www.franciscoalvarado.net

I work with sound. 

The desire to blur the boundaries between genres and find the delicate balance between familiarity and strangeness is at the heart of my recent works. In addition to orchestral and chamber music, I frequently integrate electronics into my compositions, often within music-theatre projects and films. 

I studied composition at the Universidad Católica de Chile, and later continue my studies with Stefano Gervasoni at the Paris Conservatory. Between 2013 and 2015, I participated in the Cursus 1 & 2 programs at IRCAM in Paris.

I address topics and questions of our time in collaborative projects with other contemporary artists. Notable collaborators include Maëlle Dequiedt, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, Florentin Ginot, Alex W. Inker, and Rémy Reber, among many others.

I have received distinctions such as the Musica Festival Academy’s prize and the CDMC prize at the INJUVE academy in Madrid. My compositions have been commissioned by prominent institutions like the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the MUSICA festival, IRCAM, the Festival Messiaen, the Royaumont Foundation, Radio France, the CNSMDP, ensemble C Barré and United Instruments of Lucilin, among others. 

I held an artist-in-residence position at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis in 2017, at United Instruments of Lucilin, the ExperimentalStudio of the SWR, and the GMEM and between 2019 and 2021 and composer in residency at the Festival d'Autan 2025. Since 2024, I have been pursuing a PhD in stage composition within the SACRe program in Paris.

Born in Thessaloniki (Greece) in 1988, Sofia Avramidou graduated from the composition department of Aristotle University (Bachelor's and Master's degrees, 2009-2014) and from the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome (specialized Master's degree, 2014-2016), receiving the highest distinction in the class of Professor Ivan Fedele, as well as an excellence scholarship from the "Alexandros Onassis Foundation”.
In Paris, in 2020, she graduated from IRCAM's "Cursus de composition et d'informatique musicale".
She has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Goffredo Petrassi Prize from the Quirinal Palace in Rome (2016), 1st prize at the IX "Francisco Escudero" International Accordion Composition Competition (2016) in Spain, and 1st prize at the 6th "Dimitris Dragatakis" Composition Competition (2014), organized by the Greek Composers' Union. She participated in numerous composition courses and seminars, with Beat Furrer, Philippe Manoury, Georges Aperghis, Francesco Filidei, Yan Maresz, Jean-Luc Hervé, Franck Bedrossian, Dmitri Kurljandski...
Sofia Avramidou also collaborates with director Evangelia Kranioti, for the film "Obscuro Barroco", which received the Teddy Award at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival. That same year, she was selected by the Venice Biennale to compose the chamber opera "Rodi rodi, morsicchia! La casina chi rosicchia?" performed at the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale.
She has been commissioned by ensembles and institutions such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, Philharmonie de Paris, Ircam, Venice Biennale, Musikfabrik, Ictus, Lemanic Modern Ensemble, 2e2m, Radio-France, Festival Ensemble(s), Festival de Prades, Festival Nouveaux Horizons, Orchestre National de Jazz, ECHO, Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, Auditorium Orchestre National de Lyon....
Her compositions have been performed at the Philharmonie of Paris, the Musikverein (Vienna), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Bozar (Brussels), the Barbican (London), the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), the Philharmonie of Cologne, the Venice Biennale, the Auditori (Barcelona), the Festspielhaus (Baden-Baden), the Philharmonie of Luxembourg, the Auditorium of Lyon, the Auditorium Parco della Musica (Rome), the Teatro La Fenice (Venice), the Boston University, the Megaron (Athens)...
Alongside composition, Sofia Avramidou studies Byzantine music, Hymnology, Oud and Ney instrument, as well as traditional Greek singing.
As a singer, she collaborates with various ensembles and orchestras, such as the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, the Thessaloniki Municipal Orchestra, the Raanana Symphony Orchestra (Israel)...

 In 2018, she arranged traditional songs for voice and clarinet and recorded the album "Binôme" in Greece.
Her works are published by Éditions Lacroch' and BabelScores.

new album "Delicious" released on 16 May. New Amsterdam records.

