Inés Medina-Fernández

Inés Medina-Fernández

Taken 10th July 2011, Oxford, UK.
Background information
Born February 8, 1974
Madrid, Spain
Genres Contemporary classical, Baroque, Spanish
Instruments piano, keyboards, vocals
Associated acts Oxford Guitar Ensemble

Inés Medina-Fernández (born February 8, 1974 in Madrid, Spain) is a pianist and composer of contemporary classical music. She has played piano from the age of 8, completing examinations at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. An experienced pianist and self-taught composer, she draws on many influences - from Baroque to John Cage, for example, in her compositions. She is interested in exploring composition for a variety of instruments, and has composed not only for piano but also for horn and classical guitar. She enjoys not only playing and composing but also collaborating with a smorgasbord of musicians interested in premiering her pieces.

Medina-Fernández' music is difficult to define. It is multi-layered and uses both familiar and unfamiliar tones and patterns in creative and original structures, hinting at medieval and baroque although clearly contemporary.

Biography

Born and raised in Madrid, Spain, she studied physics there until 1994, when she moved to Canterbury, UK. She obtained a bachelors degree in Physics with Astrophysics at the University of Kent in 1998 then lived in Ghent, Belgium, until 2000.

Taking every opportunity to learn musical composition, she attended many Early Music concerts with her then-partner Jan Van den Bossche (later director of the Utrecht Music Festival). Medina-Fernández moved to Amsterdam where she commenced a part-time career in science publishing with Elsevier. She continued to participate in the Early Music scene deriving from the Utrecht Music Festival.

In 2004 she moved to Oxford, UK, and worked for several leading science publishers, including Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell and Atlantis Press.[1] At this time she started studying composition in earnest. Amongst others, she read the writings of Arnold Schoenberg and sought guidance from composer colleagues. Medina-Fernández attended the Composers' Workshop at the Department for Continuing Education, University of Oxford, under Jonathan Darnborough. She also attended Composer's Workshops at the Faculty of Music under, amongst others, Martyn Harry and Joanna MacGregor.

Fascinated by influences such as Falla, Satie, Debussy, Ravel, John Cage, Mussorgsky, Rameau, Bach, Schoenberg and Chopin, and inspired by luminaries like Joanna MacGregor, Medina-Fernández began to turn her compositional notions into reality.

Her influences are very diverse and sometimes difficult to identify. Some of her compositions have for example been compared to santur music. The above composers are all major influences, however there are others relevant to Medina-Fernández's development - examples include lyrical pieces by Led Zeppelin, PJ Harvey, and much of opera.

Compositions

Medina-Fernández's first fully-fledged pieces were composed around 2009. She finished and recorded three pieces for horn and piano entitled 'Conversations' ('CI', 'CII' and 'CIII' - for horn, piano and violin). These pieces represent conversations taking place between the instruments as if they were interacting convivially like friends are often wont to do.

In 2010 she completed three pieces for piano called 'Lluvia de Perlas', 'Mosaic' and 'The Dome'. 'Lluvia de Perlas' was inspired by the baroque masters. Mosaic was inspired by the experience of looking at a large mosaic and reflecting that one might either focus upon minuscule individual features or upon the totality of the image depicted. The Dome was inspired by the grandeur of Dresden's Frauenkirche. These three pieces were recorded in April 2011 and were submitted to Oxford Contemporary Music.[2]

In 2011, Medina-Fernández collaborated with the Oxford Guitar Ensemble - a quartet of classical guitars - and created a piece for them entitled Danza, which was premiered by them at a concert on May 27, 2011 at Somerville College, Oxford,[3][4] and thereafter again at St John's College on June 1, 2011. Danza, again, has a complex and lyrical structure that surprises and entices.

The future

Genres

Contemporary classical music

References

  1. ↑ http://www.atlantis-press.com/index_atlantis_press.html?http%3A//www.atlantis-press.com/html/main_about.htm
  2. ↑ See Oxford Contemporary Music's catalogue. http://www.ocmevents.org/ocm/index.seam
  3. ↑ http://www.somervillemusicsociety.com/Recitals/Recitals.html
  4. ↑ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXAfy_t9PCE

External links