THE LIVING COMPOSERS PROJECT  

Ana Lara

(b. 30 November 1959, Mexico City).

Mexican composer of mostly stage, orchestral, chamber, and vocal works that have been performed throughout the world; she is also active as an organiser and writer.

Ms. Lara initially 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 workshop in composition 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 (1989–90), four grants from the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) in Mexico City (1994–97, 1998–2001, 2005–08, 2010–13), the USA/Canada/Mexico Creative Artists' Residency Program Grant (1995), 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), shared the Premio de la Asociación de Periodistas y Críticos de Teatro y Música for her work with the Festival Internacional Música y Escena (2001), and received the Medalla Bellas Artes from the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City (2020).

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 Internacional Música y Escena in Mexico City in 1998 and served as its artistic director from 1998–2012. In addition, she served as artistic director of Puebla Instrumenta Verano in 2003–04 and as artistic director of contemporary music at the Festival Internacional Cervantino from 2007–09.

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. She later co-founded with Luis Jaime Cortez the online journal Sonus Litterarum in Mexico City in 2021.

She is also active in other positions. She worked as an information coordinator at CENIDIM from 1989–92 and as a record producer from 1989–99 and has produced the programme for contemporary music Hacia una nueva música on Radio UNAM in Mexico City since 1989. 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 co-founded with Jean-Paul Bernard the interdisciplinary platform Afinidades Insospechadas in Mexico City in 2015 and served as cultural attachée at the embassy of Mexico in France and as director of the Instituto Cultural de México in Paris, both in 2016–17.

She gave workshops in the USA in 1995 and lectured throughout Mexico from 1996–2003.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Website: https://analara.net/ (mostly in Spanish)

COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS

STAGE:

Más allá. Homenaje a Mathias Goeritz (incidental music, direction by Natalia Carriazo), cello, fixed media, 1988

Desasosiego, mezzo-soprano–female actor, small orchestra, 1990–91

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

Elles (dance music, choreography by Louise Bédard), voice, flute, clarinet, piano, 2 violins, viola, cello, fixed media, 2002

La Náufraga (performance, choreography by Lorena Glinz, the composer), dancer, flute, cello, piano, 2002

Frida (music-theatre work), flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, percussion, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 2005

El Baile (music-theatre work), soprano, male actor, ensemble, live electronics, 2012–18

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

Concerto, basset horn, orchestra, 2006

Cuatro habitantes, 4 percussion, orchestra, 2007

Altre Lontananze (concerto), organ, orchestra, 2008–09

Atanor, 2009–10

Of Bronze and Blaze, symphonic band, 2018

Cuando caiga el silencio, 2018

Breves sombras, 2020

CHAMBER MUSIC:

Hacia la noche, amplified flute, 1985

Arcos, string quartet, 1986–87

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 (also version for guitar, 1992)

Koaiá, cello, 1995–96

Darkness Visible, flute, clarinet (+ bass clarinet), piano, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass, 1998–99

8 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 (also version for clarinet, bass clarinet, piano, 2007)

Serenata, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, 2005

Zodiaco. Sagitario, Capricornio, Acuario., flute, oboe, bass clarinet (+ alto saxophone, tenor saxophone), bassoon, trumpet, trombone, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass, 2006–07

Entre la bruma va, bass clarinet, 2008

Niebla del alba, flute (+ alto flute), piano, 2008

La suplicante, accordion, 2008

...y los oros la luz..., flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, 2008

Isocronismos, 2 violas, 2009

Dos danzas para Guillermina Bravo, ensemble, 2010

Solipse, cello, fixed media, 2010

Malgré la nuit, piano, percussion, fixed media, 2010–11

Au-delà du visible I, string quartet, 2011

Au-delà du visible II, ensemble, 2011

Ave Lira, flute, 2011

Une chanson, ensemble, 2014

Shifting colours, string quartet, 2016

El crepúsculo de la noche, cello, live electronics, 2017–18

La lluvia también se desplaza, 3 flutes, 2017–18

En dirección al mar, bajo la luz del búho, oboe, 2021 (also version for oboe, fixed media, 2021–22)

Apus, apus, 2 bass flutes, film, 2023

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

Epitafios y otras muertes, baritone, piano, 2005

Dylan y las ballenas, female speaker, 8 cellos, 2007

Pescador de agua dulce, baritone, piano, 2012

Callada Calma, mezzo-soprano, flute, bass clarinet, cello, 2013

Soneto XXX. When to the sessions of sweet silence thought (text by William Shakespeare), soprano, bass clarinet, guitar, viola, 2014

Chanson d'amour, soprano, ensemble, 2014

PIANO:

Dos estudios, 1985

Pegaso, 1992 (also versions for organ; harpsichord)

Recuerdos del poeta, 2006

Caminata de pastelito, 2007

Malgré la nuit II, prepared piano, 2012

ORGAN:

Pegaso, 1992 (version of work for piano)

Altre Lontananze II 2012

HARPSICHORD:

Pegaso, 1992 (version of work for piano)

ELECTROACOUSTIC:

Solaris, fixed media, 2022

Meditaciones para Lía, fixed media, 2023

Gesualdo mix, fixed media, 2023

SELECT DISCOGRAPHY

Ícaro. Horacio Franco, recorder (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Serie Siglo XX Vol. VIII, 1992 [reissued as Quindecim Recordings: QP055, 2000])

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. María Encarnación Vázquez, mezzo-soprano; Alberto Cruzprieto, piano (CONACULTA–FONCA, Música Mexicana para un Nuevo Milenio Vol. I, 1999)

Vitrales. Ónix Nuevo Ensamble de México (Actus Classics Recordings, 2002)