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José Luis Turina
Curriculum Vitae


Born in Madrid, 1952. After his studies at the conservatories of Barcelona and Madrid, he received a grant from the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for studying at the Spanish Fine Arts Academy in Rome, where he attended the classes in Composition given by Franco Donatoni at the Santa Cecilia Academy.
En 1981 he won the First Prize in the Internacional Composition Contest First Centennial of the Orchestra of the Valencia Conservatory with the work Meeting Point. In 1986. In 1986 he won the First Prize of the Musical Composition Contest Queen Sofía, from the Ferrer Salat Foundation, with his piece Ocnos (Orchestral music on poems by Luis Cernuda). In 1996 he was awarded with the National Prize in Music. He has been commissioned many times, either by public or by private institutions, as well as by many ensembles and soloists, and his music has been played in the most important national and international festivals.
Teacher of Harmony in the Conservatories of Cuenca an Madrid since 1981, in 1983 he was designated technical advisor of the Ministry for Education and Science, for the reformation of musical teaching in the realm of the new education law of 1990. Since 2001 and until 2020 he was artistic director of the Spanish National Youth Orchestra, and from 2004 to 2015 he was also President of the Spanish Association of Youth Orchestras.
In september 2000 the world premiereof his opera D. Q. (Don Quijote in Barcelona), on a text by Justo Navarro and a scenic production by La Fura dels Baus, took place in the Great Theatre of the Liceo (Barcelona, Spain). In november 2001 the Tokyo String Quartet played with great success the world premiere of his string quartet Clémisos y sustalos, written as a commission by that renowned ensemble. In october 2004, the Brodsky String Quartet played in Cádiz por the first time his strinq quartet The seven last words of Jesus Christ in the cross. In january 2006 the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra devoted to his music its 12th Contemporary Music Cycle, with 19 compositions being played, and with the release of an extensive biographical study and the recording of a monographic CD including five orchestral pieces.
In 2020 he was commissioned to make an arrangement for reduced orchestra (55 musicians) of the Symphony n. 2 by Gustav Mahler, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Spanish National Choir.

October 2021