Collection: Esteban Benzecry

Argentinean composer Esteban Benzecry was born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1970. In Argentina, parallel to his studies in Fine Arts at “Prilidiano Pueyrredón” University that led to a professional degree as Painting Teacher, he studied musical composition with Sergio Hualpa and Haydée Gerardi

In 1992 he was distinguished as the ‘Young Revelation’ by the Musical Critics Association of Argentina. In 1994 the same association awarded his first symphony, “El compendio de la vida” (1993), with the prize for the best Argentine work premiered in the season. This work combined both of his artistic talents since it was inspired by four of his own paintings.

Since 1997 he has resided in Paris, where he studied composition with Jacques Charpentier and Paul Méfano at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, obtaining a Premier Prix a l'unanimitè in composition in 1999. He also studied electroacoustic music with Luis Naon and Laurent Cuniot at the same school.

His talents and great promise have been recognized with scholarships granted by prestigious institutions, such as the Academie Internationale de Musique Yehudi Menuhin (Switzerland) and the Casa de Velázquez in Madrid, which in 1995 and from 2004 to 2006 respectively, invited him as a resident composer. In 2008, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation granted him a Fellowship for music composition. He has also been a scholarship recipient of the Mozarteum Argentino, the Interamerican Music Friends of Washington (USA) and the Fondation d'Entreprise of the Groupe Banque Populaire (France).

The Academie des Beaux-Arts de l'Institut de France has awarded him several times: he received Delmas Prize in 1999, the Tronchet Prize in 2002 and the Georges Wildenstein Prize in 2006. Meanwhile, in 2006 he received again the recognition from the Musical Critics Association of Argentina for the best work premiered, for “La Lumiere de Pacha Camac”, a concerto for cello and cello ensemble.

His most recent works attempt a fusion between rhythms of Latin American roots that he takes as a source of inspiration and the diverse aesthetic currents of European contemporary music, creating, thus, a personal language, an imaginary folklore. ‘Le Monde de la Musique’ (07/2001) has called him a distant heir to Villa-Lobos and Ginastera because of his imaginative use of the Latin American musical patrimony.

He has composed three symphonies and several other works for orchestra, string orchestra, chamber ensemble and solo instruments.

His music has been commissioned and performed by important orchestras in Europe and the Americas, including: Orchestre National de France, Grup Instrumental de Valencia, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, Orquesta Sinfónica Carlos Chavez (Mexico), Orquesta Sinfónica Simon Bolivar (Venezuela), Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Argentina, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Perú, London's Schubert Chamber Orchestra, State Philharmonic Orchestra of Sibiu (Romania), Klaïpeda Symphony Orchestra (Lithuania), and Solaris String Quartet. His works have also been performed by renowned artists such as Gustavo Dudamel, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Laurent Petitgirard, Alain Altinoglu, Daniel Kawka, Wolfgang Doerner, Mark Foster, Alain Pâris, Nemanja Radulovic, Alberto Lysy, Sol Gabetta, Horacio Lavandera, and Jesus Castro Balbi, among others.

For more information about Esteban Benzecry, please visit estebanbenzecry.com.