T he Living Composers Project

Lara, Ana (b. November 30, 1959, Mexico City). Mexican composer of mostly stage, orchestral and chamber works that have been performed throughout the world; she is also active as an organizer and writer.

Ms. Lara studied piano with Leopoldo González and voice with Charles Laila and Rosa Rimoch from 1979-86. She studied composition with Daniel Catán at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City in 1982, where she also studied composition with Mario Lavista from 1982-86. She then attended a composition workshop with Federico Ibarra at CENIDIM at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes in Mexico City from 1984-86 and had post-graduate studies in composition with Wlodzimierz Kotonski and Zbigniew Rudzinski at the Frédéric Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw from 1986-89, on a Mexican-Polish study grant. She later studied ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland from 2002-04 and there earned her MA.

Among her honors are a grant for young artists from the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (1990), two three-year grants from the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) (1994-97, 1998-2001), the USA/Canada/Mexico Creative Artists' Residency Program Grant (1997), and the Bellagio Artistic Residency (2000). She was also a featured composer at the Sonidos de las Américas festival of the American Composers Orchestra (1994) and earned a Latin Grammy nomination as a producer for Best Classical Album (2000). Most recently, she shared the Premio de la Asociación de Periodistas y Críticos de Teatro y Música for her work with the Música y Escena festival (2001).

As an organizer, she founded the Sociedad Mexicana de Música Nueva in 1989 and served as its president from 1989-91. She later founded the Música y Escena festival in Mexico City in 1998 and has since served as its artistic director. She then served as artistic director of Puebla Instrumenta Verano in 2003-04.

As a writer, she contributed to the music journal Pauta from 1986-92 and has since written articles for several other Mexican publications. In addition, she served on the board of editors of the journal Heterofonía from 1989-95.

Ms. Lara is also active in other positions. She worked as an information coordinator at CENIDIM from 1989-92 and as a record producer from 1989-99 and served on the board of ISCM from 1990-93 and as composer-in-residence to the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México in 1993-94. She produced the contemporary music program Hacia una nueva música at Radio Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from 1989-2003. She was a member of the steering committee for the Project of Performing Arts for the Mexico/USA Funds for Culture from 1997-2000 and a jury member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores from 2000-03.

As a lecturer, she gave numerous workshops in the USA in 1995 and lectured throughout Mexico from 1996-2003.

CONTACT INFORMATION

E-mail address: analara@att.net.mx

Street address: Ms. Ana Lara, Carrizal 69, San Jerónimo Lídice, CP 10200, Mexico, D.F.

Telephone: + 525 595 8314

Fax: + 525 683 9021

COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS

STAGE: Más allá. Homenaje escénico a Mathias Goeritz (incidental music, play direction by Natalia Carriazo), cello, tape, 1988; Desasosiego, mezzo-soprano-actress, small orchestra, 1991-93; ¿Y la marcha de la humanidad? Homenaje a Siqueiros (dance music, choreography by Alicia Sánchez), French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, 4 percussion, 1996; Viejas Historias (dance music, choreography by Rossana Filomarino), tape, 1998; Celebraciones (dance music, choreography by Rossana Filomarino), tape, 2000; El Destierro (incidental music, play by Juan Tovar), voice, piano, 2001-02; Elles (dance music, choreography by Louise Bédard), voice, flute, clarinet, piano, string quartet, tape, 2002; La Náufraga (performance, choreography by Lorena Glinz, the composer), dancer, flute, cello, piano, 2002-03

ORCHESTRAL: La Víspera, 1989; Ángeles de llama y hielo, 1993-94; Concerto, sopranino recorder (+ soprano recorder, alto recorder, bass recorder), harp, percussion, string orchestra, 1998; Canticum Sacrum, string orchestra, 2000; Dos Visiones, 2003-04

CHAMBER MUSIC: In memoriam, alto flute, cello, 1985; Hacia la noche, amplified flute, 1985; Arcos, string quartet, 1986-87; Entre los rayos del sol, harp, double bass, 1988; Ícaro, recorder, 1989; Alusiones, double bass, 1989-90; Saga, harp, 1990; Vitrales, viola, cello, double bass, 1992; O mar, marée, bateaux, guitar 4 hands/2 guitars, 1992; Aulós, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 1994; Cántaros, clarinet, string quartet, 1995; Koaiá, cello, 1995-96; En par de los levantes de la aurora, French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, percussion, 1996; Darkness Visible, flute, clarinet (+ bass clarinet), violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion, 1998-99; Fanfaire, 4 French horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, 3 percussion, 1999; 8 Haiku, guitar, 1999; Estudios rítmicos, 4 percussion, 1997-2000; Bhairav, string quartet, 2000; Srebro, 3 flutes, 2000; Vértigos, flute (+ alto flute), clarinet (+ bass clarinet), piano, 2001; Tribulaciones, 2 celli, piano, 2004

CHORAL: Requiem. Missa pro defunctis, mixed chorus, 1997

VOCAL: Déjame soñar tu sueño, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1998; Llévame a donde quieras, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1999; Valedictus, tenor, 2 French horns, string orchestra, 2003

PIANO: Two Études, 1986; Pegaso, 1992 (also versions for organ; harpsichord)

ORGAN: Pegaso, 1992 (version of piano work)

HARPSICHORD: Pegaso, 1992 (version of piano work)

DISCOGRAPHY

Ícaro. Horacio Franco, recorder (Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Serie Siglo XX Vol. VIII, 1992 [reissued as Quindecim Recordings: QP055, 2000])

Aulós. Quinteto de Alientos de la Ciudad de México (Clásicos Mexicanos: SDL 21018, 1995)

Saga. Lidia Tamayo, harp (Lejos del Paraíso-FONCA, 1995)

Pegaso. Lidia Guerberof Hahn, harpsichord (FONCA, 1996)

Ángeles de llama y hielo. Ronald Zollman/Orquesta Filarmónica de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Sony Masterworks: CDEC-486152, 1997)

Cántaros. Luis Humberto Ramos, clarinet; Cameristas de México (Quindecim Recordings: QP033, 1999)

Déjame soñar tu sueño. Encarnación Vázquez, mezzo-soprano; Alberto Cruzprieto, piano (CONACULTA-FONCA, Música Mexicana para un Nuevo Milenio Vol. I, 1999)

Hacia la noche. Guillermo Portillo, amplified flute (CONACULTA-CNART-Conservatorio de las Rosas: EURO 092-3, 1999)

Vitrales. Ónix Nuevo Ensamble de México (Actus Classics Recordings, 2002)

(Last updated on January 18, 2005)