Hèctor Parra (Composer) 

Hèctor Parra, born in Barcelona 1976, studied at the Conservatorium of Music in Barcelona, where he was awarded prizes with distinction in Composition, Piano and Harmony. He studied piano with Mª Jesús Crespo, and composition under David Padros, Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey as well as Michael Jarrell at the Conservatorium of Music in Geneva. Master in Composition awarded by the University of Paris VIII, annual course in Composition at Ircam and post-graduate courses at the CNSMD Lyon. He actively participated in the composition workshops of Royaumont, Centre Acanthes and Takefu (in Japan).

Premieres of his works have been performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Klangforum Wien, the Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Contrechamps, musikFabrik, KNM Berlin, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Liège, Holland Symfonia, National Orchestra d´Ile-de-France, Barcelona National Orchestra, etc.
He received commissions from the French Ministry of Culture, the Ircam-Centre Pompidou (on five occasions), the Spanish Ministry of Culture, the Government of Catalonia and institutions such as the Berlin Academy of Arts, WDR, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien/Impuls, Mécénat Musical de Société Générale, Strasbourg Music Festival, CDMC (Madrid), National Orchestra d´Ile-de-France, IVM (Valencia), Musicadhoy / Schauspielhaus Salzburg, Caja Madrid and the Selmer Society (Paris). His works were also performed at the international festivals of Lucerne, Avignon, Agora-Ircam, Witten, Stuttgart Opera House, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Maison de la Danse de Lyon, Ultraschall Berlin, Guggenheim NY, Quincena Musical de San Sebastián, Traiettorie (Parma), Arcana, Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), Konzerthaus Wien, Philharmonie Luxembourg, Suntory Hall in Tokyo...

Winner of the Ernst von Siemens Composition Prize (2011), in 2009 he received the “Tendencies Prize” of the Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” (Barcelona edition). In 2008 he won the Impuls Graz Composition Prize, and in 2007 he won the Earplay Donald Aird Memorial International Composition Prize of San Francisco (USA). In 2005 he was unanimously awarded the Tremplin Prize given by the Ensemble Intercontemporain and was finalist in the International Gaudeamus Competition. In 2002 he won the INAEM Prize for Musical Composition (The National Institute for Performing Arts and Music of Spain).

His works are published by Durand (Universal Music Publishing Classical, Paris) and by Editorial Tritó (Barcelona). A monographic CD with his trios and chamber music pieces performed by the ensemble Recherche has been published by the label KAIROS (Vienna, 2008). In 2010 KAIROS publishes his chamber opera Hypermusic Prologue, with a libretto of the renowned Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, played by the Ensemble Intercontemporain and IRCAM. The artist Matthew Ritchie did the stage design. In 2006 Ars Harmonica published his first monographic CD, “L’Aube assaillie”.

He has been Professor of Electroacoustic Composition at the Conservatorium of Aragon, Spain (2005-2011), Professor of the Manuel de Falla Composition Course 2010 in Cádiz (Andalucia), and will teach composition at the Academy Voix Nouvelles 2011 of Fondation Royaumont. He lives in Paris since 2002.