Guest Artists

Julián Ávila is a composer and sound artist. He works as a Lecturer of Electroacoustic Composition at CSMCLM (Castilla-La Mancha Conservatory). He is the invited lecturer of the Master of Ephemeral Arts at Madrid Polytechnic University and a Teacher Assistant at NOVARS Research Centre at the University of Manchester, UK, where he is researching his PhD in Spectral Diffusion and Spectral Energy in Electroacoustic Composition.

Manuel Blanco began learning the trumpet at a very early age at the Conservatorio de Ciudad Real with Martin Baeza de Rubio and José María Orti. He achieved international recognition upon winning the first prize in the prestigious ARD Music Competition in Munich 2011 (with the best score in history), a prize only awarded to two trumpeters before Manuel Blanco, of which the first was Maurice Andre in 1963. He has worked as a principal trumpet with first-class orchestras, and works as trumpet solo in the Orquesta Nacional de España (since 2004).
 

José Miguel Fayos studied composition at the Conservatory of Music in Valencia with R. Ramos, G. Jimenez, E. Sanz-Burguete, C. and F. Cano Tamarit getting "special award". He is currently Head of the Department of Composition and professor of harmony and orchestration at the Conservatory of Music of Castilla-La Mancha.
 

José Antonio García has belonged to the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE). He also belonged to the discipline of the Gustav Mahler Jugend Orchester (GMJO), whose artistic director was Claudio Abbado. With this orchestra he has performed around Europe (London, Paris, Prague, Lucerna, Bolzano, Vienna, Berlin, etc.) and under the baton of conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa (GMJO) and C.M. Giulini (JONDE).

Since July 2013 he is Professor of Trumpet and Head of Studies at the Conservatory of Music of Castilla-La Mancha.

Eduardo González was born in Salamanca, Spain, in 1981, where he started to study cello at the age of eight with Jose Enrique Bouché, and later with Asier Polo. From 2002 to 2005 he studied at Folkwang Hochschule Essen with Alexander Huelshoff. At the same time, he played for different maestros in Master-Classes: Pergamenschicow, Starker, Goritzki, etc. During those years he played in the most important concert halls in Europe.

In 2004, Eduardo received the prestigious Von Humboldt foundation scholarship to study at the Robert Schumann University in Dusseldorf. He studied also with Elena Cheah. Three years ago he obtained the position of chairman of the cello department at the Superior Conservatory of Albacete. Future recitals include performances in Spain, Croatia, China and Italy. He plays an Italian cello built in Parma by Gaetano Sgarabotto in 1935.

Miguel Ángel Orero completed his studies at the elementary and professional Conservatories in Buñol (Valencia), Riba-Roja del Túria (Valencia) and Madrid, obtaining the title of professor and Honor Award in Professional Degree in Percussion. Later he entered the C.S.M. Zaragoza with Professor Manel Ramada, and later in the C.S.M. Valencia with teachers Jesus Salvador, Joan Manuel Cerveró and Manuel Tomás, where he obtained the Superior Degree and Honorary Award in percussion. He received the D.E.A. (Diploma of Advanced Studies) in the PhD program in Music from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Today, thanks to the development of his thesis, he develops research in the field of percussion music.

Since the 2013 he works as professor of percussion and Principal of the Conservatory of Music of Castilla-La Mancha. 
 

Raúl Traver began his training with Professor Venancio Rius in 2003. Rius has influenced the musical development of Traver in an essential way. Traver has participated in clarinet master classes with many of the most prominent teachers of today, including Yehuda Gilad and Sabine Meyer. He has been invited by Professor Michael Rusinek to participate in master classes at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. 

Since 2014 he is professor of clarinet at the Conservatory of Music of Castilla-La Mancha. 

Emily Howes, mezzo-soprano, received her Master of Music degree from the University of Louisville, studying under Edith Davis Tidwell. Ms. Howes is currently pursuing her doctorate at Florida State University, where she studies with Shirley Close. She recently sang the role of Nero in L’incoronazione di Poppea as well as the title role in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Maurya (Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea) and Ms. Todd (Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief). In addition, Emily premiered the role of the daughter in Rene Orth’s The Red Thread, the executioner in Chris Kincaid’s Cephalophore, Wingtip in Yvonne Freckmann’s Rootabaga Stories, and sang the role of Whiskers in the US Premiere of Robin Haigh’s The Man Who Woke Up. Ms. Howes has a great passion for teaching voice, and she hopes to teach at a university after earning her degree. 

Conductor Tim Weiss has gained critical acclaim for his performances and brave, adventurous programming throughout the United States and abroad.

Since 2005, he has served as music director for the Newark-Granville Symphony Orchestra, a professional ensemble in the Columbus, Ohio, area. He has also remained active as a guest conductor with the BBC Scottish Symphony in Glasgow, Scotland; the Britten Sinfonia in London; the Melbourne Symphony in Australia; ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble); and the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings.

Formed at the Eastman School of Music by composers Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, the Eastman BroadBand is a flexible group of professional musicians whose aim is to explore the many facets of contemporary music-making. Its repertoire explores modern classics, such as Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Birtwistle, and Carter, as well as recent music by many living composers, including that of Sanchez-Gutierrez and Zohn-Muldoon. The BroadBand’s performances offer equal doses of rigor, precision, artistry, uncompromising furor and joy.

The Eastman BroadBand has performed internationally at Festival Internacional Cervantino, Chihuahua International Festival, and Conservatorio Nacional de Musica in Mexico; in Italy at SoundSCAPE (Maccagno), MASKfest (Bologna), and Festival SpazioMusica (Cagliari); in Spain at VIPA (Valencia), and as Resident Ensemble at the 2008 and 2010 Festival Internacional Chihuahua. Recently, the group has also performed in New York City at Symphony Space’s Sonidos festival, the Americas Society, NYU’s Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimo, and Miller Theatre, and gave the premiere of Garth Fagan’s Edge/Joy, with the Garth Fagan Dance Company at the Joyce Theatre. The group recently toured Western Mexico and the US Northeast with a staged version of Zohn-Muldoon’s Comala, in collaboration with PUSH Physical Theater and Alia Musica.

Deidre Huckabay, flutes
Andy Brown, clarinets
Brant Blackard, percussion
Connor Stevens, percussion
Daniel Pesca, piano
Dieter Hennings, guitar
Hanna Hurwitz, violin
Mariel Roberts, cello