MANUEL MARTINEZ BURGOS

Composer
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Formal clarity, presence, power and symphonic weight. BBVA Foundation Jury Panel
His works constitute a model where self-honesty is the hallmark. E. Trujillo, Ritmo
Coherence and contrast achieved at a very high level. L. Hontañón, Scherzo
Manuel’s works have originality, sonic attractiveness and are very well outlined. Tomás Marco
The most awarded composer of his generation. A leading figure in composition. M. L. Benito, Clasica2

Manuel Martínez-Burgos holds a PhD in Music from the University of Oxford. Having obtained 20 national and international composition awards, including the Jean Sibelius Prize in Finland, the Isang Yun in Korea, the National Auditorium Music Award – BBVA Foundation (Spain) or the Osgood Memorial Prize from the University of Oxford, Martínez Burgos is the most awarded Spanish composer of his generation. Jury members at these competitions, composers such as Helmut Lachenmann, Tristan Murail, Kaija Saariaho or Unsuk Chin, have all praised his compositions as being universes of sound, full of expressive power, coherence and imagination. Martínez Burgos’ works have been performed worldwide by ensembles like the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Arthur Rubinstein Orchestra (Poland), the National Orchestra of Spain or the Radio Television Orchestra of Spain. He was awarded his first DPhil at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Martínez Burgos holds a chair in composition in the Principality of Asturias (Spain) and is tutor in composition at the University of Oxford (St Anne’s College). He has been visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge and Erasmus teacher at the Higher Conservatory of Paris (CNSMD). He has also delivered lectures in prestigious institutions such as the Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), Chopin University (Warsaw) or the Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Moscow).

BIO - Eng
BIO - Esp
I
Osgood Prize, Univ. of Oxford
First Prize BBVA Foundation - National Auditorium
Matching Arts Composition Prize - Utrecht
First Prize Frederic Mompou
Jean Sibelius Prize, Finland
Second Prize BBVA Foundation - Spain
Andres Gaos Composition Award - La Coruña (Spain)
Final round Bucarest Composition Prize
K. Serocki Prize, Poland
Third Prize BBVA Foundation - Spain
First Prize town of Madrid
Final Round Uuno Klami Competition - Finland
First Prize G. Bacewicz, Poland
Dimitri Mitropoulos Prize - Greece
First Prize Santander 250 years
Final Round Jurgenson - Tchaikovsky Conservatory - Moscow
Second Prize G. Bacewicz, Poland
Isang Yun Prize - Korea
Eulalio Ferrer - Cervantes Society Prize - Mexico
Final Round - Univ. of Bristol Composition Competition
List of works

ORCHESTRAL

Codex

2018-19 Orchestra Duration: 9 minutes Premiere: 11 May 2019. Oxford, Oxford Philharmonic.   Composition based on the “Codex on Birds” by Leonardo Da Vinci. Commissioned by Oxford Philharmonic.

Daivat

2018 Orchestra Duration: 14 minutes Premiere: 23 February 2019. Basel, Basel Chamber Orchestra.   Daivat means power and strength in Sanskrit. It also refers to the time that memory cannot remember.

The Shout

2018 Orchestra Duration: 7 minutes Workshop: 4 March 2018. Oxford, Oxford Philharmonic.   This piece is based on a poem by Simon Armitage (Professor of Poetry 2015-2019, University of Oxford). The orchestra recites the poem in various ways and with different prosodic variations.

Before Silence

2012 Orchestra Duration: 14 minutes Premiere: 11 February 2012. Madrid, National Auditorium. National Orchestra of Spain.   The starting point of this piece is silence, not as a physical fact but as the magic phenomenon that happens when a music composition finishes. The compositional process is thus made with this final point in mind, which was composed in first instance.  As a result, the end of the piece is treated as not as the consequence of all previous musical processes but as the true originator of musical form.

Signals

2010 Orchestra Duration: 13 minutes. Premiere: 8 January 2011. Madrid, National Auditorium. National Orchestra of Spain.   This piece continues with the research line of Sibilus including whistled languages from different regions of the world.

Sibilus

2008 Orchestra Duration: 15 minutes Premiere: 19 September 2009. Seoul, Seoul Arts Center. Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra.   Sibilus is the starting point of a research into the possibilities that certain melodies from             whistled languages offer for composition.

Umbrales

2006 Orchestra Duration: 17 minutes. Premiere: 4 May 2009. Madrid, National Auditorium. ORCAM, Orchestra of Madrid.   Unlike the Classical & Romantic symphony, Umbrales includes extensive interludes between its different contrasting movements. This creates a destabilizing formal effect while the intermediate sections provide unity to the piece.

