Elisenda has been praised for writing with an “imaginatively colored… idiom” (The New York Times) and for possessing an “individuality [which] shows through in yearning dissonances, quirky juxtapositions of thematic material and a pervasive sensuality not unlike that of her native Barcelona” (San Antonio Express News). Fábregas’s music has been described as “complex and haunting” (Washington Post) with abundant “expressive long lines and gorgeous lyricism” (NATS Journal), and for having “an emotionally compelling aura” (New Mexican News) and a “marvelous sense of progression and development” (American Music Teacher Magazine). In occasion of winning the MTNA Shepherd Distinguished Composer Award, the American Teacher Magazine praised Fábregas for writing with a unique perspective comparing her to the “The man with a Blue Guitar” (1937) in the Wallace Stevens’s poem: “Fábregas is one gifted with a blue guitar. Her tunes are beyond us, yet ourselves. Indeed they are tunes of things exactly as they are.” Fábregas music covers a wide range of states, from “dreamlike images…and illusive rhythms and harmonies that permeate misty settings” [as in the piano solo ‘Hommage a Mozart,’] to music described as “notable in its sturdy and arresting generative themes” with “motoric, muscular, exciting fast movements” (San Antonio Express News.)
Spanish/American composer Elisenda Fábregas has had a multifaceted career as a composer, pianist and lecturer. Until very recently she based in Seoul, South Korea, where she was a Visiting Professor of music and cultural studies at Kyung-Hee University Humanitas College (Global Campus) (2013-2021). Since January 2022, Elisenda is based in Catalunya (Spain)
She also taught graduate composition at Ewha’s Women University and was a piano professor at Chugye University for the Arts (2010-2013). Her educational background is also multifaceted. She was a Post-Doctoral Fulbright scholar and holds doctorates from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in music composition (DMA, 2011), and from Columbia University Teachers College in education (Ed.D. 1992); she also received a Master and Bachelor in piano performance from The Juilliard School (1982-83). Before coming to the US, she also completed the highest studies as a pianist in Barcelona. During her early career, Elisenda performed as a pianist throughout Europe and the US, including a Carnegie Recital Hall debut in New York City in 1983. These experiences and training as a performer ultimately propelled her towards musical composition. She has written compositions for symphonic orchestra, wind ensemble, large mixed ensemble, triple concerto (piano, vln, vlc), cello concerto, choir with string quartet, a cappella choir, percussion ensemble, chamber music (quartets, trios and duos, some incl. guitar), song cycles with piano (incl. soprano, mezzo, tenor, baritone); solo instrumental (violin, cello, flute, harp), and solo piano works. Elisenda’s compositions have been the subject of doctoral thesis in American and South Korean universities. In 2000, Elisenda received the Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year Award from the Music Teachers National Association in Washington D.C. for her piano work Portraits I. Recordings of Elisenda’s compositions have been released on Naxos, Bridge Records, Haenssler (Profil Edition), Albany Records, Centaur Records, Mundo Arts, Odradek and NCA Classical Adventure Records; and her music is published by Hofmeister MusikVerlag (Leipzig, Germany), Alphonse Leduc & Cie. (Paris.), and Hidden Oaks Music Co.
Elisenda Fábregas‘ music has been widely performed throughout the world, including The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; Merkin Concert Hall and Joyce Theater in New York City; the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society; Seoul Arts Center (Concert Hall, IBK Art Hall and Recital Hall), Seoul; La Salle Cortot, Paris; the Tapiola Sinfonietta Concert Series in Finland; Sala Pau Casals at L’Auditori, Barcelona, Spain; International Percussion Festival of Seoul (South Korea); Kumho Art Hall (Seoul); the International Music Festival of Sitges (“Concerts de Mitjanit”), Spain; MusikfestStuttgart (Germany); Musical Festival of the Hamptons (NY); Bargemusic (Brooklyn, NY); Embassy Series (Washington D.C.); Lansing Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series, Michigan; Cactus Pear Music Festival (Texas); KWCMS Chamber Music Series in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada; Land’s End Chamber Music Society of Calgary, Canada; National Flute Convention, NYC; Esplanade Concerts (Singapore); SSA Chamber Series at SOTA (Singapore); the Bodensee International Music Festival and Sanssouci Musikfestpiele in Potsdam, Germany; United Nations Conference in Beijing, China; Ibero American Institute in Berlin; Hohenloher Kultursommer (Germany); and WDR Cologne Radio (“Nachtmusik” live); Barcelona Festival of Song (Caixa Forum, Barcelona); MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya); Plaça del Rei (Gothic Quarter in Barcelona); Festival Albeniz Camprodon (Spain); Casa Mila Concert Series, Barcelona; Museu Pau Casals, el Vendrell (Tarragona); Random Access Music (RAM) Concert Series (New York City).
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW BETTER THE ARTIST?
Web dedicated to Elisenda Fàbregas
PERFORMED WORKS
Village Scenes, for mezzosoprano and piano
