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3G: Composer Bios & Photos
Julio Estrada
Julio Estrada was born in Mexico City on April 10, 1943. His family had been exiled from Spain in 1941. His activities are multiple: composer, theoretician, historian, pedagogue, and interpreter.
He began his musical studies in Mexico [1953-65], where he studied composition with Julián Orbón. In Paris (1965-69) he studied with Nadia Boulanger, Messiaen and attended courses and lectures of Xenakis. In Germany he studied with Stockhausen [1968] and with Ligeti [1972] He did a Ph. D. in Musicology at Strasbourg University (1990- 1994).
Since 1974 he has been a researcher in music at the Instituto de Estéticas, IIE/UNAM, where he was appointed as the Chair of a project on Mexican Music History and as the head of MúSIIC, Música, Sistema Interactivo de Investigación y Composición, a musical system designed by himself. He is he first music scholar to be honored as member of the Science Academy of Mexico and by the Mexican Education Ministry as National Researcher [since 1984]. He created a Composition Seminar at UNAM, where he has been teaching Compositional Theory and Philosophy of Composition.
Estrada has written about a hundred of articles based on his research. Some have been translated into English, French, German, Italian and Japanese. He is the General Editor of the must complete publication on Mexican music history, La Música de México [Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, IIE / UNAM, México 1984, ca. 2000 p.] He wrote with Jorge Gil Musica y Teoria de Grupos Finitos, 3 Variables Booleanas, with an English abstract [IIE UNAM, Mexico 1984]. He has postulated a General Theory of Intervallic Classes, applicable to macro and microintervallic scales of duration and of pitch. In the field of the continuum Estrada has developed new methods of multidimensional graphic description of several parameters of sound or rhythm. His research on the continuum field was published in 1998 in France : Ouvrir l’horizon du son : le continuum.
He has been a visiting professor at Stanford, California, San Diego, New Mexico, Musikwissenschaft Institut, Rostock and at Darmstadt
His music is associated to compositional research on diverse domains; i.e.: scales, Suite, piano [1960]; improvisational processes: Persona, vocal trio [1969]; compositional mechanos, Memorias for a Keyboard [1971]; finite groups, Melódica, [1973], Canto mnémico [1973-83]; networks, Canto tejido, piano [1974], Canto alterno, cello [1978], Ensemble’yuunohui, strings [1983-90]; intervallic identities, Canto naciente, brass octet (1975-78]; continuum macro-timbre and sound spacialisation, eolo’oolin, six percussionists [1981-90]; new instrumental developments, Canto oculto, violin [1977] ; the four yuunohui ; continuum, eua’on ; multiparametric poliphony, the yuunohui (1983-90); topological continuum variations, ishini’ioni, string quartet [1984-90]; continuum-discontinuum modulation, yuunohui’tlapoa, harpsichord [1994-97]; Prehispanic ceremonial conception of music, opera Pedro Páramo : “Doloritas” (1992)
His works are mainly published by Editions Salabert, France. The French Ministry of Culture decorated him with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (1981, 1986).
“The techniques and theories I have developed are based on mathematics and acoustics; the more neutral they remain, the better they serve the description of the imaginary: it is my ear—there everything is allowed—that gives birth to my music, which becomes the accurate, almost phonographic representation, of every detail coming from my inner hearing experiences.”
German Romero
Germán Romero was born in Mérida, Yucatán, in 1966. He graduated with honorable mention from the Escuela Nacional de Musica at UNAM in Mexico, studying composition with Julio Estrada. He has studied composition with Arturo Márquez (1988), analysis with Mario Lavista at the Conservatorio Nacional (1985-87) and guitar with Federico Bañuelos (1987-89). He was a student at the Taller Nacional de Composición at CENIDIM, studying with Julio Estrada, Federico Ibarra, Mario Lavista, and Daniel Catán. In 1992 and 1998, Romero participated in the guitar workshop at Darmstadt. He was a guest resident faculty at Les Ateliers UPIC in France (1994) and in the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada (2005), the latter with a grant from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Arte. He has had classes with Aurelio León, Aldo Brizzi, Baltazar Benítez, Jörg Herchet, Didier Rocton, Gérard Grisey, Tony Arnold and Helmut Lachenmann, among others.
