Artists in Residence

RICARDO LLORCA is one of the most promising talents to emerge from the new generation of contemporary Spanish-American composers. Llorca was born in 1962 in Alicante, a city located in the southeastern coastal region of Spain that has been the birthplace of many great musicians –Oscar Esplá, Ruperto Chapi, José Iturbi, López Chavarri, Martín y Soler, Joaquín Rodrigo, Tarrega, etc. He later moved to Madrid, where he studied at that city’s Royal Conservatory under Román Alis and attended the most theoretically advanced courses at the Festival de Granada with Luigi Nono, Carmelo Bernaola, and Luis de Pablo. After graduating in 1988, Llorca traveled to New York in order to continue his studies at the Juilliard School, where he has worked with composers David Diamond and John Corigliano. Upon completing his studies, Llorca assumed a faculty position at Juilliard, and continues to teach there today. Llorca combines his teaching responsibilities at Juilliard with his work as a composer, which has garnered him the Richard Rogers Scholarship (1992), the Virgen de la Almudena Award (1999), and the John Simon Guggenheim Award (2001).

Ricardo Llorca is the composer-in-residence for the New York-based dance company “Sensedance”. Llorca is currently teaching at The Juillliard School and at The Queen Sofía Spanish Institute in New York City. Llorca is a grant recipient of “The Argosy Foundation” and “Met-Life/Meet the Composer 2008”.

 

FABIANA BRAVO (born in 1969), is an acclaimed Argentine operatic soprano, who has achieved international success both through her interpretation of concert literature and in her powerful portrayals of operatic heroines.

Fabiana Bravo was born in Guaymallén Department, outside Mendoza, Argentina, to a family of modest means. She moved to Buenos Aires at age 22, and actively sought parts in the city’s vibrant theatre scene. She appeared in José Cibrián’s Drácula, and Peter MacFarlane’s Broadway follies and Broadway II, among other productions. He talent was noticed by singer Valeria Lynch, who hired Bravo and who, in 1995 introduced her to Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Pavarotti included Bravo in an operatic talent contest, which she won, and which led to her role with Pavarotti as Lucia di Lammermoor at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia.
She would go on to portray Tosca, Countess Almaviva, Leonora, Giorgetta, and Madama Butterfly in some of the world’s most renowned houses. In 1999, she was named Argentina’s Woman of the Year for her remarkable contributions to the arts. After an early career in musical theatre, she was introduced to the famous singer Luciano Pavarotti. She won his international competition, and also received numerous awards as a Plácido Domingo Operalia Finalist, Opera Index winner and Met Council Winner of the Regional Finalist Competition. She was added to the Metropolitan Opera Roster in the 2001/2002 season, and continues to perform in New York, Washington, D.C, San Francisco, and Chicago with regularity.
In recent years, Bravo has sung the Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (1997), Mimi in La Bohème (1998), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (1999) and the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos (2002), all in opera productions of Washington D.C’s Summer Opera Theatre Company. She also sings with Virginia Opera, where her performance of Donna Anna brought her recognition as a much sought-after artist.
It was a personally tailored full scholarship program at The Catholic University of America that brought Fabiana Bravo from Argentina to Washington DC. From there she also studied interpretation at the Renata Scotto Institute in Savona, Italy, and verdian repertoire at the Verdi Opera Studio in Parma, Italy. Finally, she accepted a one year scholarship program to study in Voghera, Italy, at the Academy of Vocal Arts.
Fabiana Bravo met with and performed for the United States Supreme Court in 1999, and has brought recognition of her hometown of Mendoza, through a series of very popular South American Recitals. She is now a renowned name in the international opera world, and performs in concert and opera throughout the world. Ms. Bravo currently resides in Washington, DC and Mendoza, Argentina.

 

GISLE KVERNDOKK (born 3 February 1967) studied composition with Olav Anton Thommessen, Lasse Thoresen and Alfred Janson at The Norwegian State Academy of Music, where he received his Master’s degree in 1994, and with John Corigliano and David Diamond at The Juilliard School in New York. In 1994 he attended the BMI Earl Hagen Film Scoring Workshop in Hollywood.

At the age of 15 he wrote a radio opera commissioned by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. The Norwegian State Academy of Music premiered his first full-scale opera The Falcon Tower in 1990. His next opera George’s Marvellous Medicine was premiered by The Kristiansund Opera in 1995, and was awarded Work of the Year by The Norwegian Composers Society. It has since then been produced by The Norwegian Opera in Oslo, Opera Vest in Bergen, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Ringsakeroperaen and was presented at The Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival in Germany 1997. The Norwegian Broadcasting Company has also produced it as a radio production.

All the major orchestras in Norway have performed his works, among them The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and The Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. In the 1999-2000 season he was “Composer of the year” with The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra. His Selenefor orchestra was among the winners of The Juilliard Composers Competition 1992, and Initiation for violin and orchestra won 1. prize in the competition for composers under 30 years in The 1993 Paris ROSTRUM.

He has written musicals for children, music for several theatre plays, revues and ballets. He has a regular collaboration with librettist Øystein Wiik, and their first musical Sophie’s World was premiered at the Schlossfestspiele Ettlingen, Germany, in 1998. The Norwegian premiere was in Oslo 1999, in Hanger 4 at Fornebu, in a theatre specially built for the occasion. Their next musical, Vincent had its world premiere in Ettlingen, Germany, in June 2001.

In December 2002 Dangerous Liaisons had its world premiere at Theater Pforzheim, Germany, and the musical Homeless was premiered at The Norwegian Theatre, Oslo, October 2003. Theater Erfurt premiered the musical Martin L. at The Domstufen Festspiele in 2008. This work was nominated for The Nordic Music Prize. Wiik and Kverndokk’s opera Around the world in 80 days was commissioned for the opening of the new opera house in Oslo and was premiered in May 2010. Their children’s opera Max and Moritz was commissioned by The New York Opera Society and had its world premiere in October 2010 in Washington DC.

Bokken Lasson – stumbling success, a radio opera with libretto by Ivar Tindberg and commissioned by The Norwegian State Broadcasting Company, won the Prix Italia in 2000. Their next collaboration, the opera The fourth Watch of the Night was premiered at The Norwegian National Opera in November 2005, and was awarded the Edvard Prize in 2006.

Kverndokk has also written the music for the Danish film, Chinaman, produced by Fine & Mellow in 2005.

Kverndokk has an extensive catalog of church music, written for and premiered by the leading church music ensembles in Norway; Te Deum (2009) for The Norwegian Soloists Choir, Mass (2007) for The Nordic Voices, Nidarosmesse (2010) for The Nidaros Cathedral Choir and the church play Sommerens Maria (2011) written in collaboration with librettist Eyvind Skeie, for the Church Choir School in Nøtterøy.

Gisle Kverndokk has worked extensively as a musician and has been music director of several music theatre productions in Norway, Germany, The USA and Canada. He was awarded Anders Jahre’s Cultural Prize for Young Artists and Wilhelm Hansen’s Legacy in 1997. In 1999 he received The Lily Boulanger Memorial Fund from Boston University.