Hypermusic Prologue and Hèctor Parra in Accents

Posted by Leticia Martin on May 6, 2009  |  Leave a comment

Issue no. 38 of the review Accents published by the Ensemble Intercontemporain is dedicated to Hèctor Parra’s Hypermusic Prologue.

Hypermusic Prologue is a unique project for intercommunication between science, music and art. It explores the traditional opera form in order to generate a type of dramatic expression for the 21st century, its ideas and creative processes, including recent research into physics and its parallelisms in music and art.

The main character, a composer and scientist, experiences deep tension between his “earthly love” and his “passion for knowledge”. This tension is built up dramatically through the contradictions between his life with his lover, limited in space and time, and his conviction that there is a much bigger world waiting to be explored.

This opera represents an opportunity to foster the search for more expressive forms for the drama and the musical possibilities. Its object is to find aesthetic structural connections through sound between that most abstract of the arts – music – and the highest concepts of theoretical physics, as researched by Lisa Randall and others. We hope the result will be a novel and fascinating creative experience.

The review is free and can be downloaded here.

The ARS Musica Festival in Brussels gives the music of Hector Parra a warm reception

Posted by Leticia Martin on March 18, 2009  |  Leave a comment

The 20th ARS Musica Festival in Brussels has confirmed its position as one of the most important in the ambit of contemporary music. From 10 March to 10 April some of the best-known names on the contemporary scene will pass through the Belgian capital.

The composer Hèctor Parra, confirming his international projection, has been present at the festival with two concerts and a talk. The Arditti Quartet premiered his work “Leaves of reality” on 12 March and the Brussels Philarmonic conducted by Michel Tabachnik  performed one of his latest works for  orchestra, “Lumières Abyssales-Chroma”.

Further information at: www.arsmusica.be

Hèctor Parra, winner of the Premio Tendències award for up-and-coming creators

Posted by Leticia Martin on February 5, 2009  |  Leave a comment

The composer Hèctor Parra (Barcelona, 1976) has had a good start to 2009, a year that is going to confirm him as one of the most important Spanish composers on the international scene. On 19 January he received the Premio Tendencies for the outstanding, up-and-coming creator of the year in Catalonia, awarded by the Catalan edition of the newspaper El Mundo.

The composer was thrilled to win this prize, in particular because it represents recognition of his work in his home city, something that up till now has been more evident abroad. A good example of the interest this composer is arousing is the programming of his opera Hypermusic Prologue by the Teatre Liceo in Barcelona, undoubtedly his most ambitious work to date. This opera, with a libretto by the American physicist Lisa Randall, was commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, and will be premiered in that city before coming to the Barcelona theatre.

Madrid has also just recently been the venue for a concert with works by Hèctor Parra. As part of the programming of Musicadhoy the Ensemble Recherche played his works Abîme- Antigona IV, String Trio and Piano Trio nº1: Wortschatten. These works have been recorded by the same ensemble on a monographic CD produced by the Austrian label Kairos in conjunction with Caja Madrid.

A talk with Lisa Randall

Posted by Marcel Soleda on December 15, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Yesterday published in The Boston Globe, an interview with Lisa Randall about her present project: the opera Hypermusic Prologue, by Hèctor Parra.

Read the whole interview…

Hèctor Parra and Lisa Randall: Hypermusic Prologue

Posted by Leticia Martin on December 9, 2008  |  2 Comments

At beginnings of 2008 the DLD (Digital, Live, Design) Conference in Munich provided a platform for the music of composer Hèctor Parra. DLD is one of the world’s leading showcases for digital design and interactions between art, science and technology, with the presence of many of the top names in this new network of creativity.

Hèctor Parra, the only Spaniard present at the conference, appeared with the artist Matthew Ritchie, the art patron and impresario Francesca von Habsburg and the theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, who is collaborating with Mr Parra on a chamber opera project entitled Hypermusic Prologue.

Check the video highlights after the jump…

Hèctor Parra CD on Kairos

Posted by Leticia Martin on November 17, 2008  |  Leave a comment

The Austrian label KAIROS, in collaboration with the Fundación Caja Madrid, has embarked on an ambitious project for a contemporary music collection which will include 15 CDs dedicated to Spanish composers from the generation born between the 1960s and 1970s, to be released over the next 3 years. The project was presented in Madrid on 12 November with the announcement of the release of the first CDs, featuring composers Mauricio Sotelo, José María Sánchez Verdú, Elena Mendoza and Hèctor Parra.

The recording of Hèctor Parra’s works by is the highly-acclaimed German contemporary music group Ensemble Recherche, founded in 1985. The works on the CD, all composed between 2002 and 2007, illustrate the essence of Mr Parra’s style: Piano Trio nº 2 Knotted Fields (2007), Impromptu for piano (2005), Piano Trio nº 1 Wortschatten (2004), L’Aube assaillie (2005) for cello and electronic instruments, Abîme – Antigona IV (2002) and String Trio (2006).

Hèctor Parra at the Earplay Ensemble Season

Posted by Marcel Soleda on May 19, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Trio Wortschatten by Hèctor Parra, winner of the 2007 Earplay Donald Aird Memorial Composition Competition, will be performed by the Earplay Ensemble this 28 May at the San Francisco Arts Festival.

“Trio Wortschatten” for violin, cello and piano was selected from among 169 works from 27 countries by a specialized jury. And in addition to the monetary award, the Earplay Ensemble, one of the most prestigious ensembles in the US, will be including the piece in its programme this season.