchestral Conducting from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and graduated as a Special Student in Orchestral Conducting from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. As a composer, he has received commissions from institutions such as the Government of Navarra, Generalitat Valenciana, CDMC, AIE, 36th International Horn Symposium, IVM, Fundación Autor – AEOS, Ministry of Culture, Festival Otoño Musical Soriano, Ópera de Cámara de Navarra, Orquesta ADDA·Simfònica, and Fundación Baluarte, among others. He has won numerous composition awards, including the International Competition of Tolosa (1988), Government of Navarra Awards (1992, 1998, 2001), BP International of Leipzig (1995), and Joaquín Turina Prize (1998), among others. Many of his works have been recorded, published, and performed by orchestras such as the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Murcia Symphony Orchestra, RTVE Orchestra, Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, KBS Symphony Orchestra of Korea, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra of Saint Petersburg, and ADDA·Simfònica Orchestra, among others. As a conductor, he has led the Navarra Symphony Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra, Orchestra of the Community of Madrid, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, and the Soloists of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Manhattan Contemporary Ensemble (1991–92), Assistant Conductor of the Spanish National Orchestra (1992–93), and Head of Studies at the “Reina Sofía” Superior School of Music (1993–94). Currently, he is the Director of the Band and Symphony Orchestra of the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Navarra, as well as of the Municipal Band of Pamplona, and continues to work as a composer and guest conductor with various ensembles and orchestras.

A native of Durango (Biscay) — a town that in 2006 awarded him the Durango Uria Prize for his outstanding contribution to the community. He completed advanced studies in piano and composition at the J. C. Arriaga Conservatory in Bilbao under the guidance of Juan Cordero and Rafael Castro, later expanding his knowledge through numerous courses with eminent musical figures. He has received various awards recognizing his work as a composer, including Et j’aime uniquement… (Tours-Cedex), Partita (Euskaran Festivals), Anne – String Quartet (Luis de Narváez, 5th Ed.), Sonatinne per Quintet de Metall (Salvador Seguí, 7th Ed.), and Aus steigender Flüssigkeit… (University of Zaragoza, 2nd Ed.), among others. His works have been premiered and performed at prestigious national and international festivals (Frankfurt, Cagliari, Madrid, Santander, Seville, Granada, etc.), and some have been recorded and released on CD for wider dissemination. Well-versed in electroacoustic music, he often seeks to transfer its rich timbral palette to conventional orchestral and chamber instruments. He is a co-founder of the “Bartolomé Ertzilla” Conservatory in Durango, where he has also served as a professor, combining teaching with activities such as music criticism, the editing of endangered manuscripts (notably Valentín de Zubiaurre’s Hymn-Cantata), and the management of musical and cultural programs, such as the “Durango Musical Fortnight” and the “In Crescendo” Association.

Gabriel Erkoreka was born in Bilbao. He studied in his hometown and later with Carmelo Bernaola in Vitoria, obtaining honors in Composition, Piano, and Chamber Music. In 1995, he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he pursued postgraduate studies in composition with Michael Finnissy, earning the RAM Diploma of Excellence (PGDip) and a Master’s degree with distinction from the University of London. His works have been performed at major international venues and festivals such as the Venice Biennale (2004), Musikverein in Vienna, South Bank Centre, ICA, Spitalfields Festival, and Wigmore Hall in London; at the ISCM World Music Days in Manchester (1998) and Hong Kong (2007); the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam; the Toru Takemitsu Festival in Tokyo; the Festival of New Music in Sydney; Symphony Space and New Paths in Music Festival (2007) in New York; Crown Hall in Chicago; Time of Music Festival in Finland; Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival; the Alicante International Festival, National Auditorium of Music in Madrid; and in cities such as Berlin, Buenos Aires, and Wellington. Erkoreka has received numerous composition awards, including the First Prize of the SGAE (1996), the Basque Government Award (1999), the Josiah Parker Prize, and several awards from the Royal Academy of Music. In 2001, he was awarded the Rome Prize, as well as the INAEM Composition Prize and the Prize of the Colegio de España in Paris. He was selected by RNE to represent Spain at the UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers and the 1998 Gaudeamus Music Week. More recently, he received the Queen Sofía Prize of the Ferrer-Salat Foundation. He has been commissioned by prestigious institutions such as INAEM, SGAE, Nieuw Ensemble (Amsterdam), Biennale für Neue Musik (Hanover), Royal Academy of Music Symphony Orchestra, Madrid Community Symphony Orchestra, Ministry of Culture, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra, San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, ENSEMS Festival (Valencia), and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (for its 10th anniversary). He was Composer-in-Residence with the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE) during the 2001–2002 season. In the same year, he was named an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), where he also taught orchestration. Erkoreka has given lectures at the 20th Century Music Festival of Bilbao, the CDMC’s Young Composers Meetings in Madrid, the Cervantes Institutes of London, Chicago, and Manchester, and the Estoril Festival. He currently lives in London and is a Professor of Composition at Musikene (Higher School of Music of the Basque Country).

ChatGPT Plus 🇬🇧 English Translation He was born in San Sebastián on August 13, 1912. He began his musical studies at the Municipal Academy and the Conservatory of San Sebastián, under the direction of Beltrán Pagola. He completed his composition studies in Madrid, where he studied with Conrado del Campo. With scholarships from the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, he perfected his composition and orchestral conducting in France and Germany, studying with masters such as Paul Dukas, Le Flem, and W. Wolf. In 1945, he was appointed music director of Santa Misericordia and conductor of the Sociedad Coral, both in Bilbao. Two years later, in 1947, he settled in San Sebastián, where he obtained the Chair of Harmony and Composition at the Municipal Conservatory. In 1962, he was named Director of the Conservatory, a position he held until 1981. He continued teaching harmony and composition until his retirement in 1983. His great pedagogical work was accompanied by a deep dedication to musical composition. He is the author of an important body of work that holds a transcendental place in the history of Basque music, characterized by a unique personal style and widespread recognition. Francisco Escudero passed away in Zarautz in 2002.

He is currently a Professor of Composition and Orchestration at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Aragon (CSMA). He has given lectures and courses at the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), the University of the Arts (Seoul), the Kunitachi College of Music (Tokyo), the Higher Conservatory of Navarra, and the Public University of Navarra. He combines his teaching activity with an intense creative career, collaborating with various artists such as the ensemble Neopercusión, accordionist Ander Tellería, oboist Pilar Fontalba, the Apellániz-Rosado duo, multimedia artist Patxi Araujo, and choreographer Bertha Bermúdez. He has worked for institutions including the BBVA Foundation, Li(Luo) Dance Company, André Malraux Cultural Center, Fundación Autor/AEOS, Pablo Sarasate Foundation, CNDM, Plural Ensemble, ORCAM, Quincena Musical, Gustavo de Maeztu Museum, Public University of Navarra, and for performers such as Norio Sato, Kimura Maya, Rody van Gemert, Rie Watanabe, Sigma Saxophone Quartet, and Ensemble Laboratorium, among others. He received the Award for Best European Work at the International Computer Music Conference, and was a finalist at the Transitio International Festival of Electronic Art (Mexico). His works have been featured at major festivals such as Time of Music, World Saxophone Congress, Puentes, Argentine Contemporary Music Days, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Résonnances, Festival d’Art Lyrique d’Aix-en-Provence, Punto de Encuentro, Son (Música de Hoy), Musikaste, Basque Contemporary Music Circuit, Alicante International Festival, and in venues such as Tokyo Opera City, Kunitachi College of Music, IRCAM, La Croix du Nord (Paris), Cervantes Institutes (Paris, Tokyo), National Auditorium of Madrid, Auditorio 400, and Teatros del Canal, among others. His research work includes collaborations with IRCAM and the Kunitachi College of Music (Tokyo), as well as a Mobility Grant from the Madrid City Council (2008). He is also a member of the artistic collective E72, with which he organizes the “After Cage” Experimental Music Festival. He studied Composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, the Higher Conservatory of Music of Aragon, IRCAM (Cursus of Composition and Computer Music), Royaumont-Voix Nouvelles Foundation, Centre Acanthes, Veruela, Szombathely (Hungary), and the Composition Academy of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (France). He also holds a Research Proficiency Certification from the Public University of Navarra, specializing in Music Pedagogy.

Jon Esnaola (San Sebastián, 2000) studied at the Francisco Escudero Professional Conservatory of Music, and in 2021 he entered Musikene – Higher Center of Music of the Basque Country, where he studied composition with Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramon Lazkano, and Zuriñe Gerenabarrena. In 2019, he won the Young Musicians of the Basque Country First Prize in both Percussion and Chamber Ensemble categories; in 2021, he received the First Prize in Composition at the same competition. Later, in 2023, he was awarded the Italy Percussive Art Society Prize, and in 2024, he received the Teatro de la Zarzuela Composition Prize in Madrid. His works have been performed at the Bernaola Cycle, Kuraia Cycle, After Cage Festival, the XV Basque Contemporary Music Circuit (Musikagileak), the Euskalduna Palace, the Teatro de la Zarzuela (Madrid), the Nightingale Concert Hall (Reno), the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vigo, the Oteiza Museum, and the Chillida Leku Museum, among others. He has collaborated with the Cuarteto Iberia, Ensemble Kuraia, the Bilbao Symphonic Band, and the Orfeón Donostiarra, among other ensembles.

