The cat and the canary - bios

Artistic and Executive Direction

Juanjo Guillem - Rafa Gálvez

Operations and Production Manager

Iván Ferrer

www.neopercusion.com

NEOPERCUSIÓN (short bio)

NEOPERCUSION was founded in 1994 and ever since it regularly performs in

the most important festivals, concert series and venues in Spain and abroad.

NEOPERCUSION performs a wide and varied repertoire that includes different

musics and styles: contemporary, classical, and ethnic; this versatility and the

high quality of each performance combined with their interest on create

innovative and exciting programs have earned them the acclaim of public and

critics.

NEOPERCUSION usually collaborates with some of the most important soloists

and ensembles from Spain and abroad specialized on different musics: Arditti

Quartet, Markus Stockhausen, Sigma Project, Tambuco Ensemble, Raquel

Andueza, Arbós Trio, Asier Polo, Manuel Blanco, Antonio Serrano, Andreas

Prittwitz, Karolina Leedo, Roy Mercure MC, Jaime del Val, are some artists that

have collaborated with NEOPERCUSION in the last years.

NEOPERCUSION has a very strong commitment with the nowadays music.

Through their 20 years of existence they have commissioned and premiered a

huge number of works of young and well known composers, helping to enlarge

the repertoire for percussion solo, in ensemble, and in combination with other

instruments. Originally formed as a percussion ensemble, NEOPERCUSION

has grown to become an artistic platform, contributing to the launching of new

projects and the collaboration between different musicians and artists of other

disciplines.

Since 2008 NEOPERCUSION is resident ensemble of the Chamberi District in

Madrid where they organize every year at their own venue two festivals aimed

to spread the best nowadays music among a wide audience.

Dirección artística y ejecutiva:

Juanjo Guillem - Rafa Gálvez

Operaciones y producción:

Iván Ferrer

www.neopercusion.com | [email protected]

JESÚS NAVARRO MONZÓN Jesús Navarro studied the Bachelor of Music in Composition with Agustí Charles and José Manuel López López at the Conservatory of Music of Zaragoza, Spain. He learnt jazz and improvising techniques with Coco Fernandez for two years. Later he moved to Paris where, apart from the institutional circles, he got in contact with alternative and unique musicians on experimental and eclectic projects, that had great influence on his artistic expression, as well as on his current view of the role that contemporary music has, its methods and the creative process, and the relationship between Composer / Performer / Audience. He has always been interested in jazz and also in experimental and improvisational performance. In this field he has performed at the “Le Souffle de l´Equinoxe” festival (Poitiers, France), “La Noche en Blanco” (“White Night”, Madrid), C3 Festival (Radialsystem-Berlin), Experimental Music Festival at Espinho (Portugal) and other experimental stages, in Paris and Spain. Over the past few years he has developed a totally new technique in piano performing on the piano strings, getting new sounds resembling a sitar, double bass, multiphonics, harp, honky-tonk piano. By using amplification and new technologies, he has also created sounds like double bass and electric bass, among others. All of which are achieved in a tempered system, that is, with precise and controlled pitches. He nowadays continues to explore this technique with different musicians and collectives. He has won several international composition competitions, both in chamber and orchestral music, such as the 1st Prize at the “European Young Orchestras” international composition competition with his work Tales from the dark Rainbow, for piano and string orchestra (Murcia 2004); 1st Prize at the “Franz Josef Reinl-Stiftung Foundation” international composition competition (Munich, 2007) with his work Dithyrambos for sax and ensemble; 1st Prize at the “Joan Guinjoan” international competition for

young composers (Barcelona, 2008) with his work Crazy Madness for small

ensemble; 2nd Prize at the 1st “Spanish National Music Auditorium – BBVA

Foundation” international composition competition with his work Blind Focus

for orchestra (Madrid, 2010); 1st Prize at the “Author Foundation – CDMC”

international chamber competition for young composers with his work

Inertia (Madrid, 2010).

He has received commissioned works by the Spanish National Center for

Music (CNDM), the Madrid Region Orchestra and Choir (ORCAM) and

ensembles such as Duo/Due (Munich), Les muses galantes (Paris) or Plural

Ensemble (Madrid), among others. He is currently working as resident composer for Neopercusión (Madrid), where he has developed the project of

The Cat and The Canary.

ANTHONY OCAÑA

Dominican/Spanish composer and guitarist with a very personal voice

influenced by many different kinds of music such as: classical,

contemporary, jazz, minimal, pop, caribbean and latin American.

At age 5 he asked his father to put him on piano lessons and that is when

he started learning music, knowing he was going to end up dedicating his

life to it. At the age of 14 he began studying classical guitar and he enrolled at the National Conservatory of Music in Dominican Republic studying with

guitarist Ruben Gonzalez. At age 18 he received a scholarship to study

composition and guitar at Manhattanville College in New York, where he

graduated with honors. While living in New York he worked as a composer for the orchestra of Elliot Magaziner (former director of Frank Sinatra's

orchestra) and studied with great musicians such as Benjamin Verdery,

Ingram Marshall and Mary Ann Joyce-Walter.

In 2002 Ocaña decided to move his residency to Madrid, where he has been

living since, such decision was taken by his ambition to develop the guitar

to a new place, and Spain is the homeland of guitar.

Ocaña has also published five albums: “A Paso de Cebra” w/Sebastian

Lerner (2001), “Anthony Ocaña” (2006), “Solo” (2008), “Wet Fields” (2010)

and “Placeres” (2012), having received great reviews for each one of them.