Gustavo Díaz Jerez

Biography

Gustavo Díaz-Jerez studied piano with J. A. Rodriguez at the Conservatorio Superior of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and subsequently with Solomon Mikowsky at Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He has performed extensively throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Australia, the UK and the US, in halls including Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Royal Festival Hall in London and numerous other venues. He has collaborated with conductors such as Ivan Fischer, Victor Pablo, Cristian Mandeal, Matthias Bamert, Gunther Herbig, Adrian Leaper, José R. Encinar, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, with orchestras such as the Budapest Festival Orchestra, The Turin Symphony, The Northern Sinfonia, as well as the major Spanish orchestras (Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Galicia, Nacional de Cataluña, Castilla y León, Sinfónica de Madrid). He has been invited to play at various international music festivals, including the Festival Internacional de Canarias, La Roque d’Anthéron, Quincena Musical Donostiarra, Festival Internacional de Santander, among others.

He studied composition with Giampaolo Bracali and Ludmila Ulehla at Manhattan School of Music. His compositional language may be defined as “algorithmic spectralism”, merging elements of the spectralist movement (Grisey, Murail, Radulescu, etc.), in which timbre plays a fundamental role, with processes derived from mathematical disciplines such as cellular automata, L-systems, fractals, genetic algorithms, number theory, spectrum analysis, additive synthesis, psychoacoustics, etc. Needless the say, the use of the computer is indispensable, usually producing results in the form of electronic music. However, his main interest is not in electroacoustics, but to “transcribe” these results using traditional instruments. This requires a very careful and elaborate process of quantization of melodic, rhythmic and timbre elements, so it can be adequately performed by human players. These transformations, however, leave intact the essence of the original process. His works are published by PeriferiaMusic and Fractal Music Press. A programmer as well, he has written the PC freeware program FractMus, which explores fractal and generative processes for music composition. His articles on the subject have been published by specialized magazines such as Electronic Musician. and MIT's Leonardo Music Journal.

Since 2002, he is a professor of piano at the Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco, Musikene.

Selected works