Born in 1987 in Colombia, Daniel Arango-Prada currently lives in France where he devotes his time as a composer between instrumental music and electroacoustic music, but also mixed music and music to accompany imagery.

 

Artistic approach

His creations are the result of a long process of sound exploration (particularly thanks to the use of new technologies) and are built following a very close collaboration with many instrumentalists. This reoccurring proximity with different musicians has allowed him to develop his knowledge and understanding of instruments: Thanks to this, he can then seek to achieve a significant level of virtuosity in his pieces. The aforementioned virtuosity can be appreciated in his piece named Dune, piece that earned him the first prize of the Geneva International Music Competition in 2019 as well as the Audience Prize and the Young Audience Prize. Moreover, the rhythm parameter is one of the constituent elements of his musical discourse.

 

Studies and rewards

Daniel Arango-Prada began his musical journey in Colombia, where he carried out his study of music theory and classical guitar, before carrying on in Argentina and finally arriving in France in 2010 to perfect himself as a composer. He joined the instrumental and electroacoustic composition course in the Montpellier conservatory before carrying on further by joining Lyon’s regional conservatory. In September 2015, he integrated the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Lyon”, where he was taught by Michele Tadini, Philippe Hurel, Martin Matalon and François Roux, which resulted in him receiving a master’s in composition in 2020. In addition to his 1st prize at the Geneva Competition, he was also rewarded at the “Journées d'Informatique musicale” in 2017 in Paris, was a finalist in the international composition competition in the town of Boulogne-Billancourt in 2019, he got the Prize from Francis et Mica Salabert Foundation in 2020 and the Sond'Ar-te Electric Ensemble prize In 2021. He was invited as composer in residence at the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France in 2021.

 

Collaborations and festivals

Currently he is working in close collaboration with several instrumentalists and ensembles such as the trio “SR9” (France), the “Quatuor Béla” (France) or the “Lemanic Modern Ensemble” (Switzerland-France). His work has also been programmed in numerous festivals such as the Pablo Casals Festival, the MANCA festival in Nice, the “Turbulences Sonores” festival in Montpellier, the “Journées d’Informatique Musicale” in Paris and the “Journées Nationales d’Electroacoustique” in Amiens, Chalon-sur-Saône and Strasbourg. His music has also been performed in various European cities as well as in Asia. His works are published by BabelScores.

 

Other interests

Interested in traditional oral music and photography, Daniel Arango-Prada obtained the Nguyen Thien Dao Grant in 2019 and the “Mécénat Musical Société Générale” Grant in 2020 in order to conduct some research as well as a photographic documentary surrounding the traditional music of the Chocó region in Colombia and surrounding Nasa the indigenous community of the Colombian Andes.