Composition was the last musical discipline to arrive in Juan Cristóbal’s musical life. But in his late teenage years he collaborated with colleagues in Venezuela to set up a collective creation workshop called Taller 6. By 1983, this exchange of ideas, the different musical tendencies, and the collective debate led him to enroll in the composition program at Boston University where he studied with Prof. Charles Fussell, Juan Orrego-Salas and Robert Sirota. Juan Cristobal used his university years to experiment and search for his own musical language. That led him to participate in the Latin American Music Festival and the National’s Encounters of Composers in Caracas, Venezuela. By 1988 Juan Cristóbal had advanced in his studies as an orchestra conductor and composer and received a scholarship from the “Consejo Nacional de la Cultura (CONAC)” and moved to France.
” There was no one near to confuse me, so I was forced to become original “
– Franz Joseph Haydn –
An invitation by Maestro Pierre Boulez to attend the Ensemble Intercontemporain’s rehearsals and the contact with figures such as Péter Eötvös and Esa-Pekka Salonen inspired him to write several orchestral works. Two commissions of orchestral music performed by the Orquesta Municipal de Caracas and the National Orchestra of São Paulo, Brazil followed that experience.
Upon his return to Venezuela in 2004, he was commissioned to write the score of an experimental film, “El Hombre Escarabajo”. Due to the demands of teaching and conducting it is not until 2012 that he begins composition again by writing short pieces of a personal profile in what he calls “Cuadernos Musicales”.
Catalog:
- Cuadernos Musicales. 2012-
- El Hombre Escarabajo, music for film.
- FA-LA. Piano.
- Resonancias. Hn, Pno, 2 Vc.
- Hama-aca. Orchestra.
- Alma Mater. Orchestra.
- Miniaturas. Cl, Pno, Vc.
- Suite for Orchestra.
- Mu-danza. Chamber Orchestra.
- Zanco-ocho. Cl, Fg, Tp, Vl, Pno, 2 Percu.
- Mariposas. Cl (bass), Marimba, Vl.
- Sotavento en Galdona. Vla.
- Enredadera Escalonada. Piano, Four hands.
- Siempre ahí. Cl, Pno, Bass, Dancer.
- Octeto en tres movimientos. Fl, Ob, Cl, Fg, 2 Vl, Vla, Vc.
- Contrastes. Cl, Tp, Vla.
- Duet for violin and violoncello.
- Strings quintet and marimba. Marimba, 2 Vl, Vla, Vc.
- Tres Pequeñas Impresiones. Fl, Ob, Cl, Fg.