Iñaki Estrada Torío was born in San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa) in 1977. He began his general musical studies in San Sebastián, focusing on piano, harmony, counterpoint, and fugue. Later, he moved to Bayonne (France), where he studied writing, analysis, and orchestration, continuing his education in Paris under José Luis Campana, with whom he studied Composition and Analysis both at the École Nationale de Musique d’Aulnay-sous-Bois and privately. At the same time, he enrolled at the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt, where he pursued studies in Composition and Orchestration. Admitted unanimously to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, he completed his Composition studies under Frédéric Durieux. In 2002, he toured Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile as a guest of Ensemble Arcema, who also invited him to give lectures at the Universities of Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile. Estrada has attended numerous courses with composers such as Michael Jarrell, Mauricio Kagel, Emmanuel Nunes, Marco Stroppa, and Alessandro Solbiati, among others. A grant recipient from the Ministry of Culture, and a former La Caixa Foundation scholar, he was also awarded by the Colegio de España in Paris–INAEM, where he composed Kiral, a work for guitar, cello, and electronics, as part of the IRCAM–Centre Georges Pompidou Annual Composition Cursus. The piece was performed by Bertrand Chavarría and Eric Maria Couturier, with Grégoire Lorieux as the musical assistant. His music has been performed by renowned international soloists such as Clara Novakova, Eric Maria Couturier, Alberto Rosado, Bertrand Chavarría, André Cazalet, and Dimitri Vassilakis, as well as by prestigious ensembles like Plural Ensemble, Itinéraire, Smash, and Krater Ensemble, among others. His works have been performed across Latin America, France, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, and are published by Nuova Edizioni Stradivarius (Milan). He was also a resident artist at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome (2009–2010), supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Currently, Estrada maintains an active career as a composer—of both instrumental and electronic music—and serves as a professor at the Higher Conservatory of Music of Salamanca.

Born in Pamplona, he began his musical training in Bilbao, studying piano and viola. He holds advanced degrees in Musicology (University of Salamanca), Music Theory and Music Pedagogy (Conservatorio Superior de Música de Salamanca), and Composition (Conservatorio Superior del Liceu and Pompeu Fabra University). He earned a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Musicology from the University of the Basque Country and pursued doctoral studies at Royal Holloway, University of London. He studied composition with María Eugenia Luc and Benet Casablancas, and participated in courses with composers such as A. Charles, M. Sotelo, L. Balada, C. Camarero, G. Brnic, J.A. Amargós, C. Halffter, I. Fedele, M. Finnissy, H. Birtwistle, H. Lachenmann, G.F. Haas, and B. Ferneyhough. His music has been performed in venues and theatres across the Basque Country, Spain, Portugal, the United States, Peru, and Brazil. He has also collaborated as composer and musical director with the theatre company Kabia-Gaitzerdi (Bilbao), winners of the Larruz Revelation Award for Performing Arts (2011), the II Certamen de Nuevos Investigadores Teatrales Award, the Ercilla Award 2010 for Best Basque Production, and nominated for the Premio Max Revelation (2011). As a musicologist, his research and publications focus on topics related to the Basque Country and Ecuador. In the latter, he coordinated between 2010 and 2015 the applied ethnomusicology project Ñukanchikka kikin tunukunata takikunatapishmi charinchik. Since the 2008–2009 academic year, he has been a professor at Musikene, the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country.

She studied music at the National University of Rosario (Argentina, 1978-1984), the L.I.P.M. (Laboratory for Musical Research and Production of Buenos Aires – Argentina, 1987-1990), the Civica Scuola di Musica Contemporanea di Milano (Italy, 1991-1993), the École Nationale de Musique d'Aulnays-sous-Bois (France, 1995-1998), the University of Paris 8 (France, 1998-2002), and the University of the Basque Country (2005-2009). She received scholarships for international courses at the Musikinstitut Darmstadt (Germany), the Accademia Chigiana di Siena (Italy), Música en Compostela (Spain), and the Manuel de Falla Institute (Spain), among others. Her works have been awarded prizes by the Istituto IILA in Rome (Italy) and the I.M.E.B. Her works, presented by the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM), Ars Contemporanea (Argentina), the Basque Government's Department of Culture, and the SGAE International Electroacoustic Music Prize, have been premiered in Europe, Asia, and the Americas by prominent soloists, groups, and orchestras. A former professor at the Buenos Aires Higher Conservatory, National University of Buenos Aires, and at the G. Verdi Conservatory of Milan, she also collaborated with the Ricordi Milano publishing house. Currently, she teaches at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country and at MUSIKENE, the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country. María Eugenia Luc regularly gives courses, seminars, and lectures, invited by various institutions: LIEM - CDMC, EHME Congress, Art and Technology Congress of the University of Salamanca, Confluencias Festival Symposium (Huelva), Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Tarragona City Council, University of the Basque Country, Basque Government, Provincial Council of Biscay, Municipality of Milan (Italy), the Secretariat of Culture of Argentina, Collegium Musicum, and the Buenos Aires Higher Conservatory of Music (Argentina). She was President of KURAIA (Bilbao Contemporary Music Group) from its founding in 1997 until 2000. Since 2001, she has been the Artistic Director of KLEM (KURAIA Electroacoustic and Multimedia Laboratory), where she carries out extensive research, training, and dissemination of new trends in sound art and interdisciplinary creation.

He began his musical training at a very young age under the guidance of his father and Manuel Celdrán. In Vitoria, he studied Harmony and Composition with Carmelo Bernaola, in Bilbao with Juan Cordero, in Siena (Italy) with Franco Donatoni, and in Madrid completed his higher studies in Composition with Antón García Abril and in Orchestral Conducting with Enrique García Asensio. He also studied Clarinet and Piano. His works have been performed in national programs (Basque National Orchestra, Chamber Music Series of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Contemporary Music Festivals, San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, Musikaste, and the Bands of Bilbao, Vitoria, and Pamplona) and internationally (Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Instituto Cervantes and Royal Academy of Music in London, Manchester, A Tempo Festival in Venezuela, Conservatories of China, Bath Spa University, among others). Some of his works have been recorded and broadcast by various radio stations: RNE Clásica, EITB (radio and TV), Radio Brno, Radio Hong Kong, Radio Portugal, and Radio Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid. He has 17 CDs released as a composer, arranger, or conductor. He has received several commissions and awards for musical creation, including: Caja de Álava Composition Prize Jesús Guridi Prize International Chamber Music Prize for Saxophone “Yamaha Grand Prize” (Madrid) Special Mention from the Jury of the International Jewish Committee for Musical Creation (Los Angeles, USA) Basque Government Prize for Musical Creation (1999, 25th Anniversary of ERESBIL) City of Durango Prize for Chamber Music for Txistu (organized by Berzistu) Kanta Berri Association Awards (Bayonne, France) He received grants from the Basque Government from 1998 to 2008. His work as an arranger also stands out, covering styles ranging from classical to pop and folk. He was Professor of Harmony and Conductor of the Orchestra at the Bilbao Higher Conservatory of Music, teaching and giving courses in other conservatories, music schools, and universities (University of Deusto and the University of the Basque Country, where he gave lectures on works performed by the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra). He was President of the Basque-Navarre Association of Composers and took part in the creation of the KURAIA Music Association. He is currently the Principal Conductor (by public competition) of the Vitoria Municipal Band, where he carries out important work in musical dissemination.

He began his musical training at a very young age under the guidance of his father and Manuel Celdrán. In Vitoria, he studied Harmony and Composition with Carmelo Bernaola, in Bilbao with Juan Cordero, in Siena (Italy) with Franco Donatoni, and in Madrid completed his higher studies in Composition with Antón García Abril and in Orchestral Conducting with Enrique García Asensio. He also studied Clarinet and Piano. His works have been performed in national programs (Basque National Orchestra, Chamber Music Series of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Contemporary Music Festivals, San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, Musikaste, and the Bands of Bilbao, Vitoria, and Pamplona) and internationally (Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, Instituto Cervantes and Royal Academy of Music in London, Manchester, A Tempo Festival in Venezuela, Conservatories of China, Bath Spa University, among others). Some of his works have been recorded and broadcast by various radio stations: RNE Clásica, EITB (radio and TV), Radio Brno, Radio Hong Kong, Radio Portugal, and Radio Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid. He has 17 CDs released as a composer, arranger, or conductor. He has received several commissions and awards for musical creation, including: Caja de Álava Composition Prize Jesús Guridi Prize International Chamber Music Prize for Saxophone “Yamaha Grand Prize” (Madrid) Special Mention from the Jury of the International Jewish Committee for Musical Creation (Los Angeles, USA) Basque Government Prize for Musical Creation (1999, 25th Anniversary of ERESBIL) City of Durango Prize for Chamber Music for Txistu (organized by Berzistu) Kanta Berri Association Awards (Bayonne, France) He received grants from the Basque Government from 1998 to 2008. His work as an arranger also stands out, covering styles ranging from classical to pop and folk. He was Professor of Harmony and Conductor of the Orchestra at the Bilbao Higher Conservatory of Music, teaching and giving courses in other conservatories, music schools, and universities (University of Deusto and the University of the Basque Country, where he gave lectures on works performed by the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra). He was President of the Basque-Navarre Association of Composers and took part in the creation of the KURAIA Music Association. He is currently the Principal Conductor (by public competition) of the Vitoria Municipal Band, where he carries out important work in musical dissemination.

Guitarist and composer. He is graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston (EE.UU.) where he got a scholarship and studied with Hal Crook, Jerry Bergonzi and Mick Goodrick among others. He successfully completed a master´s degree program at Queens College (CUNY) and classical guitar degree at Isaac Albeniz Conservatory in Girona. He studied in Holland –Rotterdams Conservatorium and Hilversums Conservatorium– and International Master Classes with Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson and Bruce Forman among others-. Pablo has been playing all over the world: Forum Cultural Mundial in Sao Paulo (Brazil), International Jazz Festival in Lugo (Spain), Langnau Jazz Nights (Switzerland) and Oscar niemeyer Museum in Curitiba (Brazil). As a leader he has released 4 albums: Batzen gaituena, D´aqui pra la, with Brazilian percussionist Naná vasconcelos, O Amor and Standards. He has collaborated in others albums like Spainphonic with euphonium player Juan Jose Munera. He has composed music for soundtracks (Carmo, La Estrella), documentaries (Sua zerutik dator, 5 pueblos patrimonio vivo) and music for theatre (Ping Pang). Currently, he is working in his next album Nire gitartxoari with guitarist Jean Marie Ecay which will be released in December 2022.

Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena studied composition with Carmelo Bernaola at the Jesús Guridi Conservatory in Vitoria-Gasteiz and with Franco Donatoni at the Scuola Civica di Milano. Gerenabarrena has written works for orchestra, ensemble, theater, dance, acousmatic music, sound installations, and multidisciplinary performances. Her works have been featured at numerous international festivals and forums, including Musikaste, Fundación BBVA Contemporary Music Festival, Quincena Musical, Bernaola Festival, PHONOS, Festival Synthèse, Sonoimágenes, Visiones Sonoras, EMU Festival, Elektrophonie, Musica Viva, Borealis, Musiques & Recherches, eviMus, Down the Dori (TWS Tokyo), EAM Festen Frost, ICMC 2015, Musica Electric Nova, MUSLAB, NYCEMF 2017 (New York), BIFEM 2017 (Australia), TONBAND (Stockholm), DME5 (Lisbon), Noh X Contemporary Music (Japan), SICMF 2018 (Seoul), Matera/Intermedia 2018 (Acousmatic Prize), Musica Nova 2018 (Honorable Mention), San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Mise-En Music Festival 2019 (New York), ICMC/NYCEM 2019 (New York), Atemporánea Festival (Buenos Aires), Helicotrema Festival (Venice), Ecos Urbanos (2019), UACH (Chile), arteScienza (Rome), MUSICA (Strasbourg), SAMPO (residency award), The Sound Beanch (Udine-Stockholm Prize), Tama Music Festival (Japan), Turn-Up Multimedia Festival (Arizona), CentroCentro Auditorium (Madrid), Journées Art & Science (Saint-Étienne), Suono in Mostra (Topple and Moggio Udinese), Epicentros Festival (St. Petersburg), En Chair et En Son Festival (Paris), Musique Démesurées Festival (Clermont-Ferrand), Sonorities (Belfast), MediSoup (Cyprus), OCAZEnigma, NAK Festival, Humboldt Freiburger Hof, and the New Music Memory Festival (Argentina). Her works are published by Avantus and Tritó. She has served as a jury member for various composition competitions and has given lectures about her work at institutions such as the University of the Basque Country (UPV), Bilbao Higher Conservatory, Complutense University of Madrid, University of Oviedo, Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has been an artist-in-residence at NOTAM (Oslo), EMS (Stockholm), ZHdK-ICST (Zurich), Shiro-Oni (Japan), Tokyo Wonder Site (Tokyo), Studio Alpha, VICC (Visby), USF/Verfet (Bergen), and LEC (Lisbon). Currently, she is Professor of Counterpoint, Harmony, Fundamentals of Electronics, and Electronic Composition in the Master’s Degree in Contemporary Music Creation at MUSIKENE (Higher Conservatory of Music of the Basque Country).

Accordionist, composer, and teacher. He studied with Francisco Escudero and Carlos Iturralde, as well as Claude Ballif and Max Bonnay in Paris, where he received First Prizes with unanimous jury congratulations in both accordion and composition. He also studied with Ib Norholm and Mogens Ellegaard at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen. As a performer, he has stood out in both contemporary music (as a soloist and chamber musician) and traditional and folk music, having released numerous recordings in both fields. In the creative field, he has worked mainly for television, theatre, and cinema. He is currently a professor of Chamber Music, Transcription, and Traditional Accordion Improvisation at Musikene, the Higher Centre of Music of the Basque Country. In 2011, he embarked on a new path as a composer under the pseudonym Johanne Altzürükü, returning to a contemporary aesthetic based on his experiences and reflections of recent years, in which nature serves as the central axis and core of his work.Accordionist, composer, and teacher. He studied with Francisco Escudero and Carlos Iturralde, as well as Claude Ballif and Max Bonnay in Paris, where he received First Prizes with unanimous jury congratulations in both accordion and composition. He also studied with Ib Norholm and Mogens Ellegaard at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen. As a performer, he has stood out in both contemporary music (as a soloist and chamber musician) and traditional and folk music, having released numerous recordings in both fields. In the creative field, he has worked mainly for television, theatre, and cinema. He is currently a professor of Chamber Music, Transcription, and Traditional Accordion Improvisation at Musikene, the Higher Centre of Music of the Basque Country. In 2011, he embarked on a new path as a composer under the pseudonym Johanne Altzürükü, returning to a contemporary aesthetic based on his experiences and reflections of recent years, in which nature serves as the central axis and core of his work.

Born in Oyarzun (Gipuzkoa) in 1964, she began her musical studies at the San Sebastián Municipal Superior Conservatory of Music, where she completed advanced studies in piano and chamber music with J. Padrosa. At the same time, she studied harmony with F. Escudero and J. L. Marco, completing her advanced composition studies at the Navarra Superior Conservatory of Music “Pablo Sarasate” with P. de Felipe. She holds a degree in History from the UNED and is dedicated to music pedagogy as a teacher of Harmony, Piano, Chamber Music, and Choir Ensemble at the San Sebastián Center for Musical Studies.

Born in Bilbao, he began his musical studies there. Between 1999 and 2002, he completed advanced piano studies at the Vitoria Conservatory under Albert Nieto and began studying composition privately with Maria Eugenia Luc. He later moved to Amsterdam, where he studied composition with Wim Henderickx as his principal teacher, also taking regular lessons from other composers (Richard Rijnvos, Cecilia Arditto). In 2007, he was admitted to the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) to develop his master’s project, which focuses on researching various approaches to integrating extra-musical elements into musical discourse. At UdK, he studied mainly with Elena Mendoza. He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including a DAAD scholarship, a second prize at the Hanns-Eisler Preis, and a scholarship from the Vizcaya provincial council to fund his studies in Amsterdam. He has collaborated with various ensembles in Europe and the USA (Kuraia Ensemble, Adapter Ensemble, Argento Ensemble, QNG Berlin) and has received commissions from festivals and associations (Munich Biennale of Musical Theater 2012, Alicante Festival 2011, Boekman Stichting - Amsterdam, among others). In recent years, he has been invited to give lectures and workshops regularly at international conferences and schools on music in an interdisciplinary context, as well as to present his works (Music and Media 2010 – Humboldt University, Berlin; Electronic Visualization and the Arts – EVA 2011, London; Computer Music Modeling and Retrieval – CMMR 2012, London). As a performer, he regularly acts as a pianist in musical theater productions throughout Europe (Teatro Real, Schauspielhaus Zürich, HAU Berlin, Wiener Festwochen) and with the musico-theatrical ensemble Die Ordnung der Dinge, of which he is a co-founder.

Born in Vera de Bidasoa in 1924, he was a student of the organist Alfonso Ugarte and continued his musical studies with Antonio Parra in Madrid and Giuseppe Cianfriglia in Rome. At the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, he also studied with Higinio Anglés and E. Cardinne. Returning to Pamplona, he continued studying composition with Fernando Remacha and organ with Luis Taberna. He also attended courses at Darmstadt and the Chigiana Academy in Siena. In 1964, he founded the Niños Cantores de Navarra choir school, which has won various awards, and whose trebles have performed the role of Trujamán in El retablo de maese Pedro by M. de Falla in national and international theaters. In 1989, coinciding with the fifteenth anniversary of the choir school, he founded the Coral Liguori with former choristers, of which he is also the director. Most of his works remain unpublished and are preserved in the archives of the Redemptorist Fathers’ convent in Pamplona.

Composer and guitarist, he began his musical training in guitar with Miguel Bobo de la Peña at the Conservatorio Superior del Principado de Asturias, where he also studied composition with Manuel Martínez Burgos. He later completed the Master's Degree in Contemporary Music Creation at Musikene, Basque Country, under the guidance of Ramón Lazkano. He has received lessons and masterclasses from renowned composers such as Georges Aperghis, Toshio Hosokawa, George Benjamin, Sarah Nemtsov, Francesca Verunelli, Michael Jarrell, Dieter Ammann, Patricia Alessandrini, Alberto Posadas, José María Sánchez-Verdú, Mauricio Sotelo, among others. In 2024, he was awarded the "Prix de Composition de l'Académie Ravel," which included a commission for the 2025 Ravel Festival. That same year, he received an honorable mention at the "II Premio de Composición Fundación SGAE Euskadi 2024" and won various competitions, such as the "II and III Composition Competition of the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Principado de Asturias" (2019 and 2020) and the "Young Composers Chamber Music Competition" in Guadalajara (2016). His music has been performed in cities such as Chicago, South Bend (Indiana), Lucerne (Switzerland), San Sebastián, Barcelona, Valencia, and Oviedo by prominent ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ascolta Ensemble, Duo Santorsa-Pereyra, Quartet Gerhard, and Ensemble Concept/21. In 2022, he participated in the Festival Ensems (Valencia), where his work was performed by the Joven Orquesta de la Generalitat Valenciana under the direction of Isabel Mundry, with Georges Aperghis as mentor. Additionally, he has collaborated with sculptor Tadanori Yamaguchi and the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático del Principado de Asturias. In 2024, he was a resident at the Académie Ravel (Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France), working under the guidance of Michael Jarrell and Ramón Lazkano. He was also selected as a composer-in-residence for the Mixtur Festival in Barcelona, where he received lessons from Chaya Czernowin. In 2025, he participated at the Hochschule Luzern (HSLU) as a composer, collaborating with the Dissolution Ensemble.

