Lumina Ensemble with Jose M. Sánchez Verdú Soniart. September 2025
Great artists, plain and simple. December 2024
Assembly Hall
General public
27 September 2025
Born in Algeciras (Cádiz) in 1968. He studied violin, piano, organ, composition, musicology and conducting at the superior conservatories of Granada, in Madrid (1986-96) and at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt (1996-99). His first reference
in composition was Juan Alfonso García, organist of the Granada cathedral, and Julio Marabboto. Among his later composition teachers are, among others, García Abril, F. Donatoni and H. Zender, and in conducting García Asensio, A. Tamayo and W. Reiski. In 1991 he obtained a degree in Law (Complutense).
He has received international composition awards such as the Bergische Biennale (Wuppertal) for his entire body of work, the Irino Prize (Tokyo), the Förderpreis of the Siemens Musikstiftung (Munich), the 1st Prize of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, the Prize of the Colegio de España in Paris/INAEM, and the National Prize. Monographic concerts of his work have been programmed in Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Munich, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Aix-en-Provence and Lima. He has been invited as composer in residence by the SchlossMediale Werdenberg Festival (Switzerland), the Ostertöne Festival (Hamburg), the Carinthischer Sommer Festival
(Austria), the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (Germany), the Jünger Künstler Festival of Bayreuth, the V Contemporary Music Festival of Lima (Peru), etc. He was invited composer of the Warsaw Autumn Festival in 2008, and his works have been programmed in festivals such as Musica Viva (Munich), Ultraschall
and Maerzmusik (Berlin), Eclat (Stuttgart), Alicante Festival, Music and Dance Festival of Granada, Músicadhoy (Madrid), Progetto Musica (Rome), Canary Islands Festival, Tage für Neue Musik (Darmstadt), WDR of Cologne, Spring Festival (Prague), Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein (Vienna), Lincoln Center in New York and a very long list, etc. In his projects he has worked with
great writers such as Carlos Fuentes, Juan Goytisolo and Antonio Gamoneda.
In his works from GRAMMA onwards, projects have come together that are especially linked to architecture, the use of light and installations as fundamental aspects of works such as EXITUS, Libro de las estancias and AURA.
Much sought after as a lecturer and professor, he has been invited by various Hochschule such as Bremen, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Ensemble Modern Academy, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Complutense University, numerous Spanish conservatories, the Musikakademie in Basel, the Institut für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, the University of Haifa (Israel) and by courses in which he has developed extensive work with the youngest generations of Spanish composers. Between 2001 and 2012 he was Professor of Composition at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf.
Since 2008 he is Professor of Composition at the Superior Conservatory of Music of Aragón. Since 2011 he is also part of the Composition Department of the Musikhochschule in Dresden. He is the author of numerous studies and articles published in Spanish, German, Italian and English editions and six monographic CDs of his work have been published so far. His scores are published by the prestigious publisher Breitkopf & Härtel.
This project was born with the aim of establishing a connection between contemporary composers dedicated to creating avant-garde art and the public interested in it. Contemporary art faces various challenges—undoubtedly numerous ones—with one of the most recurring being the lack of "understanding" with which the potential audience for contemporary art justifies their disinterest in artistic manifestations.Contemporary music is not exempt from all these conditions and, at the same time, it is not immune to possible solutions that help normalize current repertoire in the demands of music lovers and integrate it into the cultural programming of cities and concert halls.Undoubtedly, when a creator speaks about their work with the passion of the creative act and delves not only into their creative processes but also into their motivations and expressive needs, a greater connection with the public is achieved and the path toward acceptance of the work is cleared. It is the project of four saxophonists passionate about their instrument and contemporary music. The members of LUMINA Ensemble combine their efforts for the respectful and committed achievement of high-level musical performances. Lumina refers to the light that continuously permeates our land and shapes us as human beings. Light as a means of union between people who converge in a common project and as a metaphor for our way of understanding musical performance, with proposals through contemporary music.The ensemble's main objective is the dissemination of repertoire composed from the 21st century onwards. Essential to achieving this goal is collaboration with composers and the premiere of works written for this group, proposing the saxophone quartet as a unique instrument full of timbral and expressive resources at the service of new creation.Lumina's infinite curiosity about performative action has led them to perform in various concert halls, festivals and concert series both in Spain and in other countries in our region such as the ENSEMS festival (Valencia), the Contemporary Festival of Alicante (ADDA), Kuraia Festival (Bilbao), Contemporary Music Festival (Córdoba), Mostra Sonora (Sueca), International Organ Festival – FIOB (Benidorm), Concerts d´Advent (Alcoi) or their recent participation in the Organistic Festival of Salento (Lecce – Italy), Festival Due Mare (Gallipoli – Italy). They have a first recording titled Terra Lucis, and have participated in Mexican composer Samuel Cedillo's album for the Kairós record label.Lumina Ensemble is the dedicatee of numerous pieces by renowned authors such as Jesús Torres, Zulema de la Cruz, Eneko Vadillo, Sonia Megías, Oliva Carrión-Arteta, José del Valle, Iluminada Pérez, Ximo Cano, David Leal, Sara Blanco, José Vicente Fuentes Castilla, Diana P. Custodio, M. Eugenia Luc or Voro García.Lumina Ensemble is composed of: Pablo de la Fuente (soprano saxophone), Javier Carrillos (alto saxophone), Pablo Pardo (tenor saxophone) and José Antonio Suay (baritone saxophone).