SOLOIST AND ORCHESTRA

Cloches

2021 Solo piano and orchestra Duration: 23 minutes   To be premiered by the Oviedo Philharmonic (Spain) in 2022.

Saxophone Concerto

2021 Solo saxo and orchestra Duration: 22 minutoes   To be premiered at the World Saxophone Congress in Japan in 2022.

Dung Chen

2016 Solo trumpet and string orchestra Duration: 15 minutes. Premiere: 27 November 2015. Lodz, Poland. Arthur Rubinstein Orchestra. Trumpet soloist: Manuel Blanco.   This concert for solo trumpet and string orchestra is based on the spectral analysis of the Tibetan horns.

Generations

2012 Solo violin, string orchestra and percussion Duration: 16 minutes Premiere: 7 December 2012. Lodz, Poland.  Arthur Rubinstein Łódź Philharmonic. Violin soloist: Maria Machowska.   In this concert for violin and orchestra the interaction between both musical protagonists is reflected in a kind of “sound habitat” where the different elements generate resonances and transfers that serve as the piece main source of development.

Activations

2010 Solo cello and orchestra Duration: 14 minutes Premiere: 11 February 2012. Madrid, National Auditorium. National Orchestra of Spain. Cello soloist: Iagoba Fanlo.   Concert for cello and orchestra conceived as a microcosm in which the spectral analysis of the soloist gestures articulates the orchestral discourse.

CHOIR AND ORCHESTRA

Geroglifico d’amore

2017 Choir and orchestra Duration: 22 minutes. Premiere: 27 February 2018. ORCAM, Choir and Orchestra of Madrid.   Reflection on love in its different meanings according to the tradition of Classical Greece.

The Bacchae

2012 Choir, tenor, baritone and orchestra Duration: 25 minutes.   Dramatic work for chorus, tenor baritone and orchestra based on the tragedy The Bacchae by Euripides (with English translations from Ancient Greek from the University of Oxford).

Sidón Ibera

2004 Choir and orchestra Duration: 21 minutes Premiere: 29 June 2005. Santander, Palace of Festivals. Lyric Choir of Cantabria and Symphonic Orchestra of Castilla y León (Spain).   This work tells the history of the city of Santander through the phonetic transformation of its name in the choir.

CHORAL

Three Visions of Ecstasy

2019 Mixed choir Duration: 8 minutes Workshop: 4 March 2019. London, BBC Singers.   This composition is refection on Hildegard von Bingen and her visions of ecstasy.

Dies Mei

2016 Mixed choir Duration: 6 minutes. Premiere: 7 March 2016, Oxford. Christ Church Choir.   This piece constitutes a highly transformed repertoire of versions of the Dies Mei according to the tradition of Hispanic singing.

Sun Rays

2016 Mixed choir and cello. Duration: 6 minutes. Premiere: 25 June 2016. Madrid. Zenobia Consort.   Piece for mixed chorus and cello that explores the harmonic possibilities offered by this instrumental combination.

Phos

2015 Men’s & children’s choir Duration: 7 minutes. Premiere: 14 November 2015, Finland, also workshopped by the BBC singers in London.   This composition is based on the idea of light as a universal concept in very different traditions.

Lembranças

2004 Children’s choir Duration: 6 minutes Premiere: Recorded for the CD, Lembranzas. Dep. leg.: M-44447-2005.

Stabat Mater

2002 Mixed choir Duration: 10 minutes Premiere: 4 March 2002. Madrid, Royal Basilic of Atocha.

Missa Brevis

2000 Mixed choir Duration: 12 minutes. Premiere: 6 October 2000, Madrid. Teatro Monumental. Choir of Spanish Radio Television RTVE.   This is a piece that explores the micro-polyphonic possibilities of the choir.   Kyrie Eleison 1999 Mixed Choir Duration: 5 minutes Premiere: 10 December 1999. Broadcasted, National Radio of Spain.

OPERA

Renombranza

1994 Voice, chamber ensemble and optional electroacoustic Duration: 50 minutes.   Renombranza is an introspective chamber opera written for voice, instrumental group and electronics. It is based on medieval texts.

STRING ORCHESTRA

Three Miniatures Upon Sibilus

2016 String Orchestra Duration: 8 minutes.   Short version of Sibilus adapted for string orchestra.

Extensions

2000 String orchestra Duration: 10 minutes   In Extensions the note is conceived as an extension of the line that can create drawings and sound forms.

ENSEMBLE

Initiations

2017 Chamber ensemble Duration: 10 minutes Workshop: March 2017, University of Oxford. Chroma Ensemble. Premiere: 10 December 2017. Warsaw, Lutoslawski Polish Radio Concert Hall.   In this piece the members of the chamber group interact with each other by means of musical gestures that are transformed idiomatically by each instrument.

