Bio

Javier Álvarez Fuentes (1956-2023) was a musical composer, artistic creator, art promoter, professor and academic. He was born in Mexico City on May 8, 1956, into a Yucatecan family of architects. He learned the clarinet and began composing at an early age, playing jazz and traditional music during his adolescence. The artistic, literary and musical effervescence of Mexico and his studies at the National Conservatory with his mentors Mario Lavista and Daniel Catán helped him quickly achieve recognition as an emerging composer in the early 1970s. Subsequently, he obtained various academic degrees abroad; at the University of Wisconsin, at the Royal College of Music studying with John Lambert and at City University under the tutelage of Simon Emmerson. During his career, he had a sustained and relevant teaching, academic and management activity that permeated the educational and cultural communities of the different places where he resided, particularly in the United Kingdom and in Mexico upon his return in 2005. His extensive catalog of works includes concert, film and electroacoustic music. His work was commissioned and presented by organizations, ensembles and soloists inside and outside Mexico, such as ICTUS, London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble l’Itinéraire, Florent Jodelet, TM+, Vinko Globokar, Brodsky Quartet, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Tambuco, Lontano, Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM), Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM), Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras (CMMAS) and orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, the French National Symphony, the Los Angeles, UNAM and Mexico City Philharmonic, and the Chicago, Mexico National, Yucatan and Mineria Symphonies, among others. He received distinctions of great importance, among them the National Prize of Sciences and Arts, the Bellas Artes Medal, the Mozart Medal, the Mendelssohn Scholarship and the Prix Ars Electronica. He was a member of the Academy of Arts of Mexico, founding director of the Bachelor of Musical Arts of the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán (ESAY), dean of the Conservatorio de las Rosas, artistic advisor of the Morelia Music Festival, general director of the ESAY and thanks to his management it became the Universidad de las Artes de Yucatán, being Javier its first dean. He passed away in Mérida, Yucatán on May 23, 2023.