Alex (1990),"A riotous overabundance of love and rage..an extraordinary experience” The Wire Magazine, is an award-winning composer & improvising-trombonist based in the UK. His Music is published by Ricordi (Berlin). "highly innovative...of exceptional creative imagination and musical energy, packed with life force unlike anything else” BBC Magazine Ivor Novello British Composer Awards.

Alex has been awarded the Paul Hindemith Prize, and Ivor Novello Composer He was nominated for the Gaudeamus Award for 2022 and was elected to the 9th International Composition Seminar and awarded a commission ILOLLI-POP for Improviser and Ensemble which he played with Ensemble Modern. He has been awarded by the London Sinfonietta’s Writing the Future commission CANDYFOLK- SPACE-DRUM  and has won the RPS Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, DANKWORTH JAZZ prize for composition BYE and was made a London Symphony Orchestra Panufnik Composer. Alex played and recorded his concerto OD ODY PINk’d for Jazz Musician and Royal National Scottish Orchestra (RSNO). He was a Leverhume Art Scholar with the London Philharmonic Orchestra 2016-2017: NOW WE ARE DUH-DUR and has been awarded the Harriet Cohen Memorial Music Award for his compositions. His piece SPAKE represented the UK in the Orchestral section of the International Society of Contemporary Music (ISCM). He is a commissioned contributor to John Zorn’s Arcana X 2021. "Paxton is a system-crasher of genre, who merges jamming video game soundtracks, musical overtures, virtuoso chamber music and jazz improv into an unmistakable style...highly complex, sophisticated and extremely entertaining, virtuoso ad absurdum" Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik

His albums to date as a composer: MUSIC for BOSCH PEOPLE and iLOLLI-POP released to critical acclaim on Birmingham Record Company/ NMC label and nonclassical. Listen Pony Label (TELLSONG), Indigne de nous on Everest Records and leading Spotify playlists. HAPPY MUSIC for ORCHESTRA released on Delphian Label in  April 2023. “This is the most joyous sound I’ve heard in ages!”New York Times

His music has been played/recorded/ commissioned by leading orchestras and ensembles including Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta, London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), Philharmonia Orchestra, AskSchöenberg, Riot Ensemble, Nouvel Ensemble Contemporain, Wigmore hall, Explore Ensemble, Klammer Klang, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), National Youth Orchestra (BBC proms 2021), Making Music (UK), Ensemble x.y, x.y Song, Hyper Duo, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO), National Youth Jazz Orchestra (UK) NYJO, Listen-Pony, Aldeburgh Festival, Psappha Ensemble, Orion Symphony Orchestra OSO, Helios Collective, Chaos Collective Orchestra, Mirrors of Hall Big Band, Dr. K Sextet, 5KBrass Quintet, RAM Philharmonic and RCM Philharmonic and soloists Zubin Kanger, Tabea Debus, Beibei Wang, Patrick Terry, David Zucchi. “This is what an orchestra can be like in the 21st century: an ensemble that speaks with one voice yet also gives voice to each of its members” The Times

He has written six operas including NOGGIN and the WHALE (Massed forces including 500 young instrumentalists and singes) FOR the LOVE of THORNSTIEN SHIVER hosted by English National Opera and Helios Collective, BEL and the DRAGON as part of the Tête à Tête opera festival, the EQUIVOCAL HARRIET BOWDLER at Second Movement Opera and WOOLF MUSIC at the Forge in Camden and RAVEN’s CHILD for Jacob Colier and Orchestra.
“Operatic Game Boy music played by a virtuosic motley crew that’s inexplicably been hired to provide live jingles for a primetime TV show sometime in the recent past that never quite was” Point of departure

As an improvising and jazz trombonist Alex has played as a soloist with Ensemble Modern, London Sinfonietta,  Riot Ensemble, Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra (RSNO), & ensemble x.y. He is founder of Dreammusics ensemble and performs regularly with pioneering improvisers (eg: Charlotte Keeffe, Steve Noble). “meticulously scored…seems to change with every bar, enfolding bite-size pieces of classic minimalism, brass brand tradition, electronic noise, & video game plasticity..intensely virtuosic and giddily joyful. electronically slathered trombone…Paxton is a monster improviser …connects his garrulous attack to the most extroverted playing of George Lewis & Roswell Rudd..." Bandcamp Daily Best Contemporary Classical.

