Inés Badalo (1989, Olivenza) is a Spanish-Portuguese guitarist and composer. She completed her studies in composition and guitar at the Lisbon School of Music, studying with Luís Tinoco, and also attended masterclasses and lectures by composers José Manuel López López, Franck Yeznikian, Christopher Bochmann, Pedro Amaral, among others. She completed her Doctoral studies in Music and Musicology, specializing in Composition, with an outstanding cum laude qualification from the University of Évora.
She has received commissions from the National Center for Musical Dissemination (CNDM), Portuguese Radio and Television – Antena 2, Mixtur Festival, Philharmonic Society of Badajoz, Arte no Tempo, Ensems Festival, DGArtes, Densité 93, National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), Nak Festival, National Orchestra and Choir of Spain, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias, among others.
Supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Ministry of Culture, she has received various national and international awards, including the Composition Prize from the Portuguese Society of Authors / Antena 2 RTP in 2017 (Portugal), was honored for two consecutive years in the Young Composers Awards from the SGAE Foundation – CNDM, FIDAPA Prize from the International Composition Competition 'Città di Udine' in 2018 (Italy), Young Composers Prize from Plural Ensemble in 2018 (Spain), International Composition Competition 'Manuel de Falla' in 2016 (Spain), Fernando Lopes-Graça International Composition Prize in 2017 (Portugal). In 2019 she won the Composition Prize from the Spanish College in Paris and the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music, INAEM (France / Spain) and was selected in 2023 to participate in the UNESCO International Composers' Forum (Netherlands). In 2024 she received the SGAE-AEOS Symphonic Commission Prize, her work was selected in the Ibermúsicas program of Colombia and received the Leonardo Fellowship from the BBVA Foundation for a new compositional project with philosopher and poet Chantal Maillard, soprano Johanna Vargas (Neue Vocalsolisten), conductor Asier Puga and Grupo Enigma. In 2025 her work Khemia for orchestra has been selected by the Ministry of Culture of the Mexican Government, through the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (INBAL) and the National Coordination of Music and Opera (CNMO), for the closing concert of the 47th Manuel Enríquez International Forum of New Music.
Her orchestral works are conducted by maestros of the caliber of Baldur Brönnimann, Shiyeon Sung, Juanjo Mena, Nuno Coelho and Michael Wendeberg, among others. Her music is performed by renowned ensembles, soloists and orchestras, such as the WDR Symphony Orchestra of Cologne, National Orchestra of Spain, National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Gulbenkian Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, Orchestra of Extremadura, Young National Orchestra of Spain, Plural Ensemble, Hand Werk Ensemble, Sigma Project, Contemporary Music Group of Lisbon, Soli-Tutti Vocal Ensemble, Sonido Extremo Ensemble, Neopercusión, Vertixe Sonora, Ensemble Mikrokosmos, Zahir Ensemble, Contemporary Music Group of Lisbon, Kuraia Ensemble, Grupo Enigma; in Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Croatia, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, United Kingdom, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, China, Japan, Germany, United States and France. Her music has been broadcast by radio stations in various countries: BBC (United Kingdom), WDR (Germany), Antena 2 – RTP (Portugal), Radio Beograd (Serbia), Yle Radio (Finland), Sveriges Radio (Sweden), LRT Radijas (Lithuania), RTV SLO (Slovenia), Radio Clásica – RNE (Spain), Klassikaraadio (Estonia), Hrvatski Radio (Croatia), Radio Ascoli (Italy), Ö1 Radio (Austria), etc.
Her works have been performed in numerous festivals and concert halls around the world such as the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, or the Internationalen Ferienkursen für Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany); Suena Festival für zeitgenössische Musik Wien, Forum Gitarre Wien, MUK Theatre Vienna (Austria); Filarmonica George Enescu (Romania); Contemporanea – Festival di Nuova Música (Italy); Mixtur Festival, National Auditorium of Music, Ensems Festival, Juan March Foundation, Palau de la Música, Nak Festival, Contemporary Music Concert Series of the BBVA Foundation, Auditorium 400 of the National Museum of Contemporary Art Reina Sofía, Contemporary Music Days of Santiago de Compostela, or in the Current Music Series of the Philharmonic Society of Badajoz (Spain); Nief-Norf Festival Tennessee, Riverview Performing Arts Center, Florida (USA); Música Viva Festival, Grand Auditorium of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Casa da Música, Grand Auditorium of the CCB Lisbon (Portugal); XVIII World Saxophone Congress (Croatia); Mishima Contemporary Music Days, Tokyo Opera City (Japan); or in the Palace of Fine Arts of Mexico City (Mexico).
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).
SoniArt. Lumina Ensemble Group with composer Inés Badalo
29.04.2024
April 27, 2024. Inés Badalo (1989, Olivenza) Spanish-Portuguese guitarist and composer. She has received commissions from the National Center for Musical Dissemination (CNDM), Portuguese Radio and Television – Antenna 2, Mixtur Festival, Badajoz Philharmonic Society, Arte no Tempo, Ensems Festival, DGArtes, Densité 93, National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), Nak Festival, Spanish National Orchestra and Choir, Royal Philharmonic of Galicia, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Principality of Asturias, among others.
