Luc Brewaeys
Luc Brewaeys was born in 1959 in Mortsel (Belgium). He studied composition with André Laporte in Brussels, with Franco Donatoni in Siena (Italy) and with Brian Ferneyhough in Darmstadt (Germany). From 1980 to 84 he had regular contacts with Iannis Xenakis in Paris. He is also conductor, pianist and works since 1985 as recording producer at the VRT (Flemish Radio & Television).
Luc Brewaeys was awarded several prizes and distinctions : 3rd Prize of the Europese Competition for Young Composers for ".., e poi c'era..." Symphony n° 1 (Amsterdam, 1985); 1st Prize in the category of young composers of the International Rostrum of Composers of the UNESCO for the same work (Paris, 1986); the "Prix de Musique Contemporaine du Québec" for his entire work (Montréal, 1988); 1st Prize of the Competition for Europese Composers of the International Encounters of Contemporary Music in Metz (F) for "Komm! Hebe dich..." Symphony n° 2 (1988); the Prize for Music of the Flemish Comminity (1989); the SABAM-Prize (1990); 1st Prize "Premio Musicale Città di Trieste" for symphonic composition for "Symphony n° 3 : Hommage" (1991).
In 1996 the Belgian Musical Press awarded him two Prizes for the recording of his (up to then) entire symphonic work by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders conducted by Arturo Tamayo, who conducted most of his music. In 1999 he received the Cultural Prize "Blanlin-Evrart" from the Catholic University of Leuven for his entire work.
He was "composer in residence" of the International Cultural Center deSingel for the '88-'89 concertseason, Guest-composer of the 4th Week of Contemporary Music at the Conservatory in Gent in februari '89, also of the ensemble "I Fiamminghi" in April 2001. Also in April 2001 he was in residence at the first Festival "Dicht bij huis" in Tilburg (NL), where 11 of his works were performed (some of them with the composer conducting or at the piano).
From 1991 to 2004 Brewaeys' music has been featured at numerous occasions across Europe, including France, Belgium and Croatia, to mentione a few. In 2005 he finished recomposing the complete two books of the "Préludes for piano" by Claude Debussy for orchestra on commission of the Royal Flanders Philharmonic who recorded them under their chief-conductor Daniele Callegari.He was also appointed professor of composition at universities of Gent, a member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, and since 2009 at the Conservatory of Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
BENET CASABLANCAS
Benet Casablancas studied in Barcelona and at the Vienna Academy of Music with Friedrich Cerha and Karl Heinz Füssl, and he graduated in Philosophy in Universidad Atonoma de Barcelona (1982). He has also a PhD in musicology. His music, firmly rooted in the great modernist tradition, is notable for its great individuality, structural complexity and extraordinary richness of textural detail.
Rooted in the formal techniques of serialism, in the 1990s he became more concerned with harmony and texture. His wide-ranging oeuvre covers the most diverse genres and formats, increasingly drawn towards the orchestral field. 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 coexist a progressively luminous harmonic language, rhythmic spirit, timbral differentiation and instrumental virtuosism.
He has received many awards: Premio Nacional Disco Ministerio de Cultura de España, Premio Nacional de Música de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Premio Ciudad de Barcelona, Composer's Arena Amsterdam (Gaudeamus), Musiciens's Accord New York, Premios Ferran Sors, Oscar Esplá, Jeunesses Musicales, etc. In 2002 he was appointed Academic Director of the Conservatorio Superior de Música del Liceo in Barcelona.
His music has been presented at the most important international festivals: Holland Festival Amsterdam, Musica Strasbourg, ISCM World Music Days Vilnius, Biennale Düsseldorf, Spanien Modern Wien, Theatre Miller New York, Atempo Caracas, Weimar, Bruxelles, Antwerpen, London Barbican Hall, Paris, Lausanne, St. Petersburg, Warzawa, Montréal, München, Vancouver, Bolonia, Buenos Aires, Stockholm, Malmö, Lima, Rotterdam, Tokio, Frankfurt, Napoles, etc. Recent commissions include: Miller Theater New York, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Cantus Croatia (Zagreb Biennale) and Ensemble 88 Maastricht.
NIKŠA GLIGO
Musicologist Nikša Gligo (b. Split, 1946) received his bachelor's degree in English and comparative literature, as well as and his bachelor's degree in musicology, at the Zagreb Faculty of Philosophy. He received his master's degree in musicology in Zagreb, with a thesis entitled Developmental Continuity in the Composing Opus of Natko Devčić. A Contribution to the Exploration of Continuity in the Post-War Development of Croatian Music, and his PhD in Ljubljana, with a dissertation entitled Problems of New Music of the 20th Century: Theoretical Bases and Evaluation Criteria. He has received numerous study and research scholarships, and among his many awards are the "Josip Andreis" Award (three times), the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts' "Josip Juraj Strossmayer" Award, the title of the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters awarded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of France, the Annual National Science Award for the Humanities for his Notational Guide to 20th-Century Music. With Guidelines for Proper Terminology Usage, the Order of Danica Hrvatska with the face of Marko Marulić, and the Plaque of the Sarajevo Music Academy.