Extensively, Alex writes art-music for musicians in community settings including, innovative ways of writing for young instrumentalists & singers in a post-Roald Dahl world of new-music.  eg: NOGGIN and the WHALE (Massed forces including 500 young instrumentalists and singes), Fly Like a Kitchen, Muffin, Pudding Tummy and The Sound of Magic. He is professorial composition staff at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and has worked as lead-composition tutor (and workshop leader) on the National Youth Orchestra GB, he has taught/ lectured at composition and improvisation at conservatories including, RAM, GSMD & RCM (and multiple universities in the UK). “one of the most exceptional voices from a new generation of UK talent” The Philharmonia Orchestra

Alex studied as a scholar at Royal Academy of Music (BMushons1stclass)and LRAM (Distinction) and the Royal College of Music (MComp Distinction).“a Brit who defies every conceivable genre boundary…an extremely modern and future-oriented style.” Paul Hindemith Prize winner 2023

Alex is an endorsee solo artist with Micheal Rath Trombones since 2023 (R12 nickel bell & tuning slide).

Composer, pianist, Co-Director of Wet Ink Ensemble (NYC)

contemporary music ensemble based in London

Stylianos Dimou is a distinguished Greek composer renowned for his expertise in acoustic, electroacoustic, and acousmatic music. In addition to his compositional work, he is an accomplished conductor, accordionist, and electronic music improviser. Dimou’s contributions to the field have earned him numerous awards and recognitions, supported by prestigious international organizations such as the Fulbright Program, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative, Ernst Mach weltweit, Federal Ministry of Culture and Media of Austria, SWR Experimentalstudio, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and Cité Internationale des Arts.

Dimou's musical education began with advanced studies in Music Composition at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, where he completed his BMus and MMus under the guidance of Prof. Christos Samaras. He further developed his compositional skills at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music, earning an MA in Composition while studying with notable composers Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Robert Morris, and David Liptak, and exploring advanced electronic music with Allan Schindler "(deceased)".

In 2017-18, Dimou participated in the prestigious Cursus program at the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) in Paris, where he received professional training in Composition and advanced Electronic Music, under the mentorship of Mikhail Malt. He subsequently served as a Composer and Music Researcher at the OeAD organization, affiliated with the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria.

Dimou’s dedication to artistic excellence led to his selection as Composer in Residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris during the fall of 2019, an opportunity extended by The Embassy of Greece. He earned his Doctoral Degree from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Columbia University, where he conducted advanced artistic research and pursued graduate studies as a Dean’s Fellow. His doctoral studies were guided by Prof. George Lewis, Prof. Fred Lerdahl, Prof. Georg Friedrich Haas, and Prof. Brad Garton, specializing in Composition, Music Theory, and Computer Music.

Stylianos Dimou is a tenured Associate Professor of Composition at the Grieg Academy, University of Bergen, Norway, within the Faculty of Fine Art, Music, and Design. He specializes in both acoustic and electroacoustic music, with teaching interests that encompass Composition (acoustic, mixed electroacoustic, and acousmatic), Music Technology, Music Theory, and Analysis. Dimou teaches across undergraduate and graduate programs, fostering students' exploration of contemporary compositional practices.

Dimou's research explores the creative symbiosis between human performers and technological systems across various artistic mediums and performance practices. His work emphasizes sonic hybridity and spatial immersion, with a focus on the integration of interactive sound systems, digital signal processing, and multichannel audio. His research delves into the complex structural relationships between chromatic and microtonal aggregations in intricate sonic architectures, with a particular focus on the music of Georges Aperghis. By investigating the intersections of instrumental and electroacoustic elements, Dimou seeks to create cohesive artistic frameworks that expand the boundaries of contemporary music.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Bergen, Dimou served as an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of Peloponnese, Greece - Spring 2024 -, where he taught sound design, interactive sound systems, digital signal processing, and immersive audio. He also held the position of Research Assistant Professor in the Academy of Music at Hong Kong Baptist University - Spring 2021 to Fall 2024 -, where he taught Composition, Music Technology, and Electroacoustic music. His work at these institutions emphasized the integration of technology into music performance, with a particular focus on live interactivity and the creative possibilities offered by technological innovation in the compositional process.

