Ernst von Siemens Foundation - Composers' Prize 2022

Mikel Urquiza (1988, Bilbao) writes lively, colourful music, where things are not what they seem : one idea hides another one, peripheral elements become central, and what looks serious pulls a face. Fresh and original, his voice has quickly found its place within the European scene, carried by the ensemble Intercontemporain, L'Instant Donné, C Barré, Musikfabrik, Mosaik, Ascolta, and the New European Ensemble at festivals such as Présences, ManiFeste, ECLAT, Acht Brücken, Gaudeamus, and the Venice Biennale ; in 2022 he receives the Composer prize of the Siemens Musikstiftung.

A choir singer all along his youth, he is passionate about voice and shows it in Alfabet, written for Sarah Maria Sun, I nalt be clode on the frolt, for Marion Tassou, Songs of Spam, for the Neue Vocalsolisten, and Howl, premiered by the vocal ensemble Exaudi at the Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik 2022.

His chamber music pieces, full of imitative writing, bizarre associations, and all sort of tricks, are created by first-class partners such as Trio Catch, which performs Pièges de neige at the Cologne Philharmonie, Radial System in Berlin, and the Resonanz Raum in Hamburg, or the Diotima Quartet, which premieres his first string quartet Indicio at the Festival Pontino in Italy, and the second string quartet Index at the Festival Musica in Strasburg.

Mikel Urquiza (1988, Bilbao) studied composition first at Musikene (San Sebastian) with Gabriel Erkoreka and Ramon Lazkano, then at Paris CNSM with Gérard Pesson. In 2019-2020 he is first mentored by the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation, then a fellow of the French Academy in Rome - Villa Medici. As a PhD student of the SACRe doctoral program, he writes a thesis under the direction of Laurent Feneyrou, Stefano Gervasoni, and Francesca Alberti.