Born in Balmaseda (Bizkaia), he began his musical studies at the age of seven in his hometown with Ana Suárez, later continuing at the Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga Conservatory in Bilbao. He studied piano with Ana Aranguren, chamber music with Malcolm Wright, and composition with Julio Lanuza. His training was further enriched by brief but fruitful contact with composers such as José Manuel López López, Beat Furrer, Isabel Mundry, César Camarero, Toshio Hosokawa, and Horacio Vaggione, as well as musicologists like Laurent Feneyrou and Vincenzo Restagno. His catalog ranges from solo works and diverse chamber ensembles to orchestral compositions and music for dance performances. Alongside his musical studies, he earned a degree in Geography and History, specializing in the History of Spain and the Basque Country at the University of Deusto (Bilbao). Thanks to the “Jean Monet” Chair, he also studied Contemporary European History for one academic year. He has published Crónicas de un oyente (2010) with the CELYA publishing house.

Born in Bilbao in 1969, she obtained Higher Degrees in Piano; Solfège, Music Theory, Transposition and Accompaniment; Music Pedagogy; and Harmony, Counterpoint, Composition, and Instrumentation, at the “Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga” Conservatory in Bilbao and the “Jesús Guridi” Conservatory in Vitoria-Gasteiz. At the latter, she studied Composition with Antonio Lauzurika, Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena, and Alfonso García de la Torre. At the same time, she expanded her training in Composition, Orchestration, and Musical Analysis through various seminars, courses, and composition meetings with internationally renowned figures such as G. Crumb, S. Sciarrino, B. Ferneyhough, J. Harvey, S. Adler, C. Halffter, M. Sotelo, T. Hosokawa, M. Lavista, J.M. López López, B. Furrer, R. Lazkano, Ph. Hurel, and T. Murail, among others. In the teaching field, since 1990 she has worked as a teacher at the “María Bartau” School of Music in Castro Urdiales (Cantabria), the C.E.M. “Juan Antxieta” in Bilbao, and the “Jesús Guridi” Conservatory in Vitoria-Gasteiz, teaching various subjects (Musical Initiation, Piano, Instrumental Practice, Solfège and Music Theory, Accompaniment, Harmony, Analysis, and Fundamentals of Composition), also working as a piano accompanist and occasionally serving as Head of Department. She receives composition commissions from various performers and ensembles, and her music has been performed in different countries and contemporary music festivals, including the “Bernaola International Festival” (currently "Bernaola Zikloa"), “Cycle of New Trends in Contemporary Music,” “Electroacoustic Music Days,” “Música con Clase” educational concert cycle, “Ciclo de Cámara del Principal” (Vitoria-Gasteiz); “Miércoles Musicales” (Monterrey, Mexico); “Festival Zinderend Laag” (Amsterdam, Netherlands); “Muziekbiennale-Konzert” (Kleve, Germany); “II Temporada FAIC” (Bilbao); “Projecte Rafel Festival” (Rafelbunyol); “Matinées de Miramón” OSE cycle (San Sebastián); “TopARTE” program at the Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao); “Festival Percursos da Música” (Ponte de Lima, Portugal); “Musikagileak Contemporary Music Cycle” (Basque Country); “Contemporary Music Cycle” of Badajoz; “Musica Randagia” concert season (Milan, Italy), among others. Performers of her works include Ainhoa Miranda (bass clarinet), Albert Nieto (piano), Lorena Paz Nieto (soprano), Juan Manuel Flores (violin), Roberto Casado (flute), Santa Lucía Guitar Quartet (Monterrey, Mexico), Ciklus Ensemble (Basque Country), Jesús Guridi Instrumental Group and Ensemble Sinkro (Vitoria-Gasteiz), Musikusvie Ensemble (Amsterdam), H.E.C. Quartet of the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra, and the Colectivo “Cuarto de Tono.” She regularly receives creation incentives from the SGAE Foundation, as well as music composition grants from the Department of Culture of the Basque Government. In 2018, her work Arrhythmic Signal for violin was selected as a semifinalist and best work from Spain in the third edition of the “Maurice Ravel” International Composition Competition, in the "Live Small Groups" category. She has served as a juror in several composition competitions: XXXIV “Young Composers Prize” SGAE-CNDM Foundation 2023 and the Basque Country Young Musicians Competition (editions XV, XVI, and XVII). Currently, she is a tenured professor at the “Jesús Guridi” Conservatory in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where she teaches Music Theory and Aural Skills.

Juan Sarmiento (Valladolid, 2002). He began his musical studies in Fundamentals of Composition with Ana Mª López Encinas in his hometown, and would go on to study with Gabriel Erkoreka, Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena and Ramon Lazkano at Musikene - Higher School of Music of the Basque Country. He graduated with honors from this institution in 2024. That same year, he persues his Master’s degree at the Kunstuniversität Graz, where he studies under Franck Bedrossian. His music has been performed in scenes such as the Festival de Música Española de Cádiz, the Tage der neuen Klaviermusik Graz and the Impuls Festival (Graz); as well as in venues such as the Institut supérieur des arts et du design de Toulose, Conservatoire de Versailles Grand Parc, the Haus für Musik und Musiktheater of Graz or San Sebastián’s Tabakalera. He has taken part in academies and courses such as those of the Escuela Internacional de Música Fundación Princesa de Asturias (2018 - 2019), Cátedra Manuel de Falla (2022) or Impuls (2023). He has attended masterclasses and composition courses under renowned personalities in the likes of Beat Furrer, Helmut Lachenmann, Clara Ianotta, George Benjamin, Francesco Filidei, Mark André, Pierluigi Billone, Alberto Posadas, Hèctor Parra and Clemens Gadenstätter. In 2022, he is awarded the SGAE Foundation Scholarship. In 2023, he earns the jury’s prize at the Zweiten Tage der Neuen Klaviermusik contest, for his piano piece Lindar algo con otro.

Born in Córdoba, Spain, in 1998, Manuel Hidalgo began his musical studies as a violist at the conservatory in his hometown. He began his composition studies with Oscar Prados Sillero and subsequently with Gabriel Erkoreka and Ramón Lazkano at Musikene (the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country). He is currently continuing his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Gérard Pesson and in the New Technologies class of Yan Maresz and Luis Naon. Interested in the dialogue between the arts, particularly the connection and exchange between sound and image—painting and sculpture—Manuel Hidalgo frequently works with visual references, thus developing a reflection on intertextuality, silence, and the relief of sound. Awarded a grant by the SGAE Foundation (General Society of Authors and Publishers of Spain) and a prize winner in the “Francisco Escuerdo” accordion composition competition, Manuel Hidalgo has received guidance from composers such as Peter Eötvös, Alberto Posadas, Stefano Gervasoni, Michael Jarrell, Hèctor Parra, Francesco Filidei, and Raphaël Cendo. He has participated in the Voix Nouvelles Academy – Royaumont Foundation, as well as the Diotima Quartet Academy; and has collaborated with groups such as Ensemble Recherche, MusikFabrik, the Picardy Orchestra, Ensemble Divertimento – as part of “Rondo in Monferrato” – and the Belinfante Quartet. In 2019, the Kamerata Musikene, under the direction of Gabriella de Esteban, premiered his chamber opera "Blood and Stone."

Born in Oñati into a family with a musical tradition, he received his early musical training from his father (solfège and harmony). Alongside his studies in Philosophy and Theology, he pursued composition, earning diplomas in piano and composition from the Conservatories of San Sebastián and Bilbao. In Paris, where he has lived since 1970, he studied under Max Deutsch, Henri Dutilleux, and Maurice Ohana. He also began exploring electroacoustic music at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). Among the awards he has received are the “Oscar Esplá,” “Lili Boulanger,” and “Jeune Compositeur” prizes from SACEM (the French Society of Authors and Composers), and the “Lili et Nadia Boulanger” prize from the French Academy. His close relationship with composers Maurice Ohana and Francisco Guerrero has been pivotal in his life, both musically and personally. His abundant and varied work, in which orchestral and vocal music prevails, is performed by the most prestigious groups and performers.

Ángel Illarramendi Larrañaga was born in Zarautz (Guipúzcoa) in April 1958. At the age of six, he began his musical journey, singing at various festivals in the Basque Country under the tutelage of Manolo Urbieta. From the age of eleven, he composed his first songs, teaching himself to play the guitar. Meanwhile, he studied solfège and piano with María Bárbara Aranguren, while also completing his secondary education. At sixteen, he began studying harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and composition with Francisco Escudero at the San Sebastián Higher Conservatory of Music. In 1978, he recorded his first album, which included songs as well as his first instrumental pieces. To promote the album, he gave several concerts, most notably the one in San Sebastián's Plaza de la Trinidad, which featured a string quartet in the accompanying ensemble. In 1981, after completing his musical studies, he began a brief but fruitful collaboration as a teacher and composer at the newly established Basque School of Theatre "Antzerti." He wrote the music for several stage productions, as well as his first film scores and concert works, while also teaching harmony at various music schools. In the 1990s, he left teaching to dedicate himself entirely to composing both concert and film music. His eight symphonies, his "Concerto for Clarinet, Piano, Viola, and Orchestra," his symphonic poems "Smiling Space" and "Zarautz," his suite "A Recent Story," his "Mass" for four mixed voices and organ, and his chamber opera "Women's Shoes" comprise a significant portion of his concert works, not including his chamber music. As a film composer, he has worked with various directors and producers, most notably his close collaboration with producer Elías Querejeta. Among the various recognitions he has received, the following awards and nominations stand out: the Circle of Cinematographic Writers (C.E.C.) Award, the "El Mundo del País Vasco" Award, and a 1996 Goya nomination for Best Original Score for "El Último Viaje de Robert Rylands" directed by Gracia Querejeta; nominations for the 1999 C.E.C. and Goya awards for the film "Cuando Vuelvas a mi Lado" directed by Gracia Querejeta; a 2001 C.E.C. Award nomination for the film "Aunque tú no lo Sepas" directed by Juan Vicente Córdoba; a 2002 Cóndor Award nomination (Argentina) for the film "El Hijo de la Novia" directed by Juan José Campanella (an Oscar-nominated film); and the 2003 Teledonosti Award for his professional career. Clarín Espectáculos Award Nomination 2004 (Argentina) for "Luna de Avellaneda" directed by Juan José Campanella; C.E.C. Award 2005 (Circle of Cinematographic Writers) for "Héctor" directed by Gracia Querejeta; Goya Award Nomination 2005 for the film "Héctor" directed by Gracia Querejeta; Cóndor Award Nomination 2005 (Argentina) for the film "Luna de Avellaneda" directed by Juan José Campanella; The album of the "7th Symphony" receives the CD Compact Award 2009 for best Spanish music album of the year; The 14th Toulouse Film Festival awards it the prize for best soundtrack for the music of the film "La Buena Nueva" (adaptation of the 7th Symphony) in October 2009; 2011 - Award for best author of classical music for the work 3rd Symphony - Harri Zuria, awarded by the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Music.