Among Dimou’s most distinguished accolades are the Ulysses Network / IRCAM Award for Artistic Excellence (2018-2019), 1st Prize at the 2nd International Composition Competition "Amici della Musica di Cagliari," and 1st Prize at the International Prize for Composition "Luigi Nono" (3rd edition). He also won 2nd Prize in the 24th Annual Martirano Award, 1st Prize with the Audience’s Prize at the Weimarer Frühjahrstage für zeitgenössische Musik (2012), and the Prize for orchestral music at the 5th [‘tactus] Young Composers Forum (2013). Dimou was a finalist for the Roche Young Commissions at the Lucerne Festival Academy (2013), judged by Pierre Boulez. His academic achievements include the Charles S. Miller Prize (2029) from Columbia University and the Wayne Brewster Barlow Prize from the Eastman School of Music.

https://stylianosdimou.com/biography

Composer of contemporary classical music based in Brussels.

https://www.universaledition.com/evans-kocja-8059

https://www.universaledition.com/en/News/In-conversation-with-Evans-Kocja/

I am an Italian composer based in Paris, where I teach electronic music at IRCAM. 

In a constant pursuit of a theatrical dramatization of sound, I am deeply interested in electronic music, music of oral tradition and, for their physical presence and sonic qualities, bass instruments. By delving into the physical connection between the musician and the large instrument, I aim to transport listeners into visually engaging compositions, where micro-rhythms and grooves hold a central role. One of my main concerns is represented by an effort to develop structures based on techniques used for sound synthesis and electronic treatments. More generically it reveals my lifelong compositional aim: that is to attain a consistency between the approach in composing for instruments as well as for electronics, an approach that I attempt to integrate and structure through computer-aided composition tools that I personally develop. 

Raised in the "Pasolinian" working-class neighborhoods in the West side of Rome, and having spent most of my adolescence in direct contact with the street, I have always been drawn to the poetic violence of this reality. The tension between a personal inclination for introspection and a life deeply entrenched in a vibrant, yet challenging, urban environment has been a constant companion, shaping and defining my creative persona. 

In my music, this tension gives rise to a dramaturgy that oscillates between two extreme temporalities, leading to a dynamic interplay between kaleidoscopic movements and introspective explorations. One is tethered to overwhelming, vertiginous, overflowing, and compulsive rhythms, while the other is more intimate, poetic, and intertwined with the expressivity of the spoken word – like in the song cycle Gradual Abruptness (2022), on the verses of the Italian poet Amelia Rosselli (daughter of the anti-fascist partisan Carlo Rosselli).

These axes of research find contrasting artistic declinations, leading to the composition of [S]toccata (2019) and High Voltage Toccata (2021), – where the pianist and organist are challenged in a body duel with the instrument  – of I Sing the Body Electric (2020) – where the double bass becomes one organic body with the musician and with the electronics – in Overdrive (2020), a low-frequency trio, transposed into a distorted and paroxysmic world – or, again, in Lignes à Haute Tension (2023) for 12 spatialised cellos ¬– where the conductor, in the center of a network of instruments, controlling the trajectories of sound in space. 

Ongoing Projects :
On the Edge, for 6 soloists choir and electronics
Texts by Mina Loy
Premiere : SWR Vokalensemble / Donaueschinger Musiktage (Donaueschingen, DE) / 2024

Espaces Blancs, for soprano, clarinet, trumpet, double bass and electronics
Premiere : Commande d'État : Mathilde Barthelemy / Compagnie Angle Aigu / GMEM / Festival Propagations
(Marseille, FR) / 2025

Faro, for soprano, ensemble and electronics
Johanna Vargas / Ensemble Musikfabrik / Festival ManiFeste / IRCAM (Paris, FR) / 2025

For this project I have been selected as one of the 2024-25 Villa Medici Residents

Francisco Alvarado is following