ABOUT US
ENSEMBLE KURAIA – Bilbao contemporary music group
Ensemble Kuraia was founded in Bilbao in 1997 by the composer María Eugenia Luc, its current artistic director. The group’s main goal consists in making contemporary composers’ works available to a broader public, while providing the composers with a high quality ensemble they can collaborate with.
Ensemble Kuraia has performed all over Europe and Latin America: Universität der Künst and Hochschule für Musik (Berlin), Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan and Labirinti sonori in Parma (Italia), Music around (Strasbourg, France), Arsonic (Mons, Belgium), Prize Foudation SGAE-CNDM, Festival de Alicante, CNDM, Auditorio del Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía and Teatros del Canal (Madrid), Ciclo Fundación BBVA and Museo Guggenheim in Bilbao, Quincena Musical in San Sebastián, L’Auditori (Barcelona), Season Rondó (Milano and Monza, Italy), Centro Nacional de las Artes (Mexico D.F.), FIMCC in Lima (Perú), among others.
The critics have praised the Bilbao ensemble on several occasions: “one of the contemporary music ensembles of reference in Spain” (Scherzo), “all with excellent performance by Ensemble Kuraia” (Ritmo), “fantastic musicians” (Diario Información), “an excellent ensemble” (Doce notas), “solid and very capable” (El diario Vasco), “of very high quality” (El comercio, Lima).
The ensemble is the resident group of the Kuraia Contemporary Music Encounters and the ‘J.C. Arriaga’ Conservatoire in Bilbao.
Quality, variety and innovation are the features that make Kuraia Ensemble’s proposals stand out. These include the realization of documentaries, CD and DVD recordings (Orpheus and Sintonía Label). His CD “De aire y luz” dedicated to music by María Eugenia Luc received in 2016 the Gold award by Melómano review. In 2014 the ensemble collaborated with Yoko Ono in her performance “Sky piece to JC”. He has promoted the production of documentaries on Luis De Pablo and Félix Ibarrondo (programmed on several occasions by the regional television channel EITB), as well as premiering productions of chamber operas and musical theater works (including some 20th century masterpieces such as Stravinski’s “The Soldier’s Tale” and the opera by the Czech composer Viktor Ullmann “Der Kaiser von Atlantis”).
Ensemble Kuraia commissions contemporary composers and develops programs for the diffusion of contemporary music and pedagogical projects in collaboration with the Klangzeitort of Berlin, the Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao, the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) and Musikene-Centro Superior de Música del País Vasco.
Ensemble Kuraia‘s concerts have been broadcast live by RNE-Radio Clásica and other radio stations in Europe and Latin America.
Among the composers who have personally collaborated with Kuraia are: Leonardo Balada, Luis De Pablo, Joan Guinjoan, Félix Ibarrondo, Ramón Lazkano and José Manuel López López.
Ensemble Kuraia count with sponsorships by Basque government, Diputación Foral de Bizkaia, Bilbao Council, Fundación SGAE, AIE, INAEM, and Etxepare Basque Institut.
MEMBERS
María Eugenia Luc
Artistic director and electracoustic music
Andrea Cazzaniga
Chief conductor
Xabier Calzada
Flute
Sergio Barranco
Clarinet
Elur Arrieta
Percussions
Berta Fresco
Piano
Luis Ibiricu
Violin/Viola
Belén Fernández
Violoncello
Juan Antonio Ros
Sound engineer
History
Concerts, tours, cycles and all the activities of Ensemble Kuraia year by year.
María Eugenia Luc
Our priority is to disseminate the works of the composers of our time and to provide them with a professional ensemble of excellent quality with which to work closely.