Romero has received grants and support from FONCA (Jóvenes Creadores, 1996-97 and 2000), from the Coordinación Nacional de Descentralización Zona Sur (1998), from FENCA de Yucatán (Creadores con Trayectoria, 1999), and from CONACULTA-INBA (Educación por el Arte, 2002).
Romero’s Cuarteto de Cuerdas No 3 was selected by the Arditti Quartet to be studied in the Composition and Interpretation Workshop (1999). This work also received honorable mention in the Primer Concurso Nacional de Composición Silvestre Revueltas (2000) and was one of 10 works selected in the 47th International Rostrum of Composers (2000) for their International radio broadcast. In 2000, together with the Yucatan State Government, he produced a CD titled “El Principio.” In 2002, the Radar Festival commissioned “Ramas,” for solo violin, which was premiered and recorded by Irvine Arditti (Mode Records 165CD). His works have been performed by the Ensamble de las Rosas, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, the Orquesta Sinfónica “Carlos Chavez,” the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes, the Arditti Quartet, the Sinfonietta de Morelia, Tambuco, Pablo Gómez, Lourdes Ambriz, Lidia Tamayo, Tony Arnold, Michael Veit, and Mary Hurlburt, among others; in festivals like the Internationales Ferienkurse in Darmstadt (Germany), the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva “Manuel Enríquez,” the Festival Internacional de música de Morelia, the Festival Internacional de Música Contemporánea de Michoacán, the American Festival of Microtonal Music (New York), the Encuentro Latinoamericano de Arpa (Venezuela), the Chicago ICEFest, the Otoño Cultural de Yucatán, Radar Festival, and the Festival Cervantino.
Romero was a founder of the Festival Internacional de Música de Michoacán and was the artistic director of its first three seasons.
Along with his composition career, Germán Romero is dedicated to research and teaching in ear training, a subject that he has taught in diverse higher education settings in Mexico since 1989, such as the Escuela de Perfeccionamiento “Vida y Movimiento”, the Centro Cultural “Ollín Yoliztli,” and the Escuela de Musica Coral de Yucatán. He has lectured and participated in conferences and events regarding ear training such as the Jornadas Académicas sobre la Enseñanza Profesional de la Música (Conservatorio Nacional de Música), the Encuentro Internacional de Educación Musical Monterrey 2003 and 2005, the Programa de Formación en Docencia de la Educación Musical (CENART-IVEC), and the Segundo Foro Latinoamericano de Educación Musical (Mexico). He taught an ear training course at the Escuela Superior de Música de Cataluña. He is the author of Formar el oído, metodología y ejercicios (Conservatorio de las Rosas, 2005), written through an arts education grant from the Centro Nacional de las Artes.
Since 1998, Romero has been a professor of composition and analysis and head of the Ear Training division at the Conservatorio de las Rosas, in Morelia, Michoacán, and was dean of the conservatory from 2004 to 2007.
Ignacio Baca-Lobera
Ignacio Baca-Lobera was born in Mexico City in June 28,1957. He started his musical interests as a self-taught musician. Later, he studied composition with Julio Estrada in Mexico, and recently with Joji Yuasa, Jean-Charles François and Brian Ferneyhough in the United States. He holds Ph. D. and Master degrees in composition from the University of California at San Diego. He also has taken summer courses at IRCAM (1992) and Darmstadt (1990 and 1992).
