ABOUT THE AUTHOR

María de Alvear (Madrid, ES, b. 1960)

She has been living and working in Cologne for more than 35 years. She was awarded the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Prize of the City of Cologne early on in her career and studied New Music Theatre under Mauricio Kagel. Since 1998, she has collaborated regularly with video artists, both with her sister Ana de Alvear and the British artist Isaac Julien. In the same year, she founded the music publishing house WORLD EDITION. Since 2003, she has been publishing the journal "KUNST- MUSIK - Writings on art as music". Her works, which are mostly interdisciplinary and make use of a variety of media, are performed worldwide by many well-known interpreters, such as Ensemble Modern, the Basel Sinfonietta, Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester). She works together with numerous soloists, orchestras and ensembles across the world.

She has given many concerts in Europe, the USA and Canada at a number of prestigious venues, including the Glenn Gould Concert Hall, Toronto, the Lincoln Center, New York, the Donaueschingen Festival, the International Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt, the Hellerau Festival Theatre, the University of Waterloo, Ontario, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. Numerous performances of her works have been recorded for TV and radio broadcasts, including by SWR, WDR, Arte and CBC/Radio Canada.

In 2016 she was honored with the Spanish National Award for Music in the field of composition.

In 2017 was accepted as a new member in the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (AWK).