Jimmy López
Born in Lima, Peru in 1978, Jimmy López is already establishing an international following. From 1998 until 2000 he studied with Enrique Iturriaga at the National Conservatory of Music in Lima, and from 2000 till 2007, with Veli-Matti Puumala and Eero Hämeenniemi at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, from where he obtained his Master of Music Degree in 2007.
He has received numerous prizes including: First Prize at the 2012 and 2011 Nicola De Lorenzo Music Composition Contests (UC Berkeley) for "Synesthésie" and "15 Études for String Octet" respectively; 2009 Georges Ladd Prix De Paris (UC Berkeley), Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at the '2008 Darmstadt International Course for Contemporary Music' (Germany); 2008 Morton Gould Young Composer Award (New York) for his concertino for piano, strings, brass and percussion titled "Epiphany"; Second Prize at the 2008 Nicola De Lorenzo Music Composition Contest (UC Berkeley) for "Epiphany"; Orchestra Composition Award - SävellYS 2006 Composition Competition (Finland) for his orchestral work "The Plea"; Stipendienpreis at the International Course for Contemporary Music, Darmstadt 2006 (Germany) for his chamber work "Kraftmaschine"; Honorable Mention at the Irino Composition Prize for Chamber Music 2005 (Japan) for his string quartet "La Caresse du Couteau"; First Prize - ALEA III 2003 International Composition Competition (USA) for his piece “K’asa” for violin and piano; and the Orchestra Prize - CCA International Composition Competition 2002 (Taiwan) for his orchestral work “Carnynx”.
Mr. López is a PhD candidate in music composition at the University of California, Berkeley where he has worked with Edmund Campion. He is a member of Suomen Säveltäjät (Society of Finnish Composers), ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), CIRCOMPER (Circle of Composers of Peru) and the San Francisco Chapter of the Recording Academy (GRAMMY). He is a founding member of kohoBeat Musical Association in Finland.
His music has been performed in venues such as Aspen Music Festival and Donaueschingen Contemporary Music Festival and by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Peru, among others. His portrait CD titled Musuq Peru was released under the label Filarmonika LLC in 2008.
Future projects include performances with the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony orchestra. Mr. López recently finished working on an orchestral piece commissioned by Radio France, which is going to be recorded by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in 2012.
Photo: Heikki Tuuli