His chamber and orchestral music explore techniques such as random processes, microtonalism, Network Theory and graphic approaches to composition. His music has received several awards: honorable mentions at Jose Pablo Moncayo contest for orchestra (1982) and Lan Adomian contest for chamber music (1980), both in Mexico; finalist at New Music Today (1988) in Japan; and Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at Darmstadt, Germany in 1992 for Trios (y dobles). For the year 1992-93 Ignacio Baca-Lobera was awarded an artist's salary from the "Fondo Nacional para las Artes," Mexico. In 1996 he won the first place of the 17 th Irino Prize for orchestral music in Tokyo. Since April of 1997 he is a member of the "Sistema Nacional de Creadores" of Mexico. In June of 2001 he was appointed fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation for one year.
Ignacio Baca-Lobera's music has been performed in several festivals: Xenakis Festival (1988, San Diego); ISCM (1991, Zürich, 1993, Mexico and 1999, Rumania); Darmstadt (1990, 1992, 1994 and 2004); From June of 1994 through 1995 he was the composer in residence of the Queretaro Philharmonic.; Guest Composer at the 1994 Ferienkurse in Darmstadt, Germany; Foro de Musica Nueva (1995, 1997, 1998-2007, Mexico); Festival Cervantino (1994, 2005-2007 Mexico), Foro de Compositores del caribe (2000 and 2002), El Callejon del Ruido (Mexico, 1996 and 1997), Musik im Schömer-Haus (1998, Austria); Primavera en la Habana (2002, Cuba); Festival Radar (Mexico City, 2004, 2005 , 2006); Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemäber Musik (2004, Austria) and 2o Festival Internacional de Michoacan 2005-2007. He was composer in residence at the Aveiro University in Portugal in 2008.
In addition, he has received commissions from: John Fonville; Steve Elster; Filarmonica de Queretaro; Festival Cervantino; Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Jörg Vogel; Magnus Andersson, Son Ensemble, Pablo Gomez, Camerata de la Filarmonica de Queretaro, Ensamble 3, Fernando Dominguez, Harry Sparnaay, Ensamble Onix, Marcel Worms, Frankling Cox, Frank Uuldriks, Tjeerd Oostendorp, Tokyo Philharmonic, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and Instituto Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes de Queretaro.
He currently lives in Queretaro, Mexico where he is a full time professor at the Universidad Autonoma de Queretaro.
Victor Adán
I have been interested in music, visual arts, and computer programming
since childhood. My first musical experiments took place during the late
1980s, when my parents acquired two new pieces of furniture for our home:
an upright piano and a personal computer. Both machines fascinated me,
and I spent many hours pressing the keys of these two wondrous devices.
Each taught me a different language, the one music notation, the other
BASIC. Both machines served me well as musical instruments. The one gave
me sound just by pressing its keys, the other by typing lines of code with
the BEEP and PLAY commands.
Then I went to music school, where I was quickly taught what music really was,
and where I soon forgot all about my silly experiments. After a few disappointing
first years in college, I discovered the uncompromising music of composer Julio
Estrada and, in 1997 I decided to become his student at the Universidad Nacional
Autûnoma de Mèxico.
Upon completing my undergraduate studies, I shifted focus to the scientific side of my musical interests. In 2005 I earned an MS in media technology and digital communications from MIT, working with Barry Vercoe on such things as music structure modeling, automation and classification.
I am currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at Columbia University in New York City. I typically spend my days composing, writing computer code, reading and, in my spare time, teaching robots how to draw. Sometimes I eat as well.
Juan José Bárcenas
Juan José Bárcenas was born in 1982. He has a Bachelor's degree in music from the Mexican National Institute for Fine Arts. In 1992 he began his composition studies, his teachers were: Felipe de las Casas, Mauricio Beltran and Ignacio Baca-Lobera.
Since 2001 he has been working as composer, performer, and sound-visual artist. He has received scholarships, mentions and performances from: The Mexican National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA) 2005, The Young Creators Scholarships (FOECA) 2004, Seoul Computer Music Festival 2005 and, New Music International Forum " Manuel Enriquez 2005 & 2007", Premio Estatal de la Juventud Querétaro 2005, National Composition Prize, Morelia 2005 & 2007, Festival International Cervantino, Festival International Santiago de Queretaro.