Born in Pasaia (Gipuzkoa), he studied txistu (a Basque flute), piano, and cello. He studied composition with Francisco Escudero in San Sebastián and completed his studies in Composition and Electroacoustics in Madrid with Antón García Abril and Z. de la Cruz. He attended courses in Composition and Musical Analysis with F. Donatoni, C. Halffter, C. Bernaola, and G. Grisey. He studied Orchestral Conducting with G. Nieto. He received the End-of-Studies Composition Prize in 1997, as well as the Flora Prieto, Guerrero, and José Mª González Bastida Composition Prizes. He is a professor at the Pasaia Musical Conservatory. In 1996, he founded the Pasaia Music Computing Laboratory (LIMPA). He founded and conducts the Pasaia Musikal Chamber Orchestra and the Youth Orchestra of the Association of Music Schools of the Basque Country.

Eneko Lacalle is a Basque composer based in Berlin, currently studying composition at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Elena Mendoza. Trained in piano and composition at the Francisco Escudero Conservatory and at ESMUC, his work is focused on contemporary music and interdisciplinary collaboration. His music has been presented in international contexts such as the Gaudeamus Muziekweek, the ULYSSES Journeys program, and through collaborations with ensembles including Trio Catch and Spółdzielnia Muzyczna. He has received commissions from institutions such as Ibermúsica and has taken part in artistic residencies like the collaboration between the Centre Dürrenmatt Neuchâtel and the UdK. With a strong interest in linguistics and its structural application to music, his practice combines conceptual research and sound creation.

Born in Rentería in 1963, he studied composition at the Conservatories of San Sebastián and Pamplona. He furthered his knowledge of contemporary composition with J. Soler, C. Bernaola, C. Halffter, J. Villa-Rojo, L. Nono, G. Manzoni, and others, but especially with Ramón Barce and Agustín González Acilu. He was a founding member of Iruñako taldea – Grupo de Pamplona, ​​created in 1985 by five composers with similar ethical and aesthetic positions. In 1992, he graduated with a degree in architecture. He has worked as a music journalist for print and television, writing for newspapers and magazines such as Creación and Revista de Occidente. For this work, he received the Ritmo and Valls Gorina awards. He has been the director of the Ars Incognita record collection and the editor of the contemporary music yearbook Cuadernos de Veruela. A multifaceted individual, he was a professor of Music History and Art History at the conservatories of Tarazona and Cáceres and a teaching advisor for the Department of Education of the Government of Navarre. As a composer and essayist, he maintained a critical stance toward the avant-garde movements of the 1960s and 70s. He adopted categories borrowed from art and architectural criticism, applying the notion of postmodernism to composition. He composed approximately 15 works, some of which were performed in the 1980s and 90s at virtually every major contemporary music festival in Spain, as well as abroad. Since 1998, as a result of his reflection on the role of music in contemporary society, he has not composed any new works. Between 1995 and 2000, he was Head of Cultural Activities at the Cervantes Institute in Rome, and between 2000 and 2004, he was a Music and Performing Arts Technician at the Institute's headquarters in Madrid. Since 2004, she has directed the Center for Performing Arts Technology (INAEM). In recent years, she has broadened her interests to include the performing arts, writing dance criticism for Por la Danza and theater criticism for the Madrid Leisure Guide, as well as designing the sound design for several theatrical productions.

A self-taught composer from Bilbao, he was a music critic for "El Correo Español, El Pueblo Vasco" from 1960 to 1971, roughly the same period during which he pursued his literary career. His work has two distinct aspects: contemporary music, characterized by a concern for capturing the essence of Basque folk music in many of his scores, and traditional music, which, while contrasting with the former, is justified by the two distinct paths he explores.

His training is closely linked to the “Jesús Guridi” Conservatory in Vitoria-Gasteiz, where he studied composition with Carmelo Bernaola and Antonio Lauzurika, and electroacoustic composition with Alfonso García de la Torre. He furthered his studies with Salvatore Sciarrino, Mauricio Sotelo, Luis de Pablo, Ramón González Arroyo, and as a jazz pianist with Iñaki Salvador. He has undertaken numerous creative projects: composition, improvisation, installations, experimental music, dance, painting, and performance. He receives composition commissions for the Alicante International Festival of Contemporary Music, the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, Ensems in Valencia, the Bernaola Festival, and from institutions such as the INAEM (National Institute of Performing Arts and Music), CDMC (Center for the Dissemination of Contemporary Music), and Artium (Basque Museum-Center of Contemporary Art), as well as from soloists and groups such as Ensemble Musiques Nouvelles, Sigma Project, Madrid Brass, Grupo Enigma, Neopercusión, Krater Ensemble, Ensemble Espacio Sinkro, Baltasar Perelló, Alfonso Gómez, Josetxo Silguero, Andrea Nagy, Miquel Bernat, and Séverine Ballon. Between 2017 and 2025, he was the director of the “Bernaola Zikloa” contemporary music festival in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He is currently a professor of Analysis at Musikene, the Basque Country's Center for Higher Studies in Music.

Ramon Lazkano (Donostia-San Sebastián, 1968) studied composition in San Sebastián with Francisco Escudero, in Paris with Alain Bancquart and Gérard Grisey, and in Montreal with Gilles Tremblay. He won the First Prize for Composition from the Conservatoire National Supérieure de Musique de Paris and a Diploma of Doctoral Studies in 20th-Century Music and Musicology from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. He has received the Prince Pierre Foundation of Monaco Composition Prize and the Georges Bizet Prize from the French Academy of Fine Arts, as well as the Musika Bulegoa Prize twice, among other awards. In 2019, his complete piano works, recorded by Alfonso Gómez for the Kairos label, received the Grand Prix du Disque from the Académie Charles Cros in France. He has been in residence with the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, at the Strasbourg Musica Festival with Luis de Pablo, with Ensemble 2e2m in Paris, at the Ravel Academy in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and at the Civitella-Ranieri Foundation (Umbertide, Italy). He is currently a member of the Monte Carlo Music Council. He has been a fellow of the Royal Academy of Spain and the French Academy Villa Medici in Rome. His work crystallizes in a reflection on intertextuality and silence, which has given rise to emblematic pieces such as Ilunkor (commissioned by the Basque National Orchestra), Hauskor (commissioned by the ORCAM), and OrtziIsilak (commissioned by the Spanish National Orchestra). The ensemble recherche in Frankfurt, the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris, Ars Musica in Brussels and Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles have programmed monographic concerts, and the Paris Autumn Festival dedicated a tribute to him in 2016. His music has been performed by the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, the Radio France Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the RAI Orchestra of Turin, the WDR Orchestra of Cologne, Musikfabrik, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Grossman Ensemble, L'Instant Donné, Neue Vocalsolisten, the Diotima Quartet - among many others - at the most important European and American festivals.

A native of Bilbao, this composer and conductor studied piano, organ, composition, and orchestral conducting with professors such as Esteban Elizondo, Tomás Aragüés, Gotzon Aulestia, and Francisco Escudero, among others. Founder and director of the “Luis Iruarrizaga” Choir of Igorre and the “Galdakao Chamber Choir,” he founded the “Areatzako Banda” Musical Group in 1983, with which he continues to work. He has taught orchestra and chamber music at the “Jesús Guridi” Higher Conservatory of Music in Vitoria-Gasteiz. He is the director of the new “Zubiaur Musika Eskola” music school in Amorebieta-Etxano.

