Ricardo Lorenz (born May 24, 1961) is a Venezuelan

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and academic.

Life and career

Born in

Maracaibo Maracaibo ( , ; ) is a city and municipality in northwestern Venezuela, on the western shore of the strait that connects Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela. It is the largest city in Venezuela and is List of cities in Venezuela by population ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

, Lorenz earned degrees from both the Conservatory of Music Juan Manuel Olivares and the Juan Manuel Olivares National School of Music (also known as the Venezuelan National Conservatory) in Caracas, Venezuela. He then pursued graduate studies in music composition under Juan Orrego-Salas and

Donald Erb Donald Erb (January 17, 1927 – August 12, 2008) was an American composer best known for large orchestral works such as Concerto for Brass and Orchestra and ''Ritual Observances''. Early years Erb was born in Youngstown, Ohio, graduate ...

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

Jacobs School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

where he graduated with a Master of Music degree in 1986. He joined the faculty of the Jacobs School where he served as the director of the Latin American Music Center from 1987-1992. In 1995 he compiled and published the sourcebook ''Scores and Recordings at Indiana University's Latin American Music Center'' (

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...

, 1995) In 1992 Lorenz left the Jacobs school to pursue doctoral studies in music composition at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

where he was a pupil of

John Eaton John Eaton may refer to: * John Eaton (divine) (born 1575), English divine * John Eaton (pirate) (fl. 1683–1686), English buccaneer *Sir John Craig Eaton (1876–1922), Canadian businessman * John Craig Eaton II (born 1937), Canadian businessman ...

and

Shulamit Ran Shulamit Ran (; born October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize ...

. After completing his PhD, he was a composer-in-residence with the

Chicago Symphony Orchestra The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by Theodore Thomas in 1891, the ensemble has been based in the Symphony Center since 1904 and plays a summer season at the Ravinia F ...

and

Billings Symphony Orchestra The Billings Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Billings, Montana. The Symphony was founded in 1950, and the chorale A chorale is the name of several related musical forms originating in the music genre of the Lutheran ch ...

. His works have been performed by symphony orchestras internationally. In 2020 he was nominated for the

Best Classical Contemporary Composition The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to composers for quality works of contemporary classical ...

at the

21st Annual Latin Grammy Awards The 21st Annual Latin Grammy Awards were held on Thursday, November 19, 2020 and broadcast on TelevisaUnivision. The 2020 Latin Grammy ceremony was anchored from the American Airlines Arena in Miami, though the health protocols enacted due to the ...

for his composition "Pataruco".

Partial list of works

Orchestral works

*''Sinfonietta Concertante'' (1987), for wind quintet and string orchestra; dedicated to

Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...

*''Mar Acá, voor dwarsfluit'', chamber orchestra and

idiophones An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophone ...

(1989) *''Piano concerto'' (1990) *''Violin concerto'' (1990) *''Confabulaciones del Alma'', three symphonic

étude An étude (; ) or study is an instrumental musical composition, designed to provide practice material for perfecting a particular musical skill. The tradition of writing études emerged in the early 19th century with the rapidly growing popu ...

s (1992) *''Concerto for Orchestra'' (1993) *''Entrada triunfal del Rey Magoberry'' (1995) *''Concerto for recorder and orchestra'' (1995, written for recorder player

Aldo Abreu Aldo Abreu is a Venezuelan recorder player currently residing in the United States. Life and career Born in Caracas, Venezuela to famous harpsichordist Abraham Abreu and Janet Foxton, Abreu holds the Performer's and Teacher's Diplomas from the ...

) *''Pataruco'' for Venezuelan maracas and orchestra (1999, written for percussionist Edward Harrison) *''Konex-Konex'', for folk ensemble and orchestra (2000) *''En Tren Vá Changó'' (2001) *''Fantasía'', for piano and orchestra (2002) *''Rumba Sinfónica'', for Latin-American band and orchestra (2007) *''Canciones de Jara'', concerto for viola and orchestra (2010) *''Habanera Science'' (2012)

Vocal music

*''Delirio y descanso'', for SATB chorus and orchestra (1984) *''Misericordia campana'' for soprano, piano, and

electroacoustic music Electroacoustic music is a Music genre, genre of Western art music in which composers use recording technology and audio signal processing to manipulate the timbres of Acoustics, acoustic sounds in the creation of pieces of music. It originated a ...

(1985) *''Sit still'', SATB chorus, narrator, and chamber orchestra (1991)

Stage works

*''La Última Lorcura'', incidental music for the play (1986) *''La historia tropical'', music for a dance work (1986)

Film scores

*'' Vanishing Borders'' (2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorenz, Ricardo 1961 births Living people Jacobs School of Music alumni Jacobs School of Music faculty University of Chicago alumni Venezuelan composers