Elixir

2014 Chamber ensemble Duration: 19 minutes. Premiere: 27 April 2014. Madrid, Royal Theatre. Soloists of Madrid’s Symphonic Orchestra.    Elixir involves an interdisciplinary dialogue between the videoart and the spatialization of the performers.

Hommage

2012 Chamber ensemble Duration: 12 minutes Premiere: 8 March 2012. Madrid, BBVA Foundation. Clarinet: Justo   For harp and chamber sextet, Hommage is a tribute to the piece of Claude Debussy’s with the same instrumentation.

Sibilus

2008 Ensemble Duration: 15 minutes   Version for ensemble of the orchestral work.

Manifiesto

1991 Percussion ensemble Duration: 8 minutes Premiere: 31 March 1992. Zaragoza, School of Arts and Crafts. Grupo Enigma.   This piece, for percussion group, is the presentation of Martinez Burgos at the composition course with Mr Cristóbal Halftter.

CHAMBER MUSIC

Flor de Azahar

2021 Solo guitar and wind quintet Duration: 16 minutes   To be premiered by Azahara Quintet and Jacob Kellerman at the Gothenburg Chamber Music Festival 2022.

Vowels

2016 String Quartet n. 3 Duration: 12 minutes Workshop: 8 March 2016. Oxford, University of Oxford. Villiers Quartet. Premiere: 5 November 2016, Madrid. Royal Conservatory of Music. Cuarteto Cibeles.   My third string quartet is based on the spectral analysis of the five basic vowels, which   form the harmonic material of the work.

Death Be Not Proud

2016 Mezzo and piano Workshop: 9 March 2018, Oxford. Oxford University.   A mystical poem by John Donne serves as an inspiration for this reflection on death.

Zangs Dung

2015 Cello and piano Duration: 7 minutes. Premiere: 11 March 2015. Madrid, Sala 400, MNARS.   This piece is based on the spectral analysis of Tibetan trumpets.

Reflexa

2019 Clarinet and piano Duration: 8 minutes. Reflections, sound echoes and a certain dramatization are the main ideas of this composition.

Silent Sun

2014 Mezzo-soprano, violin, cello and piano Duration: 12 minutes. Premiere: 18 March 2014. Paris. Cervantes Institute.   Silent Sun is an imaginary encounter between the poets Walt Whitman and Federico       García Lorca.

Generations

2014 Version for violin and piano Duration: 16 minutes. Premiere: 18 Mach 2014. Paris, Cervantes Institute. French premiere.   This piece is a version for violin and piano of the concert for violin and orchestra.  

Opposite Mirrors

2012 Saxophone alto and piano Duration: 10 minutes. Premiere: 9 June 2012. Utrecht, Utrecht Conservatorium. French premiere: 18 Mach 2014. Paris, Cervantes Institute.   The alto saxophone and the piano establish a dialogue where the echoes, resonances and imitations of each of them form the harmonic spectrum of the work.

Dichosa edad y siglos dichosos

2011 Trio (violin, cello and piano) Duration: 14 minutes. Premiere: 27 October 2011. Guanajuato, Mexico. Trio Morelia. Cervantes Festival. French premiere: 18 Mach 2014. Paris. Cervantes Institute.   This trio is based on a speech by Don Quixote.

Counterpoints

2000 String Quartet n. 2 Duration: 15 minutes. Premiere: December 2000, Moscow. Studio for New Music.   String quartet with extensive contrapuntal treatment.

Reminiscere

1998 String quartet n. 1 Duration: 12 minutes. Premiere: 20 June 2012. Madrid. CEDAM. Titan string quartet.   This string quartet is inspired by the composer’s reflections on memory and oblivion.

Neuma

1997 Flute, oboe and clarinet Duration: 10 minutes Premiere: 8 May 1997, Madrid. Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). LIM Group.   Neuma, air in Greek, is the basis of this composition that explores the long sounds of      wooden wind instruments and their timbre metamorphoses.

Entidad contrastada

1996 Soprano and clarinet Duration: 10 minutes Premiere: 27 October 1996. Madrid. Reina Sofia Museum.   Composition for clarinet and voice that is my presentation at the Queen Sofía National Art Centre. My fields of interest for future works are already present in this composition.

SOLO

Shadows in the Water

2018 Piano and electronics Duration: 10 minutes Premiere: 5 May 2018, Madrid. BBVA Foundation. Alberto Rosado. UK Premiere: 30 May 2018, Oxford. Jacqueline Du Pre Music Hall. Karl Lutchmayer.    Shadows in the Water, based on a poem by Thomas Traherne, is a piano piece where poetry meets music within a context of electronics

I Have a Dream

2019 Solo oboe   I Have a Dream is a composition that explores the possibilities of transferring an actual speech into music.

