Hilda Paredes (Composer) 

HiLDA PAREDES

Firmly established as one of the leading Mexican composers of her generation, 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, studied with Peter Maxwell Davies and Richard Rodney Bennett as well as attending Franco Donatoni´s classes at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. 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.

Her collaboration with choreographers led her to receive the Music for Dance Award from the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1988.

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 continues to be involved in the musical life of her native country, teaching at the University in Mexico City and several other music institutions and was also a radio producer of new music.

She has been recipient 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 and is currently beneficiary of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores, (FONCA) in Mexico.

Hilda now lives in London as a freelance composer and has taught composition and lectured at Manchester University, the University of San Diego California, University of Buffalo and other prestigious Universities in the US, at Centre Acanthes in France and in 2007 was appointed the Darius Milhuad Visiting Professor at Mills College in the US. Last year she has been visiting professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Her second chamber 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.

Recently completed works Altazor based on the epic poem by Vicente Huidobro a commission for Festival D´Autumne a Paris 2011, for Guillermo Anzorena, L´Instant Donné and live electronics realised at IRCAM and Señales, Homage to Johnathan Harvey commissioned and premiered at Miller Theatre for ensemble Signal and Irvine Arditti.

Her works are published by University of York Music Press: www.uymp.co.uk

Hilda Paredes has been commissioned by soloists, ensembles and orchestras around the world. Her music has been performed by internationally renowned ensembles such as, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Plural, Trio Arbós, Lontano, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten, Ensemble Recherche, Aventure, Ensamble Sospeso, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Court Circuit, L´Instant donné , Ensemble Signal, Arditti Quartet, amongst others. Her music has been widely performed at important international festivals, such as Huddersfield, Edinburgh Festival in the UK; Eclat and Ultraschall in Germany; Festival d´Automne a Paris, Musica and Octobre en Normandie, in France; Wien Modern, in Austria; Akiyoshidai and Takefu Music Festivals, in Japan; Archipel ans Music monat , in Switzerland; De Ijsbreker Chamber Music Festival, in Amsterdam; Warsaw Autumn, in Poland; Ultima, in Oslo; Melbourne Festival, in Australia; Festival of Arts and Ideas in the USA, Ars Musica in Bruxelles; Festival de Alicante and ENSEMNS Festival, in Spain; FPotrait series of Miller Theatre New York; Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico, amongst others.

Discography:

-Mode Records New York (60):The Seventh Seed, chamber opera in 3 acts, for 5 voices, string quartet and percussion. Permutaciones, for solo violin.
-Quindicim (QP 1067): Metmorfósis for guitar.
-Euram Record ( Euro092-3): Nana de la Luna for mezzo and piano.
-Luna Negra (CDLN22): Tres Piezas In Memoriam L.J. for ensemble.
-Ediciones Pentagrama (PCD300): Globo, Luciérnagas, for mezzo and piano.
-Somm Recordings.UK (Salsa Nueva): Recordando a Celia, for piano.
-Mode Records New York(149): Uy U T´an for string quartet. Arditti Quartet.
Can Silim Tun, for 4 voices and string quartet. Neue Vocalsolisten and Arditti Quartet. Ah Paaxo´ob for large ensemble. Ensemble Modern 2001.
Cotidales, for piano quintet. Ian Pace and Arditti Quartet. 2001.
-Mode Records, New York (165): Uy U T´an. Arditti Quartet. Music from Mexico.
-Three pieces for double-manual harpsichord by Agueda González. Quindicim QP169.
- Quindicim (QP 186). Sobre un páramo sin voces by pianist Ana Cervantes.
-Move (3324). Tríptico: Caligrama, A contraluz, Parábola by pianist Michael K. Harvey.

Publications on Hilda Paredes

Hilda Paredes: el añorado expresionismo by Aurelio Tello Revista Siempre (Mexico), n. 1911 February 7, 1990 p. 52

Compositores de fin de Siglo: Conversación con Hilda Paredes, interview by Aurelio Tello. Bibliomúsica, Septiembre-diciembre (Mexico) 1993 p. 17.

Entrevista con Hilda Paredes La Jornada Semanal 4 July 1993 (Mexico) p. 27. Interview by Marcia Torresasía.

La composición en México en el siglo XX, by Yolanda Moreno Rivas, Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes Mexico 1994, chapter VII Da capo y Posmodernos p. 106.

Mujeres en la creación musical de México, Cuadernos de Pauta p.241 interview by Clara Meierovich (México). (2000)

Hilda Paredes, compositora, ABC Las Artes y las Letras 18-24 march 2006 (Spain) interview by Susana Gaviña.

Das ei(ge)ne und das andere, die Mexikanische komponistin Hilda Paredes by
Monika Furst-Heidtmann, January (2009) Neue Zeitschrift fur Musik.

Preguntamos a Hilda Paredes, interview in Diverdi, boletín de información discográfica June 2009 p.7.

