UK/Mexico
Integra Commission: Revelación
Resources: Ensemble, Electronics, and Interactive Dancers
Integra Ensemble: Grup Instrumental de València (Spain)

Integra Research Centre: Birmingham Conservatoire (United Kingdom)

Programme Note

The creative process in a multidisciplinary work requires meeting points and economy of means. In Revelación, as in the works for dance I wrote in the 1980s, Ana Luján and I had to find areas of convergence in order to begin our creative dialogue.

As in my Homenaje a Remedios Varo – a work for ensemble from 1995 – we again found in the paintings of the Spanish surrealist Varo a wealth of inspiration from which to start our creative explorations. However, it is important to note that Revelación is not a work which attempts to illustrate particular images, rather, from the outset, we knew that Varo’s works would provide the shared departure point for an original journey. In fact, the ideas of different concepts of time, reflected in my piece by varied pulses beating against each other, and the idea of absence, which is evidenced by the ‘absent’ solos of the clarinet and horn, are probably the only two ideas with a strong association with her paintings. In short, whilst flowing from Varo, our approach allowed the musical and choreographic ideas, and so the piece, to have a life of its own.

Biography

Firmly established as one of the leading Mexican composers of her generation, Hilda Paredes has made her home in London since 1979 and her music is now performed widely around the world.

As an active participant in master classes at Dartington Summer School, she studied with Peter Maxwell Davies and Richard Rodney Bennett. After graduating at the Guildhall School of Music, she obtained her Master of Arts at City University in London and completed her PhD at Manchester University.

After taking part at the Garden Venture Opera Project in Dartington, she completed her first chamber opera The seventh seed, released by Mode Records.

She has continued to be involved in the musical life of her native country, teaching at the University in Mexico City as well as acting as a producer of new music for radio.

She has been the recipient of a number of important awards such as the Arts Council of Great Britain fellowship for composers; the Rockefeller, Fund for Culture Mexico/USA; and the J.S. Guggenheim Fellowship in the USA.

Hilda now lives in London as a freelance composer and has taught composition and lectured at Manchester University, the University of San Diego California and other prestigious Universities in the USA, as well as in Mexico, Spain and at Centre Acanthes in France. In 2007, she was appointed the Darius Milhuad Visiting Professor at Mills College in the USA.

Her opera El Palacio Imaginado, commissioned by Musik der Jahrhunderte, English National Opera  and the Festival of Arts and Ideas in New Haven, was premiered with much acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic.

She has been commissioned by soloists, ensembles and orchestras around the world. Her music has been performed by internationally renowned ensembles such as Lontano, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Aventure, Hilliard Ensemble, Ensemble Sospeso, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Plural Ensamble, Ensemble Phoenix Basle and Arditti Quartet, amongst others. Her music has been performed widely at important international festivals, such as Huddersfield, Edinburgh Festival in the UK; Eclat and Ultraschall in Germany; Musica and Octobre en Normandie, in France; Wien Modern, in Austria; Akiyoshidai and Takefu Music Festivals, in Japan; Archipel and Music monat , in  Switzerland; De Ijsbreker Chamber Music Festival, in Amsterdam; Warsaw Autumn, in Poland; Ultima, in Oslo; Traiettoria and Venice Bienale in Italy; Melbourne Festival, in Australia; Festival of Arts and Ideas in the USA, Ars Musica in Bruxelles; Festival de Alicante and Festival de Música Religios de Cuenca, in Spain; and Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico, amongst others.