Sound Clouds

2016 Solo piano Duration: 8 minutes Premiere: 6 November 2016. Warsaw, Chopin University. Jonathan Powell.   Sound Clouds is a piece made with stochastic procedures as a tribute to Iannis Xenakis.  

Clear-eyed

2015 Solo piano Duration: 5 minutes Premiere: 20 June 2016. Zwiefalten, Germany.   The essence of this piece is the search for a crystalline sound.

Interludes

2014 Solo cello Premiere: 11 October 2014, Madrid, Contemporary Music Festival of Tres Cantos.   This piece is a cello suite conceived as a tribute to Bach’s suites. Like Emphasis for violin, this composition combines extended techniques and traditional idiomatic writing.

Constances

2010 Solo piano Duration: 8 minutes   In this piece I look for expression through the relationship between dynamics and rhythmic figuration.

Quicio

1996 Solo guitar Premiere: 14 July 1996. Darmstadt, International Courses for New Music.   This piece uses the resources of the flamenco guitar in order to turn them into extended guitar techniques. 1994 – 2021
Download Catalogue

NEXT EVENTS 2023 (2024)

Oviedo — February 2024
Premiere of Humanidad, que viene de las tinieblas…, for orchestra
Oviedo Filarmonía

Oviedo — 29-31/1/2024
Recording of the Piano Concerto n. 1.

Oviedo — 24/11/2023
Premier of the Piano concerto n 1. Oviedo Filarmonía. Noelia Rodiles, piano

Madrid – 27/10/2023
Folías, for baroque ensemble. Festival Diacronías.

Madrid – October 2023
Contemporary Music Festival

Oxford – 9/5/2023
World premiere: Songs of a Nomad Flute and a Roamer Drum – Tangram Collective
St Catherine’s College

Madrid 18/3/2023
Liminalis Spanish Radio Television Orchestra soloists
Teatro Monumental

Barcelona – 7/3/2023
Lecture on composition. Taller de Musics – SuperWeek.

Oxford – 5/3/2023
Tangram Collective- Workshop

Oviedo — 11/2/2023
World premiere of Liminalis, for septet. Soloists of the Vienna Philharmonic
Auditorio Principe Felipe

Salamanca — 8/2/2023
World premiere of Liminalis, for septet. Soloists of the Vienna Philharmonic

Valladolid — 7/2/2023
World premiere of Liminalis, for septet. Soloists of the Vienna Philharmonic
Auditorio Miguel Debiles

PAST EVENTS

Madrid — 2/10/2022
Clear-Eyed, for piano solo. Isabel Dobarro, pianist.

Oviedo — 28/4/2022
Premiere of Ether for ensemble. Grupo Enigma, Asier Puga, conductor.

Gijon — 27/4/2022
Romancero gitano, for pianist-recitator, Fernando López Blanco, piano-recitation.

Oviedo — 21/4/2022
Romancero gitano, for pianist-recitator. Fernando López Blanco, piano-recitation.

Madrid — 12/3/2022
Premiere of Memento for guitar solo. Gerardo Arriaga, guitar.

Paris — 4-5/3/2022
Participation at the international “Tristan Murail Congress”. CNSMD

Gothenburg – 15/1/2022
Premiere of the concert for guitar and chamber group entitled Flor de Azahar. Gothenburg International Chamber Music Festival

Madrid – 11/28/2021
Performance of Elixir, for chamber group. Madrid International Music Festival. COMA21

Paris – 11/21/2021
Performance of the piece Clear-Eyed. Eva Llorente, piano. Fondation de l’Allemagne – Maison Heinrich Heine.

Madrid – 12/9/2021
Resonancias latentes, premiere, for piano duo. Madrid International Music Festival. COMA21

Oxford – 15/5/2021
Lecture on musical composition. Faculty of Music. University of Oxford.

Oxford – 12/10/2020 to 1/21/2021
Award of the doctorate in composition by the Faculty of Music of the University of Oxford. The doctorate was awarded for the artistic merit of the works composed by Manuel Martínez Burgos between 2015 and 2020, as well as for his research on the use of prosody as a source of inspiration in composition.

Villafranca del Bierzo, Spain – 8-22 / 8/2020
International Composition Courses. Lectures on composition as visiting professor.

Mexico – 24-31 / 8/2020
-Resident composer of the International Festival of New Music “Interciclos”. National Fund for the Culture of the Arts of Mexico.
-Lecture on composition. Academic activity.
-Performance of Clear-Eyed and Sound Clouds, the latter is a commission by the Xenakis Congress at the Chopin University in Warsaw. Gonzalo Gutiérrez, piano.

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Manuel Martinez Burgos