Benet Casablancas

National Music Award 2013 for "the maturity and mastery contained in his music, his recognizable contribution to the various genres that make up his catalogue, and his wide international dissemination" Born in Sabadell (Barcelona), Benet Casablancas studied music 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. His works, distinguished with numerous commissions and awards (Ciutat de Barcelona, Musician’s Accord of New York, Spanish National Recording Prize, Composer’s Arena of Amsterdam, Juventuts Musicals de Barcelona, Òscar Esplà, Ferran Sors, finalist at the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation Musical Competition, etc.), have been performed regularly around Europe, Canada, the USA, Japan and Latin America by prestigious ensembles, soloists and conductors (London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal, Ensemble 13 de Baden-Baden, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Leipziger Streichquartett, Ensemble Modern Akademie, Deutsches Kammerphilarmonie de Bremen, Orchestre National de Belgique, NJO of The Netherlands, Malmö Symfoni Orkester, Orquesta Nacional de España, etc.). In 2008 he made his debut with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and his “New Epigrams” (published by Tritó) represented Spain at the SIMC World Music Days held in Vilnius. His works have been programed in such emblematic concert halls like the Musikverein of Viena, the London Barbican Hall, the Palais des Beaux-Arts of Bruxelles and the Miller Theatre at Columbia University New York. The 2007 was awarded the National Music Prize granted by the Generalitat de Catalunya. 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 book El Humor en la Música: Broma, Parodia e Ironía (Reichenberger, 2000). He has been head of theory 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, between them and regularly, the Courses of Musical Specialization of the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares (Spain). In 2002 he assumed the direction of the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu (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 a progressively luminous harmonic language, rhythmic spirit, a growing timbral differentiation and instrumental virtuosoism coexist. His most recent assignments include commissions from the Miller Theatre at Columbia University New York (Composer Portraits series), the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ensemble 88 in Maastricht, and the Ensemble Cantus of Croatia and the Tokyo Sinfonietta.