Biography
Through some one hundred and forty works composed for a wide range of performance genres, Orlando Jacinto Garcia has established himself as an important figure in the new music world. The distinctive character of his music has been described as "time suspended- haunting sonic explorations" with "moments of supremely delicate magic" - qualities he developed from his studies with Morton Feldman among others. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1954, Garcia migrated to the United States in 1961 and received his DMA in Music Composition from the University of Miami in 1985. A long list of distinguished soloists, ensembles, and orchestras have presented his music at numerous festivals and recitals in most of the major capitols of the world. Recent premieres of his music include those in Holland, France, Spain, Italy, England, and throughout Latin America, the US, and Canada.
In demand as a guest composer and lecturer at national and international festivals, he is the recipient of numerous honors and awards from a variety of organizations and cultural institutions. These include two Fulbright artist/lectureships, the first of which took place in Caracas, Venezuela during 1991-92 where Garcia presented master classes, assisted with the set up and development of the Center for Electro-Acoustic Music and Research at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, completed several new works, and conducted and presented premieres of his music. A second Fulbright, this time a Senior Lectureship was realized in Salamanca, Spain during 1996-97 at the Universidad de Salamanca where he presented a graduate analysis course, composition seminars, completed new works, and presented and conducted his music in Spain and other parts of Europe.
Additional recognition for his work has come from the Rockefeller Foundation in the form of a summer residency at their Center in Bellagio, Italy during 1999 where he completed a new composition for the Caracas based Orquesta Sinfonica Simon Bolivar. The orchestra premiered the work as part of the Festival Latinoamericano de Musica held in Venezuela in the fall of 2002 and a recording of the premiere was released on New Albion Records in 2004. Further support from the Rockefeller Foundation includes a visiting artist residency at the American Academy in Rome during the summer of 2000 where he completed a new piece for the Juilliard based Continuum Ensemble. The new work was premiered in the fall of 2000 as part of Continuum's tour of Latin America and subsequently as part of the Sonic Boom Festival in the fall of 2001. Garcia is also a two-time Cintas Foundation Fellowship winner (1994-95 and 1999-2000) both supporting the creation of new works for orchestras, soloists, and ensembles based in the US and abroad.
Other recent awards of note include a 2001 State of Florida composer's fellowship, first prize in Mexico's Nuevas Resonancias composition competition for, fragmentos del pasado, premiered by the Latin American String Quartet at the 2001 Music Festival in San Miguel de Allende and again at the Foro de Musica Contemporanea in Mexico City in 2004, and first prize (orchestra music category) in the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation (JDAF) 2001 composition competition. As part of the prize Garcia completed a new solo cello work for Maya Beiser who premiered it at the JDAF awards ceremony held in New York in May 2001. In the summer of 2001 his work imagenes sonidos congelados for violin and electronics written for violinist Robert Davidovici was selected as part of the Sonic Circuits competition and in 2003 a new work for piano/disklavier and electronics, written for Kathleen Supove was premiered at New York University. Other recent performances of note include his work Auschwitz (nunca se olvidaran) for orchestra and choir, given its NY premiere October 2003 by the Brooklyn Philharmonic with the Trinity Church Choir, 2004 and 2005 portrait concerts of his music realized in New York City and Amsterdam, Holland by the Electronic Music Foundation and the Barton Workshop respectively, premieres of his electroacoustic works at the ICMC in New Orleans 2004, FEAMF 2005, and SEAMUS Festivals 2007 and 2008 and his collaborations with video artists Jacek Kolasinski and John Stuart which have resulted in new works for video, and electronics premiered at the Cervantino Festival in Mexico and the Ear to the Earth Festival in NYC during 2007 and 2008. Currently, among other projects Garcia is working on a 90 minute experimental video opera being premiered in April 2009 at the Biennale in Zagreb, Croatia as well as an orchestra piece for the Miami Symphony Orchestra also being premiered in April 2009.
Garcia's music is recorded on O.O. Discs, CRI/New World Records (Emergency Music, eXchange Series), Albany, North/South, CRS, Capstone, Rugginenti, VDM, Innova, New Albion, and Opus One Records and is available from Kallisti Music Press, the American Composers Alliance, and BHE. He is the founder and director of several international festivals including the New Music Miami Festival and the Music of the Americas Festival, as well as being the founder and artistic director of the NODUS Ensemble and the Florida International University (FIU) New Music Ensemble. Garcia is Professor of Music and director of the School of Music at FIU.
(photo by Rafael Salazar)