Albert Carbonell

Award-winning composer Albert Carbonell was born in Barcelona (Catalonia) where he began his studies at the Conservatory Superior of Music of Barcelona graduating with honors in percussion, harmony, fugue, composition, and orchestration. At the CSMMB he studied piano with Albada Olaya and Miquel Farré, percussion with Santi Molas and Xavier Joaquín, harmony with Vicens Acuña and Xavier Boliart, counterpoint with Mª Àngels Reixach and Josep Poch, composition and orchestration with Carles Guinovart and conducting with Albert Argudo.

During his career, he has received several awards, grants, and scholarships like the grant from the Association of Artists and Performers (1994-95) (AIE), the grant from the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (1999) ("Fundación Autor/SGAE") and the "Foundation Agustín Pedro Pons" Scholarship from the University of Barcelona (2000) (UB).

In 1999, thanks to a scholarship from the SGAE (the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers) he moves to New York City to study at the Juilliard School of Music. In 2002, and after receiving a Fulbright Scholarship, he enrolled at the Mannes College The New School for Music where he studies with David Loeb (composition), Robert Cuckson (music theory) and Carl Schachter (music analysis). In 2004 he is appointed composer in residence of the "Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance" under the direction of the prestigious contemporary pianist Marc Ponthus, being Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez or Mario Davidovsky at the advisory board. In 2012 his incidental music for Teresa’s Ecstasy was featured on the Off-Broadway show written by playwright Begoña Plaza at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Manhattan. The show was directed by Will Pomerantz, the cast including playwright Plaza as well as Shawn Elliott and Linda Larkin. In 2017 his piece "Sketches" was chosen as one of the five finalists among 110 works submitted at the third "Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers' Competition" in Radom (Poland) being maestro Penderecki present at the final concert as the head of the Jury.

His catalog is varied and includes pieces for solo instruments, chamber music, string orchestra, symphonic orchestra, choral works, as well as theatrical pieces, some pedagogical works, and a few children's songs. His style is characterized by sophisticated use of the counterpoint, a marked preference for the new graph, a strong influence of the traditional harmony, an intricate and meticulous predilection for the timbre effects, as well as a taste for the new extended-techniques. Worth mentioning as one of his latest projects is his new approach to the re-harmonization of the entire Catalan traditional Songbook for mixed choir "a cappella".