Hèctor Parra Explained

Hèctor Parra i Esteve (born 17 April 1976) is a Spanish composer. Since 2002 he has lived in Paris.

Life

Born in Barcelona, Parra completed his studies with Carles Guivoart, David Padrós and Maria Jesús Crespo at the Municipal Conservatory of Barcelona with an award in composition and a distinction in piano. After also graduating in choral conducting, he studied orchestra conducting with Arturo Tamayo at the University of Alcalá. He continued his composition studies with Michael Jarrell at the Geneva University of Music in 2005–2006, and with Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer and Philippe Manoury at IRCAM, Royaumont foundation academy, Centre Acanthes (France) and Takefu (Japan). He was selected for studying composition and computer music at IRCAM (2002–2003) with Mikhail Malt and Philippe Leroux. He earned a master's degree in Sciences and Technology of Art from the Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis under the supervision of Horacio Vaggione in 2005. Beside music, he studied painting and drawing at Francesco Miñarro's studio in Barcelona. Between 2005 and 2012 he was a professor of Electroacoustic composition at the Conservatory of Music of Aragon between 2013 and 2017 he was composition professor at IRCAM. He has also been member of several juries in international competitions such as Concours international de piano d'Orléans 2017[1] and Geneva International Music Competition 2019.[2]

His works have been performed internationally by ensembles like Ensemble Intercontemporain, the Arditti Quartet, ensemble recherche, musikfabrik, Klangforum Wien, Freiburger Barockorchester, Concerto Köln, SWR Symphonieorchester, Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Nacional de España, Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and National Orchestra of Catalonia, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège, Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin or the ensemble mosaik as well as many soloists.

He has received commissions from the French state, from the IRCAM-Centre Pompidou on seven occasions, from the Spanish ministry of culture, from the government of Catalonia, from the City Council of Munich for the Munich Biennale and from institutions such as Academy of Arts, Berlin, Musée du Louvre, WDR, SWR, Kölner Philharmonie, Auditori de Barcelona, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien/Impuls academy Graz, Strasbourg Music Festival, Orchestre national d'Île-de-France, IVM (Valencia), Musica de Hoy (Xavier Güell), Schauspielhaus Salzburg, Caja Madrid or the Selmer Society (Paris).

His music was performed at international festivals such as Lucerne Festival, Avignon Festival, Agora Festival of IRCAM (Paris), Royaumont, Centre Acanthes, Forum Neues Musiktheater of the Stuttgart Opera House, Novart de Bordeaux, ADK Berlin, Quincena Musical de San Sebastián, Nous Sons Barcelona, Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ (Amsterdam), Philharmonie Luxembourg, Warsaw Autumn, Wien Modern, Acht Brücken (Cologne), Donaueschingen Festival, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (he was the resident composer in 2013[3]), ISCM-World Music Days 2015, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Festival Présences de Radio France, Manifesto of IRCAM-Center Pompidou, Musikprotokoll / Steirischer Herbst, KLANG (Helsinki), Traiettorie Parma, Ars Musica (Brussels), Festival Archipel (Geneva), Granada International Festival, Quincena Musical de San Sebastián or the Rainy Days Festival.

His pieces were part of programs in concert halls such as the Philharmonie de Paris, the Konzerthaus, Vienna, the Suntory Hall Tokyo, the Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, the L'Auditori Barcelona, Wigmore Hall, Palau de la Música Catalana (invited composer in 2015 and 2016[4]), Nouveau Siècle Lille (where he was resident composer in 2017 and 2018[5]) and opera houses such as Opera Vlaanderen, Berlin State Opera, the Theater Freiburg, Staatsoper Stuttgart and the Gran Teatre del Liceu.

Parra's works are published by Durand/Universal Music Publishing Classical (Paris) and by Tritó Edicions (Barcelona) (works until 2010).[6]

Major influences and style

Three major fields of inspiration can be observed in Parra's work:

Fine art

Parra is a trained painter himself. His opulent handwritten scores show his graphic skills.[7] His fascination for texture and color gradient, especially in the works of El Greco, Diego Velázquez and Paul Cézanne, led him to compositional strategies of transforming visual textures and their proportional relations into dynamic musical forms. Exemplary pieces for such transitions are Lumières Abyssales – Chroma I and Aracne – String Quartet No. 3. Also Joan Miró was a major inspiration (Constellations, L'Étoile matinale and Chiffres et constellations amoureux d'une femme). But his interest also includes more contemporary artists such as sculptor Jaume Plensa (who contributed in the making of the choir piece Breathing with a piece of poetry), Matthew Ritchie (who Parra worked with for Hypermusic Prologue and Hypermusic Ascension,[8] exhibited in New York's Guggenheim Museum), Antoni Tàpies (Cos de matèria), Gordon Matta-Clark or Gregor Schneider (Haus u r / Office Baroque, Wilde).