He first started working at the University of Zagreb Music Academy in 1981, and since 1998 he has been a full professor (permanent full professor since 2003) at the Department of Musicology, which he has also headed. In 2006 he became an academic, a full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
He managed the Zagreb Student Centre Music Parlour (1969-86), and has been, or is, a member of the boards of directors of the Croatian Composers' Society and the Croatian Musicological Society, member of the editorial staff for the magazines Arti musices, IRASM and Musiktexte (Cologne), and Muzika (Sarajevo), head of the Institute for Croatian Music History of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, member of the Central Committee of the Croatian Semiotics Society and lecturer at the graduate course in information sciences at the University of Zagreb Faculty of Organization and Computer Sciences in Varaždin (he teaches a class called Digital Sound in Multimedia). Gligo is also a contributor to the New Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, UK), guest professor at the Department of Musicology at the University of Sarajevo Music Academy, contributor to the music encyclopaedia Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Kassel, Germany), contributor to the Croatian Encyclopaedia, and lecturer at the Cultural Studies Department at the University of Rijeka Faculty of Philosophy.
Aside from the numerous scholarly articles and translations, his works include: Time of Music; Variations of Developmental Continuity: Natko Devčić, Composer; Problems of New Music of the 20th Century: Theoretical Bases and Evaluation Criteria; Sound - Sign - Music. Discussion on Music Semiography; Notational Guide to 20th-Century Music. With Guidelines for Proper Terminology Usage.
LOJZE LEBIČ
He taught conducting at the Pedagogical Academy and, since 1986, L. Lebič has been a professor in music theory at the Musicological Department of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana. As a composer, he emerged from the group Pro Musica Viva and improved his knowledge by attending seminars on contemporary music in Darmstadt.
After an intense and critical confrontation with contemporary trends in composition L. Lebič formed his own mode of expression ranging between the impetuosity of sound and the restraint of meditation as well as between cosmopolitan modernism and his own sensitivity to the heritage of traditional cultures and civilizations.
The most notable among his compositions are the vocal and instrumental pieces The Burnt Grass, November Songs, the coral-instrumental-scenic Fauvel '86, Ajdna - the Music About Time, Myth and Apocrypha for Bassbaritone and Orchestra, his symphonic Sentences for two Pianos and Orchestra, Voices, Nicina, Queensland Music, Organ Simphony, Cantico I, Cantico II, Tangram for smaller Orchestra, the String Quartet, the Percussion Quartet, the Wind Quintet, the elekctroacoustic Atelier II. He has been a member of international juries and participated in vrious seminars from Slovenia to Canada.
His compositions have been performed at numerous festivals, such as the World Music Days of ISCM (Brussels 1981, Zurich 1991, Bucharest 1999, Yokohama 2001); the Music Biennales in Berlin and Zagreb; Musikprotokoll Graz; the Pan Music Festival Seul; the Warsaw Autumn; Trieste prima; Mittel Fest Čedad; Saint Denis, France; Danubiana Timisoara, Romania; Unisa Transnet Pretoria, South Africa; Golden Gate International Choral Festival, San Francisco, USA; The EBU Concerts of Jerusalem and Ljubljana.
Among other awards, Lojze Lebič won the Prešeren Award for Composers three times (1967 for Conducting, 1970 and 1987 for Composition). His symphonic work November Songs was chosen as one of the ten most successful works of the year at the Rostrum of Composers, IMC UNESCO, in Paris, 1985.
He is a regular member of the Slovene Academy of Arts and Sciences (SAZU).
MARKO RUŽDJAK
Composer Marko Ruždjak was born in 1946 in Zagreb, in the family of the well-known singer and composer Vladimir Ruždjak. He took a degree in the clarinet at the Music Academy in Zagreb, where he also graduated in composition (1972), under Milo Cipra. Ruždjak did further studies in composition with Ivo Malec and Pierre Schaeffer in Paris and Milko Kelemen in Cologne. He was soon appointed professor of theoretical subject at the Music Academy in Zagreb, where he has been teaching composition, as a full professor, since 1990.
Marko Ruždjak was the publications editor at the Zagreb Concert Agency, where he later also managed the Music Information Centre. For his works, Ruždjak has received numerous prizes: The "Seven Secretaries" Prize, twice (for Divertissement and Breviary), the "JRT" Prize for Prospetti, the "Josip Štolcer Slavenski" Prize for Madrigal, and „Vladimir Nazor" for Ubu. He was also the recepient of the „Međugorje" award (for Lux Aeterna) and „Boris Papandopulo" Prize (Komos). He has received the Porin Prize of the Croatian recording industry several times. Marko Ruždjak is a full fellow of the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences.