Abel Paúl (1984) began his musical education at the Jesús Guridi Conservatory in Vitoria. Later, he studied composition (BMus and MMus) at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with Fabio Nieder and Richard Ayres as main professors, and at the Universität der Künste in Berlin with Walter Zimmermann and Daniel Ott. From 2009-2011 he followed a postgraduate program at that institution, where he graduated with distinction. He holds a PhD from the University of Huddersfield (UK), where he studied under the supervision of Aaron Cassidy and Peter Ablinger. Additionally, Paúl has attended master classes by composers such as Pierluigi Billone, Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann, Peter Ablinger, Beat Furrer, Brian Ferneyhough, Chaya Czernowin, Ivan Fedele and several others. Paúl’s music has been awarded with the following prizes: 2008 Salvatore Martirano Composition Award (USA), National Prize of the CDMC (Spanish Contemporary music center, 2010), SUAL Award (Vienna, 2014), the BBVA-Leonardo Fellowship (Spain 2014), the Internationaler Musiktheaterwettbewerb Darmstadt (Germany 2015, selected composer) and the 2016 SGAE- CNDM Young Composers Prize (1st prize). He has received honourable mentions at the 2013 Gaudeamus Muziekweek (The Netherlands), Mauricio Kagel Wettbewerb in Vienna (jury: Helmut Lachenmann), INAEM-Colegio de España Award (Paris, 2013) and the Anything Goes Prize (London, 2013). Additionally, he has been a finalist at the Gaudeamus Muziekweek (2011) and at the Henriette Bosmansprijs (2008). Abel Paúl was also named composer in residence at the 4th forum for young composers of the Ensemble Aleph. He was a composer in residence at the Ligeti Academy (project in collaboration with the ASKO-Schoenberg ensemble) and his music was selected for the ISCM’s 2009 World Music Days in Sweden. Additionally, he has been an active participant in Acanthes, Tzlil Meudcan 2014 and Impuls-Graz (Klangforum Wien reading panel). Abel Paúl was granted a fellowship at the Künstlerhaus Lauenburg (Germany 2014) and was a fellow of the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome in 2017-18. He has received commissions from several international festivals and ensembles such as the Münchener Biennale, Darmstadt Ferienkurse or the Holland Festival. Paúl’s music has been performed by internationally renowned ensembles such as ASKO- Schoenberg ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Ensemble Nikel, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, Slaagwerkgroep den Haag, Distractfold ensemble, Ensemble Aleph, Klangforum Wien, MDI ensemble, Plural Ensemble, Adapter, Insomnio Ensemble, Norrbotten NEO, ETET, Sond’Arte electric ensemble, Vertixe Sonora, Feedback Trio, Zukan Trio, Ensemble Platypus, Neopercusión, Zahir ensemble, Staatsorchester Darmstadt and several others. His music has been performed at numerous international festivals, including the Holland Festival, Nederlandse Muziekdagen and Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Holland); Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Münchener Biennale, Kunstforum Hellerau, Crescendo Berlin, Unerhörte Musik (Germany); ISCM World Music Days (Sweden); Mixtur, EMA Festival, Festival de música religiosa de Cuenca, Festival SON (Spain); Aspekte Salzburg, Klangspuren Schwaz and Impuls (Austria); Tzlil Meudcan (Israel); Festival Cervantino (Mexico); Spor Festival (Denmark); Time of Music (Finland); Sound of Wander, Milano Musica (Italy); Festival MANCA, Theatre Dunois and Centre Acanthes (France); Forum Wallis (Switzerland); Biblioteca Nacional (Argentina), etc. Dutch radio AVRO4, Radio France, Deutschlandfunk and Radio Nacional de España have broadcast Paúl’s music. His works are published by Edition Plante Berlin (www.editionplante.com). He currently teaches composition and music theory at Malaga’s High Conservatory of Music. Paúl’s music oscillate between different areas of interest such as experimenting with different modes of interaction between loudspeakers and acoustic instruments, the development of electronic music on a “miniature scale” and the exploration of a poetics of hybridisation and duplication.

Nuria López García (Albacete, 2002) began her training at the Conservatorio Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, earning the highest honors in Guitar and the Extraordinary Baccalaureate Prize of CasJlla-La Mancha. She conJnued her musical educaJon in Córdoba with Javier Riba and, since 2020, has been living in San SebasJán, pursuing Guitar studies with Marco Socías and ComposiJon with Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramón Lazkano, Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena and Stefano Scarani at Musikene (Higher Music Center of the Basque Country). She is interested in exploring new sonic and Jmbral possibiliJes, as well as interdisciplinary creaJon. AddiJonally, her works ojen reflect contemporary social and political issues. Her music has been performed at prestigious festivals such as the XV Circuit of Contemporary Music Musikagileak and in venues like the Musikene Auditorium, the InternaJonal Center for Contemporary Culture Tabakalera, and the San Telmo Museum. She has also collaborated with renowned performers, including Ruben Ma\a Santorsa, Adrian Pereyra, Pilar Fontalba, Ander Tellería, EsVbalit Oraá, and Joan MarV-Frasquier, among others. In addition, she has been involved in interdisciplinary projects with insJtuJons like the Chillida Leku Museum, contributing to a sculptural-musical tour centered on the sculptor’s works, and ZirKuSS Company, creating original music for two acts of a contemporary circus show. Furthermore, she composed the soundtrack for the short film “Mal asunto morirse en febrero”, directed by Elisa Pardo. In addition, as a performer, she participated in the 2020 International Guitar Festival of Ciudad de Albacete special edition: 'Young Guitar at the Museum,' with the duo À corde, in the recording of the CD El sonido del Alma with the Albacete Guitar Orchestra (2021), and she won third prize in the 1st Performance CompeJJon 'Women Composers' at the Rafael Orozco CSM (2021). To complement her training, she has apended composiJon courses led by Raquel García Tomás, Toshio Hosokawa, James Dillon, Patricia Alessandrini, Luis Codera Puzo, Hannah Hartman, Joan Magrané, George Benjamin, Chaya Czernowin, Pierre Jodlowski, Michael Jarrell, Luis Naón, Alberto Posadas, and Mauro Lanza. AddiJonally, she has parJcipated in guitar masterclasses with Marco Smaili, David Russell, Margarita Escarpa, David MarVnez, Pedro Mateo González, Franz Halász, and Miguel Trápaga.

Xabier Mariño (b. 1983) is a pianist, oboist, and composer. He completed his advanced studies in Composition, Audiovisual Composition, and Electroacoustic Composition at Musikene (the Higher Conservatory of Music of the Basque Country), where his professors included Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramón Lazkano, Stefano Scarani, and Christophe Havel. He has complemented his academic training with various specialized courses, masterclasses, and other activities in different parts of Spain and Europe, working with Michael Finissy, Jesús Rueda, Gabriel Brnic, Laurent Martin, Matthew Burtner, Félix Ibarrondo, Ivan Hansen, Elena Mendoza, Nicolas Bacri, Philippe Hurel, Hilda Paredes, and others. He has been composer-in-residence at the E.G.O. (Escuela General de Orquesta). (Euskal Herriko Gazte Orkestra – Basque Youth Orchestra) where he composed the musical-theatrical performance “Musika-Lur” (Water Music) (2006) for “Cameralia 2007” International Chamber Music Festival, Santiago de Compostela. She has received grants such as the Antonio Gala Foundation for Young Creators (2009) and the CDG (Galician Drama Center) grant in collaboration with MARCO (Vigo Museum of Contemporary Art) for the creation of an interactive sound installation (Identities, 2009). She has been commissioned by various contemporary music groups and festivals, including Smash Ensemble, the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, the Galician Regional Government's Department of Culture, Cidade da Cultura, Taller Atlántico Contemporáneo, Fonos21, Krater Ensemble, Cameralia, the Musikene Symphony Orchestra, Zoar Ensemble, the Susaa Festival, and the Royal Philharmonic of Galicia. Her works have been performed in various locations across Europe, such as The Hague, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Utrecht (Netherlands), Bayonne (France), Næstved (Denmark), Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña, San Sebastián, Bilbao, and Vitoria.

Born in Vitoria (1965), she studied piano at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid with Manuel Carra and composition at the "J. Guridi" School of Music in Vitoria with Carmelo Bernaola, graduating with top honors. In 1992, she moved to Paris on a scholarship from the Bank of Spain and studied composition with Emmanuel Nunes at the École Nationale de Musique de Romainville. She also attended courses in musical analysis, orchestration, and composition at the Conservatoire Superior de Paris with Marc André Dalbavie, Alain Louvier, and Betsy Jolas, and courses in orchestral conducting at the École Nationale de Musique d'Évry with Nicolas Brochot. She has also participated in courses and symposia with L. de Pablo, L. Nono, P. Boulez, and C. Halffter. Between 1996 and 2004, she was a music professor at the École Nationale de Musique de Sevran, the École de Musique de Parmain, and the Conservatoire de Paris XVI; she directed the Pfizer Choir (Paris), was organist at the Eglise Luthérienne de la Trinité (Paris), and a fellow of the Spanish Academy in Rome. In 2006, a retrospective of her work was presented at the Reina Sofía Centre in Madrid, performed by soloists from the ORCAM (Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid), and the Orchestra of the Community of Madrid premiered her work "Roma." Between 2007 and 2011 she was a professor of composition at the Conservatorio Superior de Las Palmas (2007), and her works “Estelas en la mar”, “Une tragedie industrielle” and “Soñando” are performed on national and international tours by the Sinkro group at Slony Brook University New York and Massachusetts University- Amherst (USA), Chihuahua Festival (Mexico), E-Werk hall of Freiburg (Germany), in Italy and Spain. Her works have been performed at Musikaste in Rentería, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra season, the Bayonne Symphony Orchestra season, the Madrid Community Orchestra, the Manca Festival in Nice, the Reina Sofía Art Centre, the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight, the Granada Music and Dance Festival, the Vitoria Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Spanish Academy in Rome, the Cervantes Institute in Paris, the Groggia Theatre in Venice, the Alicante Festival, and in other cities such as Vienna, Havana, and Tokyo. She has won the “Eresbil” Composition Prize and received a special mention for her work “Apollo and Daphne” in the composition competition of the Colegio de España and the INAEM (National Institute of Performing Arts and Music). Her works have been commissioned by the CDMC (Center for Contemporary Music and Dance), INAEM, the French Ministry of Culture, the Basque Government, and the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight.

