My musical education began when I was 10 years old with formal music theory and piano classes. Back then, my oldest brothers was studying music composition at the Conservatorio de las Rosas in Morelia Mexico and I had the opportunity to attend some of his classes by composers such as German Romero and Samuel Cedillo. Even though, my focus at that time was the practice of piano, the ideas of these professors had a significant influence on the musical path that I have taken. I grasped their multidisciplinary and universal notion of the musician. I started exploring several art disciplines, philosophy and almost any source that would grow my insight of art. This led me to film a couple of short films and write poetry. Nowadays, I try to drive my imagination and my work from several nodal ideas, which allows me to maintain a fresh perspective of an impression that is common to each of the ideas. In this way, the intention of my music is sustained by a musical idea as much as it is by a philosophical idea or a personal experience.
Despite my initial musical training was rather traditional and conservative, I had a deep interest for contemporary music since early in my studies. I studied my high school at Conservatorio de las Rosas in Mexico where I got an equivalent music degree with speciality in piano under Alexander Pashkov. Afterwards, I went to San Francisco State University in order to study with professor Roger Woodward in search of initiation on contemporary performance. However, my interest for music composition grew up and getting in touch with electronic music was determinant for seeking training in this area of music. I was very curious back then about Supercollider and I was fascinated by the works that I heard written for this program. I felt the need of a deeper understanding of programming in order to be proficient with Supercollider. This was mainly the reason why I began taking computer science classes and later pursued the major in this field. At the same time, I also took private lessons with the Mexican composer Ignacio Baca Lobera, who introduced me to the basics of composition and analysis of modern works. Baca Lobera was an open window to the vibrant composition community that currently exist in Mexico.
From this point on, my commitment with music changed drastically and I started looking for the sources and tools in order to explore my interest in music as well as in computer science, always looking for an intersection of the two fields. I decided to transfer to Wesleyan University influenced by a couple of students of professor Ronald Kuivila whose introductory class to Supercollider I took on my second semester at Wesleyan. This class was a breaking point for my musical education given that Supercollider and the content of the class allowed me to put my hands on music composition being able to experience the full compositional process. Electronic music has been the main conduct for expanding my imagination, it has enabled me to go beyond musical images by taking under consideration the physical aspect of sound and developing a better intuition of it in a concrete way with Supercollider. However, the computer science major has broaden my perspective about the world on its own right. In particular, due to some computer science classes that I have taken, such as Design of Programming Languages, and Computer Structure, I came to understand better the basis of something as complex and expressive as it is a programming language. I constantly try to comprise and implement an analogous language structure on my compositions, going from a number of primary elements (as well as primary relationships between these elements) to more complex objects that are born from mere interrelation of the basis building blocks.
I am currently writing a set of electronic pieces on Supercollider which convey the idea of growing complexity. The structure of the piece oscillates between the simple sound of impulse to the elaborate intricacy of human voice. Thus, this work has also allowed me to experience and to challenge the limits that there exist between synthetic and acoustic sounds. In addition, I have a growing interest in the idea of space, namely how an electronic composition depends directly from the environment where it is to be played. Therefore, thinking about the space while writing is very important to me for the full visualization of the piece. Even though, my experience with acoustic music is limited to some classes exercises, my interest on this area of music is very present and sometimes my practice with electronic music motivates acoustic ideas. A way that I have found to draw a connection between these two regions of music is experimenting with electroacoustic music. Explicitly, I am intrigued with the relationship that there exist between performer and program, and the whole new perspective of interaction that this opens to music.
