MIKEL URQUIZA (b. 1988, Bilbao) studied composition at Musikene with Gabriel Erkoreka and Ramon Lazkano, then at the CNSM in Paris with Gérard Pesson. In 2019, he was sponsored by the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation and in 2020 became resident of the Académie de France in Rome – Villa Médicis. He received the Composers’ Prize 2022 of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. He is currently writing a SACRe thesis under the supervision of Francesca Alberti, Stefano Gervasoni and Martin Kaltenecker.
He has worked with the best European ensembles, including L’Instant Donné, which created three of his works: Les lueurs se sont multipliées, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, Serpientes y escaleras (serenata), commissioned by the WDR for the Witten festival and I nalt be clone on the frolt, commissioned by Radio France and the ensemble for the programme Création Mondiale.
His chamber music pieces are premiered by select partners, such as the Accanto Trio, the Catch Trio or the Diotima Quartet. His piano piece Contrapluma, commissioned by BOZAR in Brussels, has been performed in the halls of the ECHO network, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam to the Musikverein in Vienna.
He collaborates with the most important Basque and Spanish institutions. His music also features at the Présences, ManiFeste, Musica, ECLAT, Ultraschall, Acht Brücken, Musikprotokoll, MATA, Gaudeamus festivals and at the Venice Biennale.
