Benet  Casablancas (Composer) 

Benet Casablancas. Born in Sabadell (Barcelona) in 1956, Benet Casablancas is one of the leading spanish composers of his generation. He studied in Barcelona and Vienna, where he worked with, among others, Friedrich Cerha and Karl-Heinz Füssl. He also has a degree in philosophy and a PhD in musicology, both from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Courses with C. Halffter, G. Ligeti, E. Carter, M. Kagel, G. Benjamin and M. Lindberg. His works, distinguished with numerous commissions and awards (Ciudad de Barcelona, Musician´s Accord of New York, Fundación Juan March of Madrid, Spanish National Recording Prize, Composer´s Arena of Amsterdam, Oscar Esplá, Ferran Sors, ISCM Festival, etc.), have been performed around Europe, Canada, the USA and South America, by prestigious soloists, ensembles and conductors (London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble 13 of Baden-Baden, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Notabu of Düsseldorf, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Perspectives Ensemble New York, Seattle Chamber Players, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Trio à cordes de Paris, Grupo Encuentros de Buenos Aires, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Ensemble Modern Academie, Ensemble Reconsil Wien, Trio à cordes of Paris, Ensemble 88 Maastricht, Ensemble Insomnio of Utrecht, Leipziger Streichquartett, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Kammerphilarmonie Bremen, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre National de Belgique, Hermitage de San Petersburgo, Symfoni Orkester Malmö, National Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Netherlands, Spanish National Orchestra, Orchestra of Barcelona and Catalonia, the Symphony Orchestras of Galicia, Granada, Tenerife, Comunidad de Madrid and Spanish Radio and Television, Spanish National Youth Orchestra, Gran Canaria Philharmonic, Trio Arbós, Proyecto Gerhard, Ensemble Reconsil Wien, Damocles Trio New York, Brouwer Trio, Trio Kandinsky, V. Jurowski, O. Knussen, J. Pons, V. Petrenko, L. Foster, F.-P. Decker, T. Weiss, G. Ben-Dor, M.A. Schlingensiepen, A. Leaper, M. Reichert, U. Pöhl, E. Micic, B. Güeller, R. Gimeno, A. Terzian, M. Scwierzewski, A. Ros-Marbà, J. López Cobos, E. Colomer, A. Posada, A. Gil-Ordóñez, F. Ollu, C. Rundell, A. Soriano, J.R. Encinar, etc.). His work ´The Dark Backward of Time´, for orchestra, has been finalist of the Prix de Composition Prince Pierre de Monaco 2007.

Early on in his career he began combining composition with teaching and research. An advisor for different institutions and patron of several foundations, he has published numerous historical and analytical articles (in The New Grove, Arietta, Quodlibet) and the celebrated book El Humor en la Música (Reichenberger, 2000). He has been head of theory and composition at a number of Spanish conservatories, educational director of the Catalan National Youth Orchestra (JONC) and associate professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. He has also been a frequent member of the jury of several European composing and performing competitions and kept up a busy agenda as a guest professor at several international schools. Currently, he continues to work closely with the Courses of Musical Specialization of the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Spain). In 2002 he assumed the direction of the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo (Barcelona), a post he now combines with his work in composition and research.

His wide-ranging oeuvre, covering the most diverse genres and formats, is marked by a quest for radical personal and aesthetic independence. The critics have highlighted his concern for balancing constructional rigour and expressive strength, dramatic character and whimsical register, in the framework of a discourse in which coexist a progressively luminous harmonic language, rhythmic spirit, a growing timbral differentiation and instrumental virtuosism. Between his most acclaimed works: ´Seven Scenes from Hamlet´, for reciter and chamber orchestra, the serie of ´Epigrams´, for different formations, from piano solo to symphony orchestra (´Seven Epigrams´, for piano, ´Epigrams´, for six players, ´New Epigrams´ for chamber orchestra and ´Three Epigrams´, for orchestra), ´Little Night Music´ and ´Celebration´, for chamber ensemble, diverse ´Haikus´ for piano solo and small groups, and orchestral pieces as ´Postludio´, ´The Dark Backward of Time´ and ´Alter Klang. Impromptu for large orchestra´. His works have been played in recent years with great succes in all Europe and America: London, Paris, Vienna, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, New York, Montreal, Vancouver, Oberlin (Ohio), St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Frankfurt, Bruxelles, Weimar, Strassbourg, Lancaster, Varsovia, Lisboa, Caracas, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Lausanne, Lima, Malmö, Napoles, Minks, Kishinev, Karlsruhe, Génève, Bolonia, Lubljana, Vilnius, etc.

In 2007 he received the National Prize of Music of the Generalitat of Catalunya, which is the highest honour that the government of his country awards in this cultural field.

Next commitments include several new recordings: Complete Piano Music (NAXOS; june 2008), 2 Orchestral CDs (Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona/NAXOS and Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid/STRADIVARIUS), Complete String Quartet Works (Arditti Quartet/FUNDACION AUTOR) and several volumes of Chamber Music (Ensemble BCN 216/prev. HARMONIA MUNDI; Plural Ensemble/VERSO; Trio Kandinsky/COLUMNA MUSICA). Among next commissions and performances we may mention collaborations with BBC Symphony Orchestra (2008, 24th october, London, Barbicane), National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands (2009, january), tournée in Holland and Belgium, including Amsterdam Concertgebouwn, Utrecht, Bruxelles, Gant), Ensemble BCN 216 (2008, 9th April, Vienna, Musikverein, II Festival ´Spanien Modern´), Malmö Symfoni Orkester (Sweden), Plural Ensemble (Köln, Germany) and Trio Arbós (Istambul), Trio Kandinsky (Tokio), London Sinfonietta (Madrid and Barcelona) and further collaborations with the Nomade Ensemble Japan (2010), Deutsches Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Tokyo Sinfonietta (2011) and Perpectives Ensemble New York, BCMG de Birmingham, Chamber Orchestra of Munic y London Philharmonic Orchestra (2012).

He has been appointed Composer in Residence of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (2013-2015).

In novembre 2013 was distingued with the Spanish National Music Prize 2013 awarded by the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes for ´the intellectual maturity of Casablancas´s works, the diversity of genres mastered by him and the international impact of his works´.

Más información  Benet Casablancas Web de ACC

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