Jesús Villa-Rojo is one of the most dynamic figures of Spanish contemporary music. His long endeavour as a clarinettist and his study of new concepts of the sonorities of his instrument, have inspired the creation of dozens of new works in Spain and abroad, premièred either by himself or by the Laboratory for Interpreting Music (LIM), the ensemble he founded in 1975 and has directed ever since. His research activities, especially in the area of graphic notation, have been explored in a number of publications. As a cultural director he has organized and co-ordinated a host of musical events, among them programmes for the LIM (Madrid), the BBK/Contemporary Music Festival (Bilbao) and the Alicante International Festival, as well as managing the Centre for the Diffusion of Contemporary Music.

Born in Brihuega, Guadalajara, in 1940, and educated in Madrid and Italy, Villa-Rojo’s compositions, almost two hundred works, covering all genres, have been widely performed in Europe and America. His style, based during the 1970s on experiments with sonorities and certain forms of aleatoric music, has subsequently concentrated on refined expressiveness in which conceptual aspects assume particular significance. Throughout his career he has received many important accolades including the National Prize for Music, the Gran Premio Roma, and the Béla Bartók and Koussevitzky Awards.

Discography