Biography
Elizondo received degrees in Music and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). At Harvard University, he studied musical analysis, orchestration and conducting. MIT awarded Jose the Gregory Tucker Memorial Prize for Music, and selected him as a Burchard Scholar. His main teachers at MIT and Harvard were professors Peter Child, Edward Cohen, Lowell Lindgren, Bill Cutter, James Yannatos, Constance DeFotis and Jameson Marvin. Elizondo’s technology work focuses on language-related technology that combines his interests in linguistics, computer science and artificial intelligence. As a part time composer, he works with performers around the world to create compositions for orchestra and chamber ensembles.
Jose's symphonic, choral and chamber music is performed frequently. Internationally acclaimed performers of his works include cellists Yo-Yo Ma, Carlos Prieto, Allison Eldredge, Andrei Ionita, Benedict Klöckner, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Guy Johnston, Sébastien Hurtaud, Carol Ou, Sam Ou, Maximilian Hornung, Alvaro Bitrán, Eunghee Cho, Giovanna Buccarella, Ana Turkalj, Germán Prentki, Stanimir Todorov and Robert Deutsch; violists Amaro Dubois, Marcello Bianchi and Kimberly Sparr; violinists James Buswell, Mikhail Pochekin, Saúl Bitrán, Adolfo Alejo, Gustavo Mulé and Yury Revich; pianists Anna Fedorova, Edward Cohen, Philipp Scheucher, Paula Peluso, Rieko Tsuchida, Eleni Mavromoustaki, Juan Antonio Santoyo, Danae and Kiveli Dörken; tenors José Luis Ordoñez and Pablo Pollitzer; as well as flautists Sefika Kutluer, Evangelina Reyes López and Orlando Cela; and many other distinguished artists.
José’s music has been performed by over 250 orchestras around the world, under the direction of distinguished conductors including Carlos Miguel Prieto, John Andrews (ICF), Francis Kan, Gerard Salonga, Jorge Soto, Erol Erdinç, Nesrin Bayramoğulları, Félix Carrasco, Sergio Buslje, Wayne Toews, Leonid Grin, Kevin Sütterlin, Augusto Carrión Rodas, Andrew Sherwood and Troy Peters, as well as the late maestros Virgilio Valle Pérez and Miguel Bernal Matus.
As an enthusiast of history, José is particularly thrilled that his music has been performed in historical instruments, such as the Stradivarius cellos played by maestros Yo-Yo Ma (Davidoff Stradivarius, 1733) and Carlos Prieto (Piatti-Prieto Stradivarius, 1720), and the Stradivarius violins played by maestros James Buswell (Leveque Stradivarius, 1720) and Yury Revich (Princess Aurora Stradivarius, 1709), as well as the Tecchler cello (1714) played by Guy Johnston and the Rugeri cello (1680) played by Benedict Klöckner.
When one of Elizondo's compositions is performed today by the San Jose Symphony at the San Jose America Festival, he'll not only become the youngest living composer to ever have his music played by the orchestra, but he'll also be bolstering the bridge the symphony has been trying to forge with the Latin American community.
José's music has been performed at some of the world’s most extraordinary venues, including La Fenice Opera Theater (Venice), the Berlin Philharmonic Hall (Berlin), the Alte Oper (Frankfurt), the Southbank Centre Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), the Royal Festival Hall (London), the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall (Liverpool), Jordan Hall (Boston), Mechanics Hall (Worcester), Strathmore Hall (Washington), Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam), Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico), Sala Nezahualcóyotl (Mexico), Teatro Colón (Bogotá), Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (Kuala Lumpur), Zhongshan Park Concert Hall (Beijing) and National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing).
His music has been recorded by artists including Benedict Klöckner, Sefika Kutluer, Sébastien Hurtaud, Slatomir Todorov, Gustavo Mulé, Paula Peluso, Orlando Cela, Nicole Peña Comas, Evelyn Peña Comas, Wayne Toews, Enrique Lasansky, Thomas D. Rossin, Roberto Alvarez, Kseniia Vokhmianina, Julie Reimann, Ellyses Kuan, Laura Vincent, Evangelina Reyes López, Mauricio Nader, Amaro Dubois, TingTing Yao, as well as the Lowell Chamber Orchestra, the Bratislava Strings Orchestra, the Prague Strings and the Moravian Philharmonic. A cello duet performance by Yo-Yo Ma and Maximilian Hornung of his composition “Otoño en Buenos Aires” is included in Yo-Yo Ma’s DVD with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
I am confident "Danzas Latinoamericanas" will assume a prominent place in the repertoire as a gem of inspiration, melodic inventiveness and rhythmic vitality. The languid sensuality of the second movement is unspeakably beautiful.
José’s first composition for orchestra, Estampas Mexicanas, originally written as an assignment for a university class, was premiered at an outdoor concert of the San Jose Symphony in California. The orchestra was conducted by maestro Leonid Grin, a personal friend and collaborator of Leonard Bernstein and music director of several orchestras in Europe and North America. The performance was enthusiastically received with a standing ovation from a crowd of approximately 25,000 people. Estampas Mexicanas has since been performed at over 150 concerts by orchestras in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and the Americas.
On occasion of the events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice of World War I, cellist Sébastien Hurtaud and pianist Pamela Hurtado gave the world premiere performance of José's composition "La alborada de la esperanza" (The Dawn of Hope) on November 11th, 2018 in Paris. Since 2020, this composition has become almost an anthem of hope during the times of the pandemic, and other world challenges, in broadcasts by distinguished violinists, violists, cellists, flutists, tenors, choirs and orchestras around the world.
"Pan de Azúcar" is an elegantly beautiful piece, lyrical and limpid. It charmed our audience, and my orchestra fell in love with it from the start. It is a real gem of a piece which engages listeners and performers alike.
Recent
José has been commissioned by cellist Benedict Klöckner to write several pieces for his International Music Festival Koblenz, including “Unter dem Sternenhimmel des Rheins” (Under the starry sky of the Rhein) and "Mondnacht" (The Night of the Moon). José also recently received a commission to write a new cello duet for maestros Yo-Yo Ma and Carlos Prieto, for whom he wrote “Cantabrigian Reflections”. Another one of his recent projects includes the cello concerto "The Legend of the Noble Knight" and the trio "Cherry Blossoms".
Elizondo's "Estampas Mexicanas" is exactly the kind of music to challenge and then captivate young players as well as audiences.
Technology and Other Interests
In addition to his musical endeavors, Jose has pursued his interest in engineering and technology. At a young age, he received national awards in Mexico for achievement in Mathematics, as well as multiple awards for academic achievement, creativity and other competitions by the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM). At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he participated in several undergraduate research projects in various disciplines. And for the past couple of decades, he has worked with teams of engineers and language experts, developing state-of-the-art, multilingual, speech-recognition technology systems for many Fortune 500 companies. His work combines his interests in technology design, computer science, linguistics, natural language processing and artificial intelligence. Jose's articles on technology, user-interface design and multilingual technology systems have been published in industry journals in Europe, Asia and North America. He has given presentations and conducted workshops on cross-cultural design and technology in Japan, Austria, England, Mexico and the United States.