Biography
Octavio Vázquez has been hailed as “a burning torch for the next century… stunning… superb” (The New Music Connoisseur), with a musical language praised for its “melodicism and rhythmic buoyancy” (The New York Times) and “astonishing virtuosity” (Soundboard Magazine). His music has been performed throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia, and appears on labels including Naxos, Delos, and Odradek. His works have also been featured on national radio and television networks in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Russia, and China.
His compositions have been championed by such leading conductors as Carlos Kalmar, Rossen Milanov, Paolo Bortolameolli, Dima Slobodeniouk, Paul Daniel, and Andreas Delfs, and by acclaimed soloists including Hilary Hahn, Dmitri Berlinsky, Johnny Gandelsman, and Eldar Nebolsin. A frequent collaborator with ensembles such as the American String Quartet, Poulenc Trio, and Verdehr Trio, he also brings his versatility to film scoring and cross-genre projects as an arranger, orchestrator, and producer, most notably with Silkroad Ensemble member Cristina Pato.
The recipient of numerous national and international awards, Vázquez has recently received grants, commissions, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, New Music USA, Aspen Music Festival, the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra, Royal Galician Philharmonic, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Galician Cultural Council, Fulbright Commission, Chi-Mei Foundation, I-Park Foundation, MacDowell, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Dr. Vázquez holds degrees from the Adolfo Salazar Conservatory and the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música in Madrid, the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Maryland, College Park. He has taught at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Santiago de Compostela, and currently serves as Associate Professor and Director of the Composition Program at the Nazareth University School of Music.
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