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"A musician of exceptional sensitivity and an exquisite language of structural forms almost impossible to materialize, young Barcelona master José Río-Pareja is currently one of the most solid figures on the Spanish panorama." (*)
José Río-Pareja was born in Barcelona in 1973. After graduating in composition, choral conducting and orchestral conducting at Barcelona's Conservatoire Supérieur de Musique, he moved to the United States from 2002 to 2007, where he obtained his doctorate in composition at Stanford University under the tutelage of Brian Ferneyhough. Since his return, he has taught composition at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
He has received numerous awards, including Second Prize in the 2004 Henri Dutilleux Competition in France, the INAEM Prize in 2008 (Institut National des Arts du Spectacle et de la Musique) and the 2016 MasMenos Prize in Argentina.
His works have been commissioned and performed by renowned ensembles and soloists such as the Spanish National Orchestra, Quaturo Arditti, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Contrechamps, Trio Arbós, Trio Kandinsky, Ann Unju Yi, Robert Huw Morgan, Lluïsa Espigolé...
For example, the Kebyart ensemble, a Catalan saxophone quartet, for which he composed in 2018, as part of the Emergents Festival, "Parhelia", a work to be heard here:
Just as recent are two works in her repertoire: Los incensarios, commissioned by the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir, premiered under the direction of young German conductor David Afkham at Madrid's National Auditorium in 2018, and Tão longe de mim - four songs on poems by Fernando Pessoa, for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, commissioned by the Centre National de Diffusion Musicale (CNDM) and premiered jointly in Portugal and Spain by Lisbon's Groupe de Musique Contemporaine in the 2019/2020 season.
The Verso label and the BBVA Foundation have released a monographic CD, La rivière sans soclea selection of his chamber works performed by clarinettist Carlos Gálvez Taroncher and the Trío Arbós.
