composer

Martínez, Guillermo

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Guillermo Martínez  was born in Venezuela in 1983.

Education: Martínez studied organ and composition at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Oviedo, under the tutelage of teachers Antonio Corveiras and Victor Leoncio Diéguez, respectively. Later, he earned a Master of Music degree in composition with distinctions at the University of Manchester in the class of Dr. Richard Whalley.
Martínez has participated as a guest student in the master class in composition at the Northern Royal College of Music (2011), under the composer Brian Ferneyhough. Also, he was invited to the master class in composition and music education as offered by Alberto Grau and Maria Guinand (Venezuela’s La Sistema) in the Bremer Hochschule, Germany (2010).

Career: Along with his career as a composer, Guillermo Martínez has developed an active career as organist and cantor. He is a member of EuropaChorAkademie since 2000, a group that performs on the principal stages of the U.S., China, and Europe, under the baton of figures like Michael Gielen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Sylvain Cambreling, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vladimir Jurowski and Placido Domingo. As a member of the choir El León de Oro he has won two national Gran Prixes (2003, 2006), among many other national and international recognitions. Martínez has also been organist of the Cathedral of Oviedo (2006/08) giving concerts in France and Spain, and collaborating with several orchestras. In his role as organist, he has participated in courses with the masters Andrés Cea and Jean Claude Zendher.
Besides, Guillermo Martínez is member of the Honorary Advisory Board of the International Institute for Music Education of Hong Kong in 2015.

Compositions: Guillermo Martínez’s music has been performed in the United States, Cuba, Austria, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Sweden, Lithuania, Morocco and Spain. Interpreters of his works include institutions such as EuropaChorAkademie, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, Cuarteto Vocal Español (of the Spanish National Radio Choir), Psappha Ensemble, Orquesta Oviedo Filarmonía, JOSPA Orchestra, Orquesta Ars Mundi, Quatuor Danel, coro El León de Oro, Cuarteto Vínculos, Landarbaso Koroa, Ad Solem Chamber Ensemble, Coro Universitario de Oviedo, Coro Xenakis, among others.
Guillermo Martínez’s work has been broadcast on radio and TV in America and Europe. Martínez has sixteen publications in total, among CD, DVD, and notated music.
Among the most recent premieres, a highlight was the presentation of his ‘Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No.1‘, a piece commissioned by the Jornadas de Piano “Luis G. Iberni” and premiered in the context of this festival, in November 2013. The concerto was performed by Argentine soloist Horacio Lavandera.

Awards: Martínez was awarded with the scholarship Cajastur for Artists – 2009 in support of his Masters in composition. In 2012, Martínez won the First National Competition of Young Composers – City of Oviedo (Asturias, Spain). His choral work ‘No llores, paloma mía‘ was awarded a prize in the 2014 Ortus International New Music Competition – New York.