Javier Álvarez (composer)
Javier Álvarez Fuentes (8 May 1956 – 23 May 2023) was a Mexican composer known for compositions that combined a variety of international musical styles and traditions, and that often utilized unusual instruments and new music technologies. Many of his works combine music technology with diverse instruments and influences from around the world.[1] He taught internationally, in the UK and Sweden, and back in Mexico later in his career.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Álvarez and the second or maternal family name is Fuentes.
Javier Álvarez
23 May 2023 (aged 67)
- Composer
- Academic teacher
- Guildhall School of Music and Drama
- Malmö Academy of Music
- University of Hertfordshire
- Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán
- Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes
- Medalla Bellas Artes
- Medalla Mozart
- Mendelssohn Scholarship
Early life and education[edit]
Javier Álvarez was born in Mexico City on 8 May 1956 to the architect Augusto H. Álvarez and his wife, Delfina Fuentes Ogarrio.[2] He attended school at the Escuela Moderna Americana, the Jesuit-run Instituto Patria, and the Lycée Franco-Mexicain.[3]
At the age of 18 he entered the National Conservatory of Music,[3] where he studied clarinet with Francisco Garduño[4] and composition with Mario Lavista.[1][4][5] He moved to the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee where he achieved a master's degree in music theory and composition in 1981.[1] He studied further in London, at the Royal College of Music with John Lambert[4] and at the City University.[6] He pursued a PhD sponsored by the Felix Mendelssohn Foundation, the Ralph Vaughan Williams Foundation and the London School of Economics.[1] His first electroacoustic music dates from his student time in London, such as Temazcal in 1984.[4]
Personal life and death[edit]
Álvarez was married; he and his wife Daniela had a boy and a girl.[1]
Álvarez died in Mérida on 23 May 2023, at age 67.[1][10] Alejandra Frausto, the federal Secretary of Culture, credited him as a "musician and composer who never stopped creating, proposing and working for his community and for his beloved Mérida".[1]