Ramon Humet
The music of Ramon Humet (Barcelona, 1968), composer and engineer, has received widespread acceptance from audiences and critics thanks to his relentless search for a highly refined personal language and the balance between form and expression. After studying composition with the composer Josep Soler, he met the British composer Jonathan Harvey, an encounter that deeply marked his creative path.
In 2007 he was awarded the Olivier Messiaen International Composition Prize, which brought the commission —on the initiative of conductor Kent Nagano— of the orchestral composition Scenes of Wind for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, premiered in 2008 and conducted by Jacques Lacombe. His orchestral music has also received awards such as the XXIV Queen Sofia International Composition Prize and the XVI International Composition Prize Ciutat de Tarragona. In 2014 he has been guest composer at Palau de la Música Catalana.
Ramon Humet’s music exudes an intense love of nature, embodied in some of his symphonic works, such as Música del no ésser (Music of Non-being), premiered by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pablo Gonzalez, or Escenes d’ocells (Scenes of Birds), an orchestral work that has been the subject of multiple performances conducted by Jean François Rivest, Adrian Leaper, Roberto Minczuk, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Edmon Colomer and Rubén Gimeno with several orchestras. Piano music is a key facet in the catalogue of Humet's works, and Volume III in the series Escenes del bosc (Forest Scenes), stands out: the piece was commissioned by the Association pour la Création et la Diffusion Artistique and was premiered at the Cité de la Musique in 2007 as a mandatory piece in the prestigious Concours Olivier Messiaen for piano. Also, volume V was premiered at Tokyo Opera Recital Hall in 2014 by Satoko Inoue.
His music has been described by Josep Maria Guix as 'beautiful, refined, transparent, and often playful. Music of magical smiles built on a foundation of solid technique.'. Often inspired by Japanese traditional music for shakuhachi, some of his most relevant works for chamber music have been released on a specially designed compact disc recorded by London Sinfonietta and conducted by Nicholas Collon. This CD, produced by Neu Records label, has been recorded with high definition sound and 5.1 Surround system, and has been reviewed by Gramophone Magazine as a 'fascinating project'.
Ramon Humet has taught composition at the Liceu Conservatory since 2009 and has a wide repertoire of vocal, instrumental, electroacoustic and stage music, with particular attention paid to orchestral production. The scores of the composer's catalogue are published by Tritó Edicions.