Javier Alvarez (1956-2023) RIP

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  • Boilk
    Full Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 976

    Javier Alvarez (1956-2023) RIP

    I heard with sadness on a recent New Music Show that the great Mexican composer Javier Alvarez had passed away at just 67. He spent a couple of decades studying and teaching in England before returning to Mexico, and was a founder of the Sonic Arts Network, served with the SPNM. He might be the most important Mexican composer of the 1950s generation.

    He wrote mainly high art electronic music back then (before returning to more conventional instruments) and was able to seamlessly alchemize it with diverse instrumental media, often using idioms from around the world, such as in Mannam (1992) for Korean zither and electronics. This helped make it both accessible and fascinating. I believe he won Austria's prestigious Prix Ars Electronica award multiple times.

    What has become his most popular piece, understandably is Temazcal for maracas and electronics, heard on the New Music Show.
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