He has been a member of the Electro-acoustic experimental ensemble: "COLECTIVO KAOSS" since 2004, also working as a professor at the Center For Artistic Education (CEDART) in Santiago de Querétaro (México) since 2005, teaching Analysis, Composition, Harmony and Ear Training. His music has been performed in: Belgium, Korea, France, Germany, Malaysia, México, Netherlands, Spain, the United Kingdom and USA.
Edgar Guzmán
Edgar was born in Querétaro, México in 1981. Currently, he’s studying composition with Ignacio Baca Lobera at the School for the Arts at the Universidad Autónoma de Querétaro.
Both in 2002 and 2004, the Council of Arts of Querétaro awarded him the Young Creators Scholarship. In 2003 the National System for Music Promotion commissioned Edgar to write an orchestral work to be performed by the Youth Symphony Orchestra of México. The 31st International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art Bourges 2004 chose him for a residence in 2005, fulfilled at the LIPM of Buenos Aires. He’s member of the Projet-Itinerant, an international group of young artists who’s wish it is to create a link between several countries’ new artistic production. In 2006, he was awarded the Council of Arts of Guanajuato’s Young Composers Strengthening Program, and he was awarded the National Young Creators Scholarship by the National Council of Arts in Mexico.
He has participated in new music festivals such as the Manuel Enriquez International New Music Forum, Monterrey’s New Music Festival, Lab33 Project, Festival Radar (Mexico), the Polyphonic Voices Chicago ICE Fest 2004, V BIMESP International Electroacoustic Biennale in São Paulo Brazil, 30th Festival Neue Musik in Lüneburg, Festival Synthese 2005 in Bourges, Projet Itinerant in Buenos Aires, and the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico, among others.
José-Luis Hurtado
José-Luis Hurtado's music has been performed in
Asia, Europe, North and Latin America by ensembles such as The Boston
Modern Orchestra Project, Interensemble, Pierrot Lunaire
Ensemble Wien and The Arditti Quartet among many others.
He has been the recipient of Kompositionspreis der Stadt Wolkersdorf (Austria),
The Harvard University Green Prize for Excellence in Composition (USA),
The Julián Carrillo Composition Prize (Mexico), and 2nd prize in
the Troisieme Concours International de composition du Quatuor Molinari (Canada).
Hurtado is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University where he has studied under Davidovsky, Birtwistle, Czernowin, Lindberg, Ferneyhough and Lachenmann.
Víctor Ibarra
Víctor Ibarra was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, México. He studied the license in flute in the National School of Music at the National University of Mexico with Rubén Islas; he also studied composition at the “Studio of Polyphonic Resources” with Humberto Hernández Medrano, and later with José Luis Castillo and Hebert Vázquez.
He has taken many master classes, composition courses and seminaries with central personalities, such as: Theo Lovendie, Helmut Lachenmann, Mario Lavista, Carlos Sánchez, Ricardo Zohn, Ignacio Baca-Lobera, Georgina Derbéz, Martín Matalón, and Kaija Saariaho.
His work has obtained many distinctions and recognitions; his music has been played in important forums such as Manuel Enríquez International Forum of New Music in México, the “Festival Internacional Cervantino”, the International Composition Festival in Morelia, the “Aspekte” Festival in Salzburg, the INJUVE composition festival in 2006 in Spain, he was winner of the national composition contest in 2007 in the “Forum de las Culturas” and in the “Musikfabrik” international composition contest in 2008.
His music has been played by important groups of chamber music and contemporary ensembles like: Ensamble tres, Ossia ensemble, Aspekte festival quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Arditti String Quartet and the Ensemble InterContemporain, quoting some groups.
Víctor Ibarra has won scholarships for developing his work, such as the Creation Foment and Artistic Development Supports (2000,2003,2005), scholarships for the Young Creators (2000), Composition Program for Young Creators (2005-2006), and the Young Creators Program of the National Found for the Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA).
