José L. Elizondo
José L. Elizondo (b. 1972) received
degrees in Music, Humanities and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT), where his main composition teachers were Peter Child
and Edward Cohen. At Harvard University, he studied musical analysis,
orchestration and conducting with Robert Levin, James Yannatos and Jameson
Marvin respectively.
Composer of Symphonic
Music
Elizondo's symphonic, choral and chamber
music is performed frequently around the world. Performers of his works include
distinguished soloists such as cellists Robert Deutsch (Houston Symphony
Orchestra), Leonid Gulchin and Carlos Prieto, as well as over 70 orchestras,
including the national symphony orchestras of Kazakhstan and Honduras, the
symphony orchestras of Santa Cruz and San Jose California in the United States,
the Nuevo León, Coyoacán and Mexico State symphony orchestras in Mexico, and
the Canberra Orchestra in Australia. Award-winning youth orchestras, such as
the Brighton Youth Orchestra in England, the Vermont Youth Orchestra in the
United States, the Saskatoon Youth Orchestra and the Surrey Youth Orchestra in
Canada also perform his music frequently.
In 2002, the Pan American Symphony
Orchestra presented a month-long festival featuring the complete symphonic
works of Elizondo, as well as the world premiere of three of his compositions
for orchestra. In addition to the concerts, the festival included a series of
lectures given by Elizondo in collaboration with two of
Elizondo's compositions have been
featured at numerous festivals around the world, including the Banff
International Festival in Canada, the Ayton Castle Music Festival in Scotland,
the Laboratorio Novamusica Contemporary Music Series in Italy, the ADUR
Festival in England, the Hispanic Heritage Festival, the America Festival and
the Mexican Journeys 2002 Festival in the United States.
Elizondo's first composition, his
celebrated symphonic suite Estampas Mexicanas, had its professional premiere by
the San Jose Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonid Grin, receiving a
standing ovation from a crowd of 25,000 people at an outdoor concert of the
America Festival (1996). Elizondo became the youngest composer to have his
music performed by this orchestra. Since then, orchestras in Europe, Asia,
Africa, Australia, South, Central and North America have now performed Estampas
Mexicanas at over 100 concerts and at numerous international festivals.
Awards
Elizondo's awards include the 1995 MIT
Gregory Tucker Memorial Prize for Music and selection as a 1992 MIT Burchard
Scholar. He has also been the recipient of several grants by the MIT Council
for the Arts for the production of a concert series (1994-1998), which he
founded and directed, and for the production of adventurous contemporary music
concerts featuring distinguished New England composers and performers. Elizondo
is also known for his efforts in promoting twentieth-century music, with an
emphasis on Latin American works by living composers. In 1996, he was nominated
for Hispanic Magazine’s list of the 20 most influential Hispanics in the United
States.
In 1997, the Brighton Youth Orchestra in
England honored Elizondo with the establishment of an award in his name. This
award, the “Elizondo Shield” is given in recognition of outstanding service and
musicianship to two orchestra members every year. Elizondo's collaboration with
the Brighton Youth Orchestra began in 1997, with the European premiere of
Estampas Mexicanas. Since then, the orchestra has performed his symphonic music
numerous times in England, Scotland, France, Italy and the Congo. In 2001, they
received an award for a performance of Elizondo’s Pan de Azúcar at London’s
Royal Festival Theatre.
Music Performance
Experience
Elizondo has given numerous piano and
organ recitals in Mexico and the United States. In 1979, he was awarded a scholarship by FONAPAS (Mexico’s National Endowment for the Arts) to study music theory and performance at the School of Fine Arts of the UACH (undergraduate level - Jose was 7 years old). He also received a series of
awards for organ performance at the Yamaha National Organ Festivals (1980, 1985
and 1987). More recently, Elizondo has participated in performances as a pianist in chamber recitals as well as accompanied by orchestra at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington DC.
In 1998, Elizondo conducted the Mexico
City premiere of one of his works in a series of concerts with the Coyoacán
Symphony Orchestra. In 1999, he served as Music Director and conductor of Senza
Misura, a Boston-based chamber chorus he founded. Elizondo has also been Vocal
Director for musical theatre productions and he has been invited in several
occasions to conduct the Harvard-Radcliffe Chorus in preparation for concert performances.
Vocal Coaching and
Experience as a Vocal Director
Elizondo combines his love for music with
his interest in linguistics and phonetics by working as a language and diction
coach for distinguished choral ensembles. In 1999, Elizondo collaborated with
the critically acclaimed Cantata Singers in the preparation of a series of
concerts and a recording of Peter Child's "Estrella". He also worked
with the Boston Camerata in their 1999 production of "Nueva España"
for performances in the Boston Early Music Festival and their tour of France.
Elizondo is active as a coach for professional ensembles, coaching them
on the pronunciation of modern and ancient languages. He has also been invited in several occasions to lecture at Harvard University about phonetics as applied to vocal technique.
Science and Engineering
In addition to his musical endeavors,
Elizondo has pursued his scientific and engineering interests. He has received
national awards in Mexico for achievement in Mathematics. At the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Elizondo participated in undergraduate research
projects for NASA, the MIT Plasma Fusion Center and the MIT Department of
Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. At age 23, Elizondo became Associate
Professor of Mathematics and Science at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios
Superiores de Monterrey in Mexico. He currently works as senior manager of a team of engineers at Nuance Communications, developing state-of-the-art multilingual speech-recognition technology systems. His articles have been published in industry journals in Europe, Korea and the United States. He has given presentations and conducted workshops on cross-cultural design in Venezuela, Japan, Mexico, Austria, England and the United States.