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 City of Munich, the
Government of Catalonia and institutions such as the Berlin Academy of Arts,
WDR, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Münchener Biennale, Klangforum Wien/Impuls,
Mécénat Musical de Société Générale, Strasbourg Music Festival, Auditori de
Barcelona, 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 has taught composition at the Academy Voix Nouvelles 2011 of Fondation
Royaumont. He lives
in Paris since 2002.