Juan Pablo Contreras is a shining example of why BMI bestows its Student Composer Awards to promising classical composers. It was not that long ago that Contreras won BMI’s William Schuman Prize for his piece, ”El Laberinto de la Soledad.” True to the intent of the accolade, he has continually demonstrated that the esteemed judges who reviewed the hundreds of anonymous submissions to the competition made the right choice.
Contreras has since received commissions from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, The Riverside Choir, Carlos Prieto, and the Onix Ensamble. He has also won several other awards including the Presser Music Award, the Jalisco Orchestral Composition Prize, the Brian Israel Prize, the Arturo Márquez Composition Contest, the Dutch Harp Composition Contest, the Nicolas Flagello Award, and the Young Artist Fellowship of Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and the Arts. Now he’s Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s “Sound Investment” composer for 2019-20. And as the first Mexican composer to sign to Universal Music Mexico, he has an exciting new album out, Mariachitlán, which you can learn about in this trailer.
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