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Alcides Lanza |
 Biography |
ALCIDES LANZA, Canadian-Argentinian composer, conductor and pianist born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1929. He moved to New York in 1965, having received a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and lived there from 1965 until 1971 where he worked at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. In 1971 he was appointed professor of composition at the Faculty of Music, McGill University in Montreal. Since 1974 he has been the director of the Electronic Music Studio at McGill.
lanza continues to have a very active international career as a pianist and conductor specializing in the avant garde repertoire. His programs reflect his particular interest in the music of the three Americas. lanza has performed Piano Marathons at Pollack Hall in Montreal, in 1987 and 1992. This last featured lanza performing for five hours - non-stop - and included 48 different pieces for piano, electronics and film. alcides lanza has done innumerable radio and television concerts, several LP recordings and compact discs, and has organized contemporary music forums and events.
Among the most recent compositions by alcides lanza, ektenes III [1995-I], for clarinet, electroacoustic sounds and digital signal processing [commissioned and premiered by Jean-Guy Boisvert], The big dipper [1996-II], for accordion and electroacoustic sounds[commissioned by Joseph Petric], Ontem [1999-I] for actress-singer, tablas, percussion and tape [commissioned and premiered by Meg Sheppard and Shawn Mativetsky], Plectros V [2000-I] for prepared piano and percussion ensemble [commissioned by Pierre Beluse. Premiered by alcides lanza and Pierre Beluse, with the McGill Percussion ensemble], Maderas [2000-II], for marimba[s] and other pieces of wood [commissioned by Smith Publications. Premiered by Shawn Mativetsky and Maryanne Stadnyk].
Link to University of Calgary Special Collection