Selected reviews

“What the music of the Maya´s sounded like, nobody knows anymore. But the Mexican composer Hilda Paredes searches for answers in each recorded thought, in each numerological symbolism, and thus in the roots of her own culture”
WIESBADENER KURIER. Germany. (2001)

“Its rhythmic vitality seduced an audience that was previously sceptical to any proposal by this Latin woman… the reaction was shocking, but with a telluric presence, like our volcanoes.”
REFORMA. Lázaro Azar. Mexico/Canada (2001)

“…nothing to match the refinement of seamless, Mayan influenced “concerto for ensemble” Ah Paaxo´ob by the Mexican Hilda Paredes” Paul Driver, SUNDAY TIMES.London (2002)

“Watching the world premier of Hilda Paredes´ chamber opera Phantom Palace, I had the sort of out-of body experience where you say to yourself “This can´t be happening in New Haven”. I simply couldn´t come to terms with the realization that I was seeing topflight European modern opera, performed by a major international company premiering a ceaselessly provocative, unexpectedly comic and altogether amazing work…just a few blocks from my home. This is the kind of thing you feel you can only travel huge distances to see. But there it is: New Haven should be talking about Phantom Palace-in a number of languages- for years to come”.
NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE. USA (2003)

“Social activism finds voice in opera.
Ghosts visited the stage of Yale University Theatre this month, native ghosts from distant past of an unnamed Latin American country ruled by a brutal dictator….

In setting the story, Paredes evidently sought to draw on the musical qualities of the languages used to tell it, sometimes employing electronic means to manipulate her sound material (the spirit voices are made to come from different parts of the theatre), and sometimes using leitmotif textures (rather than themes) to evoke dramatic situations.
As her tale is one of pain, she has produce music of pain, full of angularity, pointillism and dissonances, often pervaded by an aura of tension and mystery.”
TORONTO STAR.Canada/USA (2003)

“I cannot resist praising the Homenaje a Remedios Varo by Hilda Paredes as outstanding, not to mention it´s acute and clear formal construction, with nothing less than a sweeping and impressive finale.”
Mundo Clásico. Spain. (2004)

“Amongst the jewels of the programme was the emotive and well crafted Homenaje a Remedios Varo, written in 1995 by the ascending Mexican composer Hilda Paredes.”
El Mundo. Spain. (2004)

“The pieces on this disc were written over a three-year period, from the 1998 string quartet Uy U Tan through the settings of Mayan spells and incantations in Can Silim Tun (1999), to the piano quintet Cotidales and the ambitious ensemble piece Ah Paaxo´ob from 2001. All show that Paredes is a composer with a fresh aural imagination, while her Carter-like use of instrumentalists as dramatic protagonists gives her music an extra dimension. Superbly played, it´s music worth investigating.” The Guardian (2005)
“Her piece, "Uy u´tan", which means, "listen to their language" is the most striking on this disc. Each of the four strings has a different personality and they work together in strange ways, in odd combinations, coming together when you least expect it. This fine work makes me want to check out the other discs by Ms. Paredes” (2006) (Mode Cd 165)

“From the composer Hilda Paredes, ONIX performed Corazón de ónix, conducted by José Luis Castillo. This is a complex and ambitious piece, well written and with atmospheric and colouristic qualities. It also has solid treatment of different sound production of the instruments. These timbric qualities are enhanced by Paredes with the use of the bass and alto flute as well as bass clarinet. Corazón de ónix is marked by an interesting expressivity and by very attractive harmonic instability, which is enhanced by the use of micro-intervals and glissandi. All these elements merge in numerous moments of an evocative poetic sonority that is at the same time intense and concentrated”. La Jornada, Mexico. Juan Arturo Brennan. 2006

“Paredes, born in Mexico but long resident in London, should be better known. All four works are finely written and full of life. The title of her string quartet, Uy U T´an — in ancient Mayan — means Listen How They Talk, and Paredes takes the idea of “discourse” literally. The idea dates back to Haydn´s quartets, but she gives it an Arditti-ish twist, and the work has a superb dramatic sweep. The Ardittis are joined by the pianist Ian Pace for Cotidales and by Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart for the magic-spell evocation of Can Silim Tun. Ah Paaxo´ob (Those Who Play the Music) is a colourfully detailed ensemble piece.” Three stars. The Sunday Times (2005)

“Paredes has often been included as part of a new generation of Mexican composers eschewing any division between northern and southern hemispheric musical cultures, focusing on the often tension-filled relations between them. And while it would not be inaccurate to compare Paredes´ chamber works to those of Ligeti, Xenakis, or Tristan Murail, it is her attention to the relationship between communication and miscommunication, conversation and noise, that sets her work apart. In thinking about Paredes´ chamber works, we can borrow a phrase from the philosopher Michel Serres, "the miracle of harmony." Reviewed by Eugene Thacker
School of Literature, Communication & Culture
Georgia Institute of Technology

“Besides his usual conducting duties, Burns showed to be a meltingly smooth trumpeter and flugelhorn player in Hilda Paredes "Ooxp eel ik´il t´aan," a 2007 work for percussion and electronics where Mayan poetry is read by author Briceida Cuevas (heard via a recording) to invoke ancient mysticism. This fusion of indigenous and modern American modes of expression bridged the millennia both convincingly and imaginatively.” Chicago Sun-Times May 21, 2010 BY BRYANT MANNING

