(b. 27 November 1970, Caracas).
Venezuelan composer, now resident in the USA, of mostly chamber and vocal works that have been performed in the Americas.
Mr. Avella studied piano performance with Enrica Cavallo-Gulli and Lev Vlassenko at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1991–95, where he earned his BMus. He then studied composition with Ellsworth Milburn at Rice University in Houston in 1995–96, on a full scholarship, and composition with Sydney Hodkinson and Christopher Rouse at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York from 1996–98, where he earned his MMus.
Among his honours are an honourable mention in the competition of the ensemble ALEA III in Boston, Massachusetts (1997), the Bernard and Rose Sernoffsky Composition Prize from the Eastman School of Music (1998) and honours in the competition Waging Peace through Singing (2002). He was also a finalist for the Pete Carpenter Fellowship Award from BMI (1999), the Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2000) and the Turner Classic Movies Young Film Composers Competition (2001).
He is also active in other positions. As a pianist, he has toured since 1994. He later served as organist at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Newark, New Jersey.
He has taught at the Newark School of the Arts in New Jersey since 1999 and at the Suburban Community Music Center in New Jersey since 2001.
He has lived in the USA since 1991.
COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS
ORCHESTRAL:
Pearls, 1997
Different Beginnings, 2 tamboras (drums from Venezuela), orchestra, 1998
CHAMBER MUSIC:
Chamber Paintings, flute (+ piccolo), clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello, piano, 2 percussion, 1995
String Quartet, 1995
From a Land of Sands, Donkeys and Prickly Pears..., 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 French horns, 1995
Pandora's Box, clarinet, string quartet, 1996
Winter's Cold Light, French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, bass trombone, 1996
Premonition, guitar, 1997
The River of the White Dolphin, viola, piano, 1997
Awakening between a Serpent and a Rainbow, oboe, 3 percussion, 1997
Short Stories, violin, cello, piano, 2001
CHORAL:
And Two Continents..., 4 male voices (+ maracas, stones), 1997
Ave Maria, mixed chorus, 2000
Phantom Towers, mezzo-soprano, mixed chorus, 2002
A Prayer, mixed chorus, 2002
VOCAL:
Between Two Gardens (song-cycle), soprano, piano, 1994
The Waiting Room, soprano, orchestra, 1994
En el Fondo Forestal del Día, mezzo-soprano, harp, violin, cello, percussion, 1996
Vegetaciones, mezzo-soprano, 2 oboes, bassoon, harpsichord, 1997
Canciones de Arena, mezzo-soprano, piano, 2000
PIANO:
Walpurgis Night, 1994
Two Unrelated Pieces, 1997
FILM SCORES (DIRECTOR):
A Spring Day, 1998 (animation; Glenn Ehlers)
Outdone, 1999 (animation; Dan Pejril)
Up the Tree, 1999 (animation; Glenn Ehlers)
A Night Less Ordinary, 1999 (John Rockefeller)
The Diestmobile, 2000 (animation; Shaun Foster)
Bibbily Bobbily Job, 2000 (animation; Valerie Perkins)
The Shell, 2001 (Elizabeth Harnois)
Cross-Pollination, 2002 (animation; Shaun Foster)
Scapegoat, 2002 (Sean Sullivan)