RAMON LAZKANO

Ramon Lazkano (San Sebastián, 1968) attended piano and composition classes at the San Sebastian Higher Conservatory of Music, where he obtained a Higher Degree in Composition. He studied composition and orchestration with Alain Bancquart and Gérard Grisey at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris, and was awarded a First Prize of Composition in 1990. A Sasakawa Foundation Scholarship allowed him to follow the studies of composition and analysis in Montreal with Gilles Tremblay. Once back in Paris, he studied orchestra conducting with Jean-Sébastien Béreau and Arturo Tamayo, and received a DEA degree (PhD Evaluation Degree) in 20th Century Music and Musicology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.

In 2007 Lazkano was awarded the Georges Bizet Prize by the French Academy of Fine Arts. His piano concerto Hitzaurre Bi earned him, at the age of 26, the prestigious Prince Pierre de Monaco Foundation Prize and shortly afterwards, in 1997, a jury chaired by Luciano Berio gave him the Jerusalem Leonard Bernstein Composition Prize for his Auhen Kantuak. He was also a prizewinner of the Institute of Music and Drama Arts, the Colegio de España, and the Gaudeamus Foundation. His residence in Rome (at the Spanish Academy of History, Archaeology & Fine Arts in 1995-96, then at the Villa Medici Academy of France in 2001-02) allowed him to carry out a reflection on what composition is and what it means today, focusing mainly on thoughts about intertextuality and the saturation, silence and experience of sound and time, all of which giving birth to emblematic pieces such as Ortzi Isilak (2006, commissioned by the Orquesta Nacional de España), Lur-Itzalak (2003, commissioned by the Printemps des Arts of Monte Carlo) and Ilunkor (2001, commissioned by the Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa). In 1998-99, while resident with the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, he had the opportunity of composing several pieces which were performed, among others, at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid and Berlin Konzerthaus. Stanford University invited him in 1999 to introduce his music and that same year he was appointed, along with Luis de Pablo, resident at the Musica Festival and the Strasburg Conservatoire.

His works have been played in many countries (France, Germany, Holland, Israel, Spain, Italy, Ukraine, Denmark, United Kingdom, Russia, USA, Austria...) in the framework of prestigious festivals such as: Musica (Strasbourg), Ars Musica (Brussels), Présences in Radio-France, Philharmonic Green Umbrella New Music series (Los Angeles), Gaudeamus Muziekweek (Amsterdam), International Society of Contemporary Music (Copenhagen), Festival of Contemporary Music (Alicante, Sp). His music has been played by renowned orchestras and ensembles - among which: the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, the Symphony Orchestra of Jerusalem, the National Orchestra of Spain, Soloists of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Symphony Orchestra of Euskadi, the Symphony Orchestra of Bilbao, the Spanish Broadcast Symphony Orchestra, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, String Ensemble of the National Orchestra of Russia, the Ensembles Recherche, Ictus, Wiener Collage, and Accroche Note, the Ensembles Barcelona 216 and Taller Sonoro, the Conjunto Ibérico de Violoncellos - and he has been commissioned by the Ministry of Culture (France), the Basque Government, Warsaw Autumn Festival, the CDMC (Spain), Radio France, ABRSM of London, the Orchestra of Cadaqués, the Orchestra of the Community of Madrid...

Ramon Lazkano gave orchestration lessons at the Strasburg Conservatoire and composition lessons at the Higher Academy of Music of Catalonia in Barcelona. By the time being, he is professor of orchestration at the Higher Academy of Music of the Basque Country "Musikene".

photo © Olivier Roller, 2009

Site : http://www.lazkano.info/