Masterclass „Deconstructing Composition to Build your Creative Process“ mit Aruán Ortiz

Aruán Ortiz
Born in Santiago de Cuba, pianist, violist, and composer Aruán Ortiz has been an active figure in the progressive jazz and avant-garde scene in the United States for more than 20 years.
Named „one of the most creative and original composers in the world“ by Lynn René Bayley, The Art Music Lounge, Ortiz’s professional career includes writing, producing, conducting, and directing jazz ensembles, orchestras, dance companies, chamber groups, and feature films, incorporating influences from contemporary classical music, Cuban-Haitian rhythms, and avant-garde improvisation. He consistently strives to break stylistic musical boundaries.
He recently served as the artistic and musical director of the multi-genre project Flamenco Criollo at the Flamenco Biënnale Nederland (2021), and the producer, composer, and director of Pastor’s Paradox ensemble’s residency at the Latino Theater, Dallas (2022). Currently, he is the musical advisor at Norwegian SMAU Media Films. He has also curated the concert series Music and Architecture in NYC in 2013 and will launch the multi-disciplinary performance series The Freedom of Now at Casa Seat in Barcelona, Spain in 2024.
Ortiz is a grant recipient of the 2023 French American Arts Exchange, 2022 Generalitat de Catalunya Commission Grant (Spain), 2021 New York State Council on the Arts (in collaboration with Harlem Chamber Players), 2021 Jazz Roads Creative Residencies — South Arts, 2020 Jazz Coalition Commission Fund, 2017 Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation — USArtists International, 2016 Jerome Foundation Travel Grant, 2016 Vermont College of Fine Arts Composer Fellowship, 2014 Doris Duke Impact Award, and 2014 Composers Now/Rockefeller Brothers Fund Creative Residency.
Over the years he has built a strong resume as a visiting composer conducting workshops and master classes on composition, improvisation, and jazz performance at the Julliard School of Music, York University (CUNY), Queens College (CUNY), New York Institute of Collaborative Education, Rutgers University, University at Albany (SUNY), Hamilton College, New School/Mannes, Longy School of Music, Berklee College of Music, California Jazz Conservatory, University of California (Irvine), Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Kantonsschule Wettingen (Switzerland), Akademija za glasbo Univerze v Ljubljani, (Slovenia), Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College, Royal Academy of London, and Royal Birmingham Conservatory (UK), Universidad de Veracruz (Mexico), and Conservatoire Municipal et Nadia and Lili Boulanger (France).
Ortiz has more than 10 albums as a leader, and as a music researcher and conceptualist, his works express a reverence for the rich diversity present in the music, history, politics, and cultural heritage of Afro-Caribbean communities. His 2017 solo piano album Cub(an)ism released by the Swiss label Intakt Records, was awarded five stars by the prestigious jazz magazine Downbeat, and was hailed as „a genius exercise in the exploration of depth and perception that reveals a bright new wrinkle in the relationship between music and mathematics, reimagining Afro-Haitian Gaga rhythms, Afro-Cuban rumba and Yambú into heavily improvised meditations on modernism that recall John Cage and Paul Bley.“ His recording Inside Rhythmic Falls (Intakt, 2020), was lauded as „a narrative of deep human emotion, which peals tenderly from Ortiz's notes. Through this record, Cuba speaks of the world's lives and lifetimes“ (Chris Searle, Morningstar Online [UK]).