(b. 30 November 1959, Mexico City).
Mexican composer of mostly stage, orchestral and chamber works that have been performed throughout the world; she is also active as an organiser and writer.
Ms. Lara studied piano with Leopoldo González and voice with Charles Laila and Rosa Rimoch from 1979–86. She studied composition with Daniel Catán at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City in 1982, where she then studied composition with Mario Lavista from 1982–86. She also attended a composition workshop with Federico Ibarra Groth at CENIDIM of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City from 1984–86 and had postgraduate studies in composition with Włodzimierz Kotoński and Zbigniew Rudziński at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw from 1986–89, on a study grant from the governments of Mexico and Poland. She later studied ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, College Park from 2002–04 and there earned her MA.
Among her honours are a grant for young artists from the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes in Mexico City (1990), two grants from the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) in Mexico City (1994–97, 1998–2001), the USA/Canada/Mexico Creative Artists' Residency Program Grant (1997), and a residency at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy (2000). She was also a featured composer at the festival Sonidos de las Américas of the American Composers Orchestra (1994), earned a nomination as a producer for Best Classical Album in the Latin Grammy Awards (2000) and shared the Premio de la Asociación de Periodistas y Críticos de Teatro y Música for her work with the festival Música y Escena (2001).
As an organiser, she founded the Sociedad Mexicana de Música Nueva in 1989 and served as its president from 1989–91. She later founded the festival Música y Escena in Mexico City in 1998 and has served as its artistic director since 1998. In addition, she served as artistic director of Puebla Instrumenta Verano in 2003–04.
As a writer, she contributed to the music journal Pauta from 1986–92 and has written articles for other publications in Mexico. She served on the board of editors of the music journal Heterofonía from 1989–95.
Ms. Lara is also active in other positions. She worked as an information coordinator at CENIDIM from 1989–92, as a record producer from 1989–99 and as producer of the programme for contemporary music Hacia una nueva música on Radio UNAM in Mexico City from 1989–2003. She served on the board of the section in Mexico of ISCM from 1990–93 and as composer-in-residence to the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in Mexico City in 1993–94. She was later a member of the steering committee for the Project of Performing Arts for the Mexico/USA Funds for Culture from 1997–2000 and a jury member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del FONCA from 2000–03.
She gave workshops in the USA in 1995 and lectured throughout Mexico from 1996–2003.
COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS
STAGE:
Más allá. Homenaje escénico a Mathias Goeritz (incidental music, direction by Natalia Carriazo), cello, fixed media, 1988
Desasosiego, mezzo-soprano–female actor, small orchestra, 1991–93
¿Y la marcha de la humanidad? Homenaje a Siqueiros (dance music, choreography by Alicia Sánchez), French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, 4 percussion, 1996
Viejas Historias (dance music, choreography by Rossana Filomarino), fixed media, 1998
Celebraciones (dance music, choreography by Rossana Filomarino), fixed media, 2000
El Destierro (incidental music, play by Juan Tovar), voice, piano, 2001–02
Elles (dance music, choreography by Louise Bédard), voice, flute, clarinet, piano, string quartet, fixed media, 2002
La Náufraga (performance, choreography by Lorena Glinz, the composer), dancer, flute, cello, piano, 2002–03
ORCHESTRAL:
La Víspera, 1989
Ángeles de llama y hielo, 1993–94
Concerto, sopranino recorder (+ soprano recorder, alto recorder, bass recorder), harp, percussion, string orchestra, 1998
Canticum Sacrum, string orchestra, 2000
Dos Visiones, 2003–04
CHAMBER MUSIC:
In memoriam, alto flute, cello, 1985
Hacia la noche, amplified flute, 1985
Arcos, string quartet, 1986–87
Entre los rayos del sol, harp, double bass, 1988
Ícaro, recorder, 1989
Alusiones, double bass, 1989–90
Saga, harp, 1990
Vitrales, viola, cello, double bass, 1992
O mar, marée, bateaux, guitar 4 hands/2 guitars, 1992
Aulós, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 1994
Cántaros, clarinet, string quartet, 1995
Koaiá, cello, 1995–96
En par de los levantes de la aurora, French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, percussion, 1996
Darkness Visible, flute, clarinet (+ bass clarinet), violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion, 1998–99
Fanfaire, 4 French horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 3 percussion, 1999
Ocho Haiku, guitar, 1999
Estudios rítmicos, 4 percussion, 1997–2000
Bhairav, string quartet, 2000
Srebro, 3 flutes, 2000
Vértigos, flute (+ alto flute), clarinet (+ bass clarinet), piano, 2001
Tribulaciones, 2 cellos, piano, 2004
CHORAL:
Requiem. Missa pro defunctis, mixed chorus, 1997
VOCAL:
Déjame soñar tu sueño, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1998
Llévame a donde quieras, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1999
Valedictus, tenor, 2 French horns, string orchestra, 2003
PIANO:
Two Études, 1986
Pegaso, 1992 (also versions for organ; harpsichord)
ORGAN:
Pegaso, 1992 (version of work for piano)
HARPSICHORD:
Pegaso, 1992 (version of work for piano)
DISCOGRAPHY
Ícaro. Horacio Franco, recorder (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Serie Siglo XX Vol. VIII, 1992 [reissued as Quindecim Recordings: QP055, 2000])
Aulós. Quinteto de Alientos de la Ciudad de México (Clásicos Mexicanos: SDL 21018, 1995)
Saga. Lidia Tamayo, harp (Lejos del Paraíso–FONCA, 1995)
Pegaso (version for harpsichord). Lidia Guerberof Hahn, harpsichord (FONCA, 1996)
Ángeles de llama y hielo. Ronald Zollman/Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM (Sony Masterworks: CDEC-486152, 1997)
Hacia la noche. Guillermo Portillo, amplified flute (CONACULTA–CNART–Conservatorio de Las Rosas: EURO 092-3, 1999)
Déjame soñar tu sueño. Encarnación Vázquez, mezzo-soprano; Alberto Cruzprieto, piano (CONACULTA–FONCA, Música Mexicana para un Nuevo Milenio Vol. I, 1999)
Cántaros. Luis Humberto Ramos, clarinet; Cameristas de México (Quindecim Recordings: QP033, 1999)
Vitrales. Ónix Nuevo Ensamble de México (Actus Classics Recordings, 2002)