Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny
Birth
1929
Residence
Catalunya
Web
Recording
2015
Josep Maria Mestres Quadreny (Manresa, 1929) studied science at the University of Barcelona and musical composition with C. Taltabull. His music is characterized by a spirit of constant renewal of language and the incorporation of new techniques, both in composition and in the use of the instruments. His field of exploration is very broad and ranges from works performed entirely by the public to Computer Assisted Composition.
He has collaborated with artists such as Joan Miro, Antoni Tapies, Villèlia i T. Codina. He has made incidental music for the theatre and cinema, and with Joan Brossa, several works of musical theatre, ballet and opera. In 1952 he joined the Círculo Manuel de Falla and in 1960 he founded Open Music within the Club 49 for spreading new music. Later, Quadreny participated in the founding of several musical initiatives including the Conjunt Català de Música Contemporània (Band Catalan Contemporary Music) (1968), the Laboratori de Música Electroacústica Phonos (Laboratory of Electroacoustic Music Phonos) (1973) and the Grup Instrumental Català (Catalan Instrumental Group) (1976), with Carles Santos. He has also participated as a teacher Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and collaborated in Testimonium of Jerusalem and the Latin American Course of Contemporary Music, Brazil.
Currently, Mestres Quadreny is a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of the Miro Foundation, of the Drafting Board Orchestra Ciudad de Barcelona, and also of the Committee for Cultural Relations of the Centre for Catalan Studies at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). In others, also he directs the book series “Música d’avui” (Today’s music) and is president of the Phonos Foundation.