Currently he is working towards a “Diplôme Superieure de Compostion” at the Normal School of Music in Paris with Edith Lejet and, with Jean-Luc Hervé at the National Conservatory of Boulogne.
Marisol Jiménez
Born in Guadalajara, Mexico in 1978, her output includes a variety of chamber and electroacoustic works as well as projects in collaboration with visual and installation artists. She began her musical studies by studying piano at an early age, and later at the School of Music of the University of Guadalajara. In May of 2003, she completed her bachelor’s degree in music composition at the University of Oregon where she composed a number of chamber works, and also began working with electronic media. In the fall of 2005, she completed a master’s degree at Mills College. She currently is working towards a doctoral degree in composition at Stanford University, where she studies with Brian Ferneyhough, Mark Applebaum and Erik Ulman. Her music has been performed in concerts and music festivals in Mexico, U.S.A. and Europe by groups including the Arditti String quartet, the ensemble recherche, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Surplus, Octandre and SFSound.
Sandra Lemus
Sandra Lemus, born in Morelia, Michoacán in 1982, studied music at the Conservatory of the Roses in her native city under the tutelage of Germán Romero. She has taken special courses with Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail, Javier Álvarez, Teodoro Anzellotti, Ignacio Baca Lobera, Hebert Vázquez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, José Luis Castillo and Carlos Sánchez-Gutiérrez, among others. Her works have been performed by the chamber groups Ossia (USA), L’instant donné (France), the Ensamble de las Rosas (Mexico), the Camerata de las Américas (Mexico) and the Ensamble 3 (Mexico). Currently, she has a scholarship from the National Fund for Culture and Arts (FONCA).
Iván Naranjo
Iván Naranjo (1977) studied composition at “Conservatorio de las Rosas” in Morelia, Mexico, with Germán Romero. He is currently earning an MA. in composition and experimental music at Wesleyan University with Alvin Lucier, Anthony Braxton and Ron Kuivila.
His music has been performed in Mexico and the US by performers such as Ensamble 3, Wilfrido Terrazas, Alexander Bruck, Joao Gonzáles, Versus 8 and Ensamble de las Rosas. His first string quartet “uno” (2002) was recorded by the Arditti Quartet, and is included in the cd: ARDITTI QUARTET: MEXICO, New Music for Strings, released by Mode records in 2006.
Hiram Navarrete
Hiram Navarrete was born in Morelia, Mexico on December 23, 1976. He studied composition (B.A.) with Germán Romero at Las Rosas Conservatory of Music in Mexico and briefly attended Walter Zimmermann’s composition seminar at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, Germany. In 2005, he moved to Middletown, Connecticut to start an M.A. in Experimental Music and Composition at Wesleyan University where he had the opportunity to work with Alvin Lucier, Ron Kuivila and Anthony Braxton. A growing interest in sculpture–which became the main subject of his master’s thesis and his recent work–lead him to study with artists Jeffrey Schiff (sculpture) and John Slepian (interactive sculpture). He currently lives and works in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Mauricio Rodríguez
Mauricio Rodríguez (1976) earned his Bachelor’s degree in composition from 1994 to 2000 at the Laboratory of Musical Creation led by Julio Estrada at The National University of Mexico, doing at the same time piano and ethnomusicology studies. He has a Masters in Sonology and studies composition granted by the Royal Conservatory The Hague, The Netherlands where he studied with Clarence Barlow, Paul Berg and Konrad Bohemer. During 2005-2006 he completed the one-year course at the Centre de Creation Musicale with Iannis Xenakis in Paris, France. Currently he is pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts program in composition at Stanford University with Brian Ferneyhough as advisor.
His musical writing is influenced by graphical representation, by multiparametric conception of sound and musical structure, by algorithmic processes, and by experimentation as a fundamental method of construction.
3G: Tres Generaciones Music Festival is generously supported by the Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, the Meet the Composer/JPMorganChase Regrant Program for Small Ensembles, the Aaron Copland Fund for Performing Ensembles, and by public funds from the City of New York, Department of Cultural Affairs.