“Such emotional depth could be found in the comparatively spare, even sepulchral textures of Hilda Paredes´ Canciones Lunáticas. These were three ´lunatic´ songs set around a contemplation of the moon´s solitary witness for a dark night, moving through a wild second song of lunacy, before emerging in celebration of the moon dancing ´by herself in the meadow´ (this last set to a spectrally buoyant version of the Mexican ternary-binarydance, the huapango). The musical language of the setting was narratively alert, sometimes pictorial, sometimes obtuse, but always sensitive, agitated, and energised.” MusicalCriticism.com (2011)

Une fois le tapis de sol tendu et le décor monté sur le plateau des Bouffes du Nord, l´Ensemble Court-circuit – 9 instruments sonorisés –revenait sur un côté de la scène pour laisser évoluer les deux danseurs espagnols, Ana Luján Sánchez – également chorégraphe – et ToniAparisi, sur la musique de la compositrice d´origine mexicaine Hilda Paredes. Revelaciòn emprunte son titre à la toile éponyme de la plasticienne espagnole Remedia Varo mais la musique n´est en aucun cas une tentative d´illustration: « C´est la rencontre des idéeschorégraphiques et musicales qui ont donné vie à la pièce » nous dit la compositrice; et c´est bien ce magnétisme entre le son et lachorégraphie qui opère dès le début: entre le geste du chef – imperturbable Jean-Deroyer – et le mouvement stylisé de la danseuse, hissée sur les épaules de son partenaire au tout début du spectacle. Imposant le mouvement de leur corps sur la toile sonore, les deux danseurssavent habilement tirés partis de l´espace et des suggestions de la musique dans un foisonnement d´idées remarquablement exploitées.
Irréprochable quant à lui et très coopérant – Pierre Dutrieu (clarinette) et Stéphane Bidoux (cor) sortent du rang pour évoluer en solo –l´Ensemble Court-Circuit assurait une partie sonore extrêmement soignée et dans un parfait équilibre des sonorités.
http://www.resmusica.com/2011/09/22

Revelación (création mondiale) se penche sur la réalité temporelle et le rapport à autrui, thèmes inspirés à la compositrice et à la chorégraphe par la peinture de Remedios Varo. La communion entre musique et danse est totale au point que les deux arts pénètrent dans l´espace vital de l´autre. Ainsi, deux musiciens de l´ensemble (clarinette et cor) s´aventurent-ils sur la scène réservée aux danseurs
pour exécuter des solos. À leur tour les danseurs miment une étrange production du son qui donne un peu l´impression d´une rencontre entre deux univers parallèles. Simple et belle est l´idée chorégraphique de construire des mouvements en miroir de ceux du chef d´orchestre, véritable point de convergence entre deux arts jumeaux. L´abolition des limites dans l´espace réservé à chacun se manifeste aussi quand l´entrée sur scène des musiciens est théâtralisée par les danseurs, grâce à l´utilisation de chapeaux haut-de-forme, symbole de
l´homme-personnage, du rôle à accomplir dans le théâtre et dans la vie, lancés au sol avant que la musique commence, à l´exception de ceux des solistes qui sur scène circulent entre les deux univers.
http://www.anaclase.com/chroniques/création-de-revelación-de-hilda-paredes

Ms. Paredes, born in Tehuacán in 1957 and based in London since 1979, is admired for compositions that mix modernist rigor and extended techniques with a primal energy rooted in Maya lore. Here the new-music ensemble Signal, conducted by Brad Lubman, brought its customary authority to three works.
The first, “Corazón de Onix” (“Heart of Onyx,” 2005), for a sextet of winds, strings and piano, evoked a gemstone´s luster and mutability with sharp, glistening sounds, reshaped and refracted with microtonal smears and noisy outbursts.
“Señales” (“Signals,” 2012), newly commissioned by the Miller Theater, featured Irvine Arditti, the formidable English violinist who is also Ms. Paredes´s husband. From a lapping, splashing introduction, the music — played by a 10-member ensemble that included an ear-tickling mix of cimbalom, harp and marimba — rippled, surged and jolted ceaselessly around Mr. Arditti´s flashing exertions. Time stood still repeatedly during haunting interludes that paid homage to another composer, Jonathan Harvey.
The NY Times

She creates masterful, colorful gestures, incorporating virtually every conceivable playing technique that has been explored inthe last half-century. Somewhat exotic instruments make cameos, such as the cimbalom in Senales and steel drum in Ah Paaxo´Ob. The music is often highly polyphonic and shifts rapidly. Harmony and melody are possibly row derived, with occasional Webern-esque filaments of lyrical melody appearing and quickly disintegrating. Perhaps the most obvious reference to her Central American heritage is an energy that flows through the pieces, even in static sections, born of unique rhythmic combinations.
ConcertoNet.com - The Classical Music Network

More information at:

www.hildaparedes.com