Born in San Sebastián in 1987, she began her musical journey after several years of self-study, studying piano, improvisation, harmony, and analysis with pianist Javier González Sarmiento. She is currently studying composition at Musikene with Gabriel Erkoreka, Ramon Lazkano, Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena, and Stefano Scarani, among others. She has attended masterclasses and courses taught by composers such as Félix Ibarrondo, Elena Mendoza, Rebeca Saunders, Manuel Hidalgo, and Héctor Parra. In 2015, she won the 3rd FIDAH Competition.

He was born in Bacaicoa (Navarra) in 1931. He began his musical studies while also studying as a Capuchin friar at the Seminary of Alsasua (Navarra). His musical training also included Gregorian chant at the Higher School of Sacred Music in Madrid and in Montserrat; organ and composition at the San Sebastián Conservatory with Tomás Garbizu and Francisco Escudero; and supplementary studies in summer courses in Siena (Italy) and Darmstadt (Germany). He is the author of a large number of scores of liturgical religious music, motets, and villancicos; some 50 secular choral works, especially Basque: Antonkeriak, Alkidantzan, Guziek ttun ttun, Txindorraren eriotza, Nerea izango zen, etc.; Music for txistu and other instruments: Nafarroako joku-dantzak, Sakandar (I-II), Aitziber, Txoriez, etc.; chamber music: Giroaz, Laudes, Diálogos (National Prize 1969), etc.; Gregorian Easter, for symphony orchestra, Suite Oi Betleem, for mixed choir and orchestra, Salve Regina, for 3 treble or mixed voices and orchestra. The Te Deum, which premiered at MUSIKASTE 99, was written by the composer in 1998 to commemorate the centenary of the restoration of the Capuchin Province of Navarre, Cantabria, and Aragon.

Born on May 13, 1998, in Bilbao, he began his musical studies at the age of five in Llodio, quickly choosing percussion as his primary instrument and piano as his secondary one. He joined the Llodio Municipal Band, where he gained extensive experience in symphonic performance and orchestral music, while simultaneously honing his skills as a percussionist. In 2013, he began his professional studies at the J. C. de Arriaga Conservatory in Bilbao, pursuing a degree in percussion while also specializing in composition. During his studies, he participated in numerous masterclasses with renowned musicians, covering both composition and performance across various stylistic genres. He graduated from the conservatory in 2019, also earning a high school diploma in Performing Arts, Music, and Dance. After passing the entrance exams for higher education, he was accepted and offered a partially scholarship to study Composition at the prestigious Royal College of Music (London). However, he decided to pursue two degrees, specializing in Composition and Orchestral Conducting, at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, where he earned numerous distinctions. He graduated in Conducting in the 2022-23 academic year and in Composition the following year. He successfully completed a Master's degree in Composition for Audiovisual Media at CSKG and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Teacher Training (UPV). To this day, he remains a member of the Llodio Band, other bands and ensembles, various brass bands and marching bands, and sings in the choir of the Bilbao Cathedral Chapel Choir, now the Ars Canticum Ensemble. He has been selected as a jury member for national and international music competitions. He has also collaborated on numerous occasions as a percussionist with the Bilbao Municipal Band, participating in several premieres at the Euskalduna Palace under the baton of Maestro José R. Pascual-Vilaplana, who commissioned a work from him for the band. In addition to performing, he directs a small band (Bilboko Gazte Banda) where he is responsible for arrangements, compositions, and other engagements. He has teaching experience, giving classes in percussion, music theory, singing, harmony, accompaniment, and analysis at various academies, music schools, and conservatories. He also conducts bands, orchestras, and choirs at the intermediate and advanced levels, as well as other semi-professional ensembles in Bilbao and Madrid (National Music Auditorium, Monumental Theatre, Euskalduna Palace, León Auditorium, Prado Museum, and Reina Sofía National Art Centre). He has also worked as an orchestrator and arranger on numerous occasions. His compositional repertoire has also been programmed in monographic concerts and, to date, includes more than thirty works for symphony orchestra and mixed choir (symphonic portraits or poems, program music, etc.), vocal music, brass band, band and soloist, chamber music, piano (solo or with voice), etc. Many of these have been publicly premiered by professional ensembles (such as the Bilbao Municipal Band, La Pamplonesa, etc.) in Madrid, Valencia (including the International Band Competition – CIBM at Palau de Les Arts), San Sebastián, León, La Rioja, Galicia, Navarra, Bilbao and surrounding areas; with appearances in press, TV, radio and the internet, some of them having been awarded prizes in international composition competitions (1st and 3rd Prizes in the BAE Choral Composition Competition, Silver Medal in the Global Music Awards, etc.) and he has been a guest conductor in some of them. His catalog continues to grow and he receives commissions for different groups, including the soundtrack for several short films (local and US) with a nomination for Best Original Soundtrack by RTVE.

Born in Pamplona, ​​he began his musical studies at the Pablo Sarasate Conservatory in that city. He completed his studies in Counterpoint and Fugue at the San Sebastián Higher Conservatory and in Harmony and Composition, Music Pedagogy, and Choral Conducting at the Zaragoza Higher Conservatory. Alongside his academic studies, he also studied with Agustín González Azilu and Ramón Barce. He was the founder and director of the Paulino Otamendi Chamber Ensemble of Pamplona, ​​director of the Orfeón Pamplonés, and director of the Pamplona Chamber Choir. Founder and member of "Iruñeako Taldea" (Pamplona Group), with which he has participated in the organization of various concert series and lectures for the dissemination of 20th-century music, most notably the "New Basque Music Days" held annually in San Sebastián from 1987 to 1991. With extensive teaching experience, he currently teaches at the Pablo Sarasate Conservatory in Pamplona, ​​where he teaches orchestra and conducts the conservatory's band and orchestra. He has also taught numerous courses in music technology, harmony pedagogy, and choral and instrumental ensemble conducting, organized by the Government of Navarre and other institutions. His work, comprising pieces for various ensembles—vocal, band, chamber, and orchestra, among others—has been premiered and performed both in Spain and abroad and disseminated through various audiovisual media. It has also been published by music publishers such as Real Musical, CM Ediciones, etc., and released on several recordings. Furthermore, the Basque Studies Society “Eusko Ikaskuntza” and the music pedagogy journal OP.XXI published their contribution to music pedagogy, “The Martenot Method Applied to the Teaching of Harmony,” in 1994 and 1997 respectively.

Born in Mutriku (Gipuzkoa), he completed his initial musical studies at the Mutriku Municipal Music Academy. He holds a law degree from the University of Deusto. He founded the group Itoiz, with whom he was very active musically between 1978 and 1988, including the recording of seven albums. He later furthered his studies at the Antxieta Music School and the Bilbao Conservatory, and began studying electroacoustic composition with Gabriel Brnic at the Cuenca Conservatory.

Álvaro Pérez Sánchez is graduated in Composition and Conducting at Conservatori Superior de Música de València (CSMV). He studied composition with Voro Garcia and Andrés Valero. In the fi eld of conducting, he has furthered his studies with Juan Pablo Hellín in orchestral conducting, and with Nadia Stoyanova in choral conducting. He is currently enrolled in the Master in Creation of Contemporary Music at Musikene, under the mentorship of Ramon Lazkano. In 2025, he was invited to the composition class of the Académie Ravel, where he received lessons from Michael Jarrell and was awarded the Prix de composition for his work “Sublime y oscuro”. That same year, he received an Honourable Mention at the III Fundación SGAE Euskadi Composition Prize. His music has been featured at festivals such as Ensems, Circuito Musikagileak, Mostra Sonora, Volumens, and MEVArt. His works have been premiered by ensembles including Ensemble Court-Circuit, Fukio Quartet Ensemble, Trio Feedback, Hava Duo, and the Banda Simfònica Municipal de València. Furthermore, 2026 will see the premieres of a new piece for the London Sinfonietta and another for the Festival Ravel, the latter to be published by the renowned French publishing house Durand Salabert. He has also participated in courses and seminars with leading international composers, including Chaya Czernowin, Michael Jarrell, Georg Friedrich Haas, José Manuel López López, Georges Aperghis, Luís Naón, Clemens Gadenstätter, Leonardo Balada, Mauro Lanza, Martín Matalon, and Stefan Prins, among others. Parallel to his creative career, Álvaro Pérez is a co-founder of the web portal MIKROKOSMOS, through which he engages in outreach work focused on the current landscape of contemporary music.

Adrián Rosado (1994) is a composer and improviser born in Torrevieja, Alicante. Formed at the Royal Conservatory of Music Victoria Eugenia in Granada, his music, closely linked to literature and painting, explores the themes of reminiscence, memories, and their erosion through the use of unstable sounds and flexible meters, frequently incorporating the manipulation of instruments using techniques of live electronics. Winner of the 2024 RCSMVE composition competition with his orchestral work Zweiteilung, he has participated in musicological and music outreach projects in collaboration with the Universidad de Granada, as well as an operatic project at the Peter Eötvös Foundation in Budapest, Hungary. Currently, while finishing his Master's studies at Musikene with Ramón Lazkano, he combines composition with improvisation in an ensemble founded in 2025.

