Ramon Humet is an award-winning composer born in 1968 who has received the Olivier Messiaen International Composition Prize and the XXIV Queen Sofia International Composition Prize.
Ramon Humet studied composition with Josep Soler, piano with Harriet Serr and Miquel Farré, and improvisation with Gerry Weil. In 2000, he met the British composer Jonathan Harvey, an encounter that deeply marked his creative path.
In 2007 he was awarded the Olivier Messiaen International Composition Prize, which brought the commission —on the initiative of conductor Kent Nagano— of the orchestral composition Scenes of Wind for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, premiered in 2008 and conducted by Jacques Lacombe. His orchestral music has also received the XXIV Queen Sofia International Composition Prize. In 2014 he was the guest composer at Palau de la Música Catalana, and in the 2019-2020 season he was the guest composer at Auditori of Barcelona.
Ramon Humet’s music exudes an intense love of nature, embodied in some of his symphonic works. This can be seen in works such as Música del no ésser (Music of Non-being), premiered by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pablo Gonzalez, El temps i la campana (Time and the Bell), premiered by Spanish National Orchestra conducted by Guillermo García Calvo, or Escenes d’ocells (Scenes of Birds), an orchestral work that has been the subject of multiple performances conducted by Jean François Rivest, Adrian Leaper, Roberto Minczuk, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Edmon Colomer and Rubén Gimeno with several orchestras.
Piano music is a key facet in the catalogue of Humet’s works, and Volume III in the series Escenes del bosc (Forest Scenes) stands out: the piece was commissioned by the Association pour la Création et la Diffusion Artistique and was premiered at the Cité de la Musique in 2007 as a mandatory piece in the prestigious Concours Olivier Messiaen for piano. Additionally, volume V was premiered at Tokyo Opera Recital Hall in 2014 by Satoko Inoue.
In 2017 he writes Music for Ekstasis, a lost Martha Graham’s solo reimagined by Virginie Mécène and premiered by the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce Theater, New York. This work has been performed around the world: Opéra de Paris, Teatro Real de Madrid, National Centre for the Performing Arts of Beijing, Luxembourg, Germany, Canada, etc… Music for Ekstasis is the soundtrack of the videoclip Breathing by the legendary Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. In 2019 he premieres Homenaje a Martha Graham, with choreography by Virginie Mécène, PeiJu Chien-Pott as soloist, Sarah Maria Sun, Alberto Rosado, Kakizakai Kaoru and Neopercusión. This work has been recorded with 3D system in a double CD produced by Neu Records.
Some of his most relevant works for chamber music have been released on a specially designed compact disc, Niwa, recorded by the London Sinfonietta and conducted by Nicholas Collon. This CD, produced by Neu Records label, has been recorded with high definition sound and 5.1 Surround system, and has been reviewed by Gramophone Magazine as a ‘fascinating project’. Often inspired by Japanese traditional music for shakuhachi, Desert, for shakuhachi and orchestra, has been premiered by Horacio Curti and the Spanish National Orchestra conducted by Paolo Bressan.
Ramon Humet has taught composition at the Liceu Conservatory since 2009. Among his former students stand out as successful composers: Joan Magrané, Miquel Oliu, Carlos de Castellarnau, Maria Camahort, … He has a wide repertoire of vocal, instrumental, electroacoustic and stage music, with particular attention paid to orchestral production.
In 2021, an award-winning CD (Choc de Classica 2022, Premi Enderrock 2021) has been released by Ondine with the choral work Llum, with the Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Klava.
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Ramon Humet Web
PERFORMED WORKS
Mille volte il dì moro, a particular view of a madrigal by Carlo Gesualdo (premiere), per a piano