Natural sciences

In 2006, theoretical physics, astronomy and evolutionary biology became a source of inspiration for Parra. He transferred theories from theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet or organic chemist and molecular biologist Graham Cairns-Smith into musical processes, leading him to small chamber pieces, orchestra pieces and eventually also to his opera Hypermusic Prologue based on a libretto by Lisa Randall. Further exemplary pieces referring to such theories are: Inscape, Early life, Stress Tensor, Mineral Life, Caressant l'horizon, InFALL, or ...limite les rêves au-delà.

Literature

Around 2013 literature become a new major source of inspiration and material for Parra. Several operas, adapting novels or plays into libretti, have been created since. The opera Das geopferte Leben with a libretto by Marie NDiaye was premiered by the Freiburger Barockorchester and the ensemble recherche at the Munich Biennale in 2014.[9] In the succeeding year the opera Wilde was premiered at the Schwetzingen Festival,[10] with Calixto Bieito as director and a libretto by Klaus Händl.

Parra's hitherto most ambitious project is the opera Les Bienveillantes,[11] based on Jonathan Littell’s homonymous novel. Again with Calixto Bieito as director and a libretto by Klaus Händl. The opera was commissioned by the Vlaanderen Opera and premiered in Antwerpen and Gent in April and May 2019 and was extensively applauded by the public and praised by the international press.[12] [13]

Works

Stage works

Orchestra

Instrumental ensemble

Chamber music

Solo music

Vocal music

Semi-improvised music

Electroacoustic music

Awards and nominations

Recordings

Writings

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: 12e Concours international de piano d'Orléans 2016 . oci piano . 26 August 2021.
  2. Web site: Hèctor Parra. Concours Geneve . 26 August 2021.
  3. News: Pérez Senz . Javier . El Pais . 26 August 2021 . 14 November 2013.
  4. News: CCMA / TN . 26 August 2021 . 29 April 2016.
  5. News: Lille actu . 26 August 2021 . 9 June 2018.
  6. Web site: Composers: Hèctor Parra. Tritó Edicions. 2009-12-08 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090618122832/http://www.trito.es/cdetails.php?id=813 . 2009-06-18 . dead .
  7. Web site: Youtube Video of handwritten score to Parra's piece "Early life" . https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/5hWnopLNIvs . 2021-12-20 . live. Youtube / Score Follower . 2 July 2018 . 26 August 2021.
  8. Web site: Andrea Rosen Gallery New York . 26 August 2021.
  9. Web site: Munich Biennale Archive . 26 August 2021.
  10. News: Süddeutsche Zeitung: Trostlos, also zeitgemäß . 26 August 2021 . 25 May 2015.
  11. Web site: Opera Vlaanderen Website . 26 August 2021 . 15 June 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210615155818/https://operaballet.be/en/programme/2018-2019/les-bienveillantes . dead .
  12. News: La Vanguardia . 26 August 2021 . 25 April 2019.
  13. News: NRC: Opera Les Bienveillantes lokt je meesterlijk mee nar een plek waar je niet wilt zijn . 26 August 2021 . 25 April 2019.
  14. Web site: Lauréats – Prix Composition Musicale . Colegio de Espana . 26 August 2021.
  15. Web site: Earplay Donald Aird Composers Competition . Earplay – new chamber music . 26 August 2021.
  16. Web site: impuls . Composition Competition archive . Impuls academy . 26 August 2021 . 27 November 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201127141033/http://www.impuls.cc/archives/competition-before-2011.html . dead .
  17. News: El Mundo. Quiero que la gente disfrute con el estómago y con el cerebro . 26 August 2021 . 14 January 2009.
  18. Web site: Böggemann . Markus . Surface events – Hèctor Parra . Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation . 26 August 2021.
  19. Web site: Hèctor Parra: «Das geopferte Leben» uraufgeführt in München . Der Theaterverlag . 26 August 2021.
  20. Web site: Hèctor Parra (Barcelona, 1976) . Consell Nacional de la Cultura i de les Arts – CoNCA . 26 August 2021.
  21. Web site: FEDORA GENERALI Prize for Opera Nominees 2018: Les Bienveillantes . Fedora Platform . 26 August 2021.