José A. San Miguel Alfaro was born in Zaragoza in 1967. Three years later he moved to Vitoria with his family. There he took his first music lessons. After obtaining his degree in accordion at the conservatories of Vitoria-Gasteiz and Donostia-San Sebastián and a BA in English from the University of the Basque Country, José Antonio San Miguel Alfaro travelled to Paris where he benefited from the advice of experts like Isabelle DUHA, Guy LAURENT and, above all, of the composer Claude BALLIF. Later, in Bayonne, he studied with composers Peio ÇABALETTE and Patrick DEFOSSEZ. There he ended up with the highest ratings in analysis studies, writing, composition, orchestration and electronic music. His former master, Claude BALLIF, was invited by the National Conservatory of Bayonne-Côte Basque Region as president of the jury to corroborate his brilliant years of musical studies. After passing the CAPES (Teaching Diploma), he began his pedagogical work in Orthez. He was also appointed president of the Basque Composers Association, a position he held for three years. José Antonio San Miguel Alfaro has composed an extensive and diverse catalogue of symphonic contemporary music for wind-band, chamber music, electronics, sound installations, music for documentaries, commercials, television, digital media (DVD, internet...) ballets, choral, instrumental music, arrangements… Currently he combines his teaching work with composition and wind-orchestra conducting, and he is interested in both new aesthetics and popular tradition. He has been recently awarded first price at the “Physik & Musik” Vienna University composition contest.

Pablo Soler is a 22-year-old composer and pianist with a strong background in composition and contemporary music, as well as solid training in piano, classical harmony, and counterpoint. He holds a degree in Composition from the Manuel Castillo Conservatory of Music in Seville and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Contemporary Music Creation at Musikene. His work is characterized by constant aesthetic exploration and deep artistic curiosity. He has taken part in international festivals and workshops such as the Mixtur Festival, studied with leading composers including Chaya Czernowin, and was a finalist in the III Manuel Castillo Chamber Music Composition Competition. His music has been premiered in interdisciplinary contexts, and he continues to develop his artistic practice through collaborations with renowned ensembles such as the London Sinfonietta.

Joseba Torre Alonso was born in Bilbao. He studied music at the "J. C. de Arriaga" Higher Conservatory of Music in Bilbao, the Royal Higher Conservatory of Music in Madrid, and the Higher Conservatory of Music in Zaragoza, obtaining the highest marks and extraordinary awards. He continued his studies at the Paris National Conservatory of Music, graduating with the First Prize by unanimous decision. Subsequently, he completed a one-year Master's program in electroacoustics, computer music, and electronic music at IRCAM in Paris. Simultaneously, he pursued university studies, earning a degree in Musicology from the University of Paris VIII. He was the first recipient of an Artist Diploma in composition and orchestral conducting from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh (USA). He has participated in numerous international festivals and received many commissions. He has also given courses, lectures, and participated in panel discussions. She has served on juries for national and international competitions. Her works have been selected by the International Society for Contemporary Music and the UNESCO Composers' Forum. She has made recordings broadcast by major radio and television stations in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Canada, Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Japan, among others. She has won First Prizes in national and international competitions such as the Pablo Sorozábal International Competition (1992), the Nadia Boulanger Competition (1993), the SGAE Competition (1994), the Murcia International Orchestral Music Competition (1995), and the INAEM Competition. - Colegio de España in Paris 1995, Special Mention at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition 1996, First Prize at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition 1997, Ojo Crítico Award from Radio Nacional de España 1997, ERESBIL Music Prize - Basque Government 1998, G. Archer Award 1999 (United States). He currently combines his work in composition and orchestral conducting with teaching at Musikene, the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country.

Mikel Urquiza (1988, Bilbao) composes colorful music in which nothing is what it seems: each idea conceals another, the marginal takes center stage, and what appeared serious sticks its tongue out. Fresh and original, his work has carved out a niche for itself on the European scene, performed by Ensemble Intercontemporáneo, L'Instant Donné, C Barré, the Karajan-Akademie, Musikfabrik, Mosaik, mdi ensemble, and New European Ensemble at festivals such as Présences, ManiFeste, ECLAT, Acht Brücken, Gaudeamus, in Lucerne, and at the Venice Biennale. He received the Siemens Musikstiftung Composition Prize in 2022 and the SACEM Georges Enesco Prize in 2023. In 2023–2024, he was the guest composer for Divertimento Ensemble, the Meridian Festival in Bucharest, and the Tampere Biennial. A choral singer in his youth, his predilection for the voice is evident in his cycle Alfabet, written for Sarah Maria Sun; I nalt be clode on the frolt, written for Marion Tassou; Songs of Spam, written for the Neue Vocalsolisten; and Howl, which the Exaudi Ensemble premiered at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik. In 2021, Ryoko Aoki premiered Chiisana Tsubame at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. His chamber music pieces, full of imitations, canons, and all kinds of blends and acoustic tricks, have been premiered by prestigious performers, such as the Catch Trio, who played Pièges de neige at the Cologne Philharmonie, Radial System Berlin, and Resonanz Raum in Hamburg, and the Quatuor Diotima, who premiered his first quartet, Indicio, at the Pontino Festival and his second, Index, at the Musica Festival in Strasbourg. Mikel Urquiza studied composition first at Musikene with Gabriel Erkoreka and Ramon Lazkano, then at the CNSM in Paris with Gérard Pesson and Stefano Gervasoni. In 2019–2020, he received support from the Peter Eötvös Foundation in Budapest and resided at the French Academy in Rome, Villa Medici. He holds a doctorate from the SACRe program (ENS-CNSMDP) with a thesis titled "Musique retrouvée: la mémoire à l'oeuvre dans la composition musicale", written under the direction of Laurent Feneyrou. His two monographic albums, Cherche titre (with L'Instant Donné and Marion Tassou) and Espiègle (with C Barré and the Neue Vocalsolisten) have been applauded by critics and spread by the main European radio stations.

She studied composition, piano, and music pedagogy at the Bilbao and Madrid Higher Conservatories of Music. She later continued her studies with professors Francisco Escudero and José Luis Campana. She taught harmony, analysis, counterpoint, and composition at the Juan Antxieta Center for Musical Studies in Bilbao. Subsequently, she taught harmony, analysis, and composition fundamentals at the Bilbao Conservatory of Music. Currently, she teaches instrumentation and orchestration, composition techniques, counterpoint, and harmonic-contrapuntal practice at Musikene, the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country. She has given lectures and masterclasses on her music at various universities and conservatories in Europe and the Americas. His works have been performed in different concert halls and in different Music Festivals in Europe, America and Asia: “Music of the 20th century” Festival, Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, “Fortnight Musical” Festival in San Sebastián, “Musikaste” Festival in Renteria, (Gipuzkoa), Teatro Principal in Vitoria, Baluarte Auditorium in Pamplona, ​​National Music Auditorium in Madrid, ENSEMS Festival in Valencia, Auditorium in Murcia, Príncipe Felipe Auditorium in Oviedo, Opera Palace in La Coruña, Auditorium Alfredo Kraus in Gran Canaria, Auditorium in Tenerife, Gran Teatro de Córdoba, Auditorium in Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, (Galicia), Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Horschüle fur Musik “Franz Liszt” in Weimar, (Germany), Festival “Ile de découvertes” in Aulnay-sous-Bois, (France), Goethe Institute of Paris, Salle Cortot of Paris, University of Saint Denis/Paris VIII, CNR of the 20th arrondissement of Paris, Olivier Messiaen Auditorium of Radio France in Paris, CNR of Bordeaux (France), “Musiche in nostra” Festival in Turin (Italy), Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, “Aspects of Contemporary Music” Festival at the Catholic University of Santiago, Chile, Municipal Theater of Santiago, Chile, National Autonomous University of Mexico City, Oberlin College (USA), Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, etc. In 2007, he won the composition competition organized by the A.E.O.S. (Spanish Association of Symphony Orchestras) with his work “Gerok” for orchestra, which has already been performed by orchestras such as the Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, Madrid Symphony Orchestra, Córdoba Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra, etc.

Born in Portugalete in 1961, he pursued private studies in Music and formal studies in Philosophy, specializing in Aesthetics and Philosophy of Art. He combines musical composition with musicography, regularly contributing to various magazines, newspapers, record labels, orchestras, festivals, theaters, universities, lecture series, and publications, including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and the Durvan Encyclopedia. As a composer, he has received commissions from soloists, ensembles, and institutions, and has participated in numerous concerts, series, and festivals in Spain, Europe, and the Americas. His works have been recorded on record, radio, and television. He was the director of the Hispano-American Encounters of Contemporary Music and coordinator of the Center for the Dissemination of Contemporary Music and the Alicante International Festival.

With a degree in Telecommunications Engineering specializing in image and sound, I've always been connected to music. I studied piano alongside theoretical subjects at the Municipal School and began my musical career as a performer and songwriter in a pop-rock group, releasing two albums through the Elkar record label. The group won the award for Best New Artist at the 2007 Gaztea Awards. My interest in film led me to move to Madrid and later to London to delve into the world of film scores, composing music for dozens of short films. During this time, I studied Music for Film and Television at Berklee College of Music. In 2016, my song submitted to the Europea Emusik Festival won an award. In 2015, I entered the Higher Conservatory of Music of Navarre to study Composition, receiving the Final Degree Prize for my symphonic work for large orchestra, “Gar-u-(hi)na,” which simulates brain activity during sleep. Due to my use of diverse compositional techniques, I identify with polystylism, and I have continued along this path, premiering the show “Bazen behin,” featuring two contemporary dancers and the ARAH chamber group, comprised of members of the Euskadiko Orkestra/Basque National Orchestra. The show is an initiative that aims to bring Basque folk tradition to the forefront and includes both adaptations and new works. We will release the album of these works in early 2024. Due to my lifelong interest in education, and after completing my undergraduate degree in Pedagogy at UNED (National University of Distance Education), I worked in an educational consultancy and later independently, providing teacher training on ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) and new methodologies. Currently, I am pursuing a Postgraduate Degree in Music Therapy through UNIR (International University of La Rioja) and teach complementary subjects at Loinatz Musika Eskola (Loinatz Music School): Song Workshop I, Song Workshop II, Applied Music Production, and Music for Audiovisual Media. I am a member of the team that manages the Igartza Musika music series, promoted by the Beasain City Council. I try to combine these tasks with my dedication to composition.