Santiago Quintans

Santiago Quintans is a composer/performer working on contemporary and experimental music. His music and research focus on the relationship between composition, improvisation and new digital tools of sound transformation. His work evokes a new conception of musical materials based on the formal properties of sound masses and their motion in a given space. Coming from a Jazz background, the relationship between musical gestures, rhythm and computer algorithms is at the core of his compositional approach. His has done extensive research on the electric guitar in contemporary music and is actually focusing on the relationship between early Jazz and contemporary writing.

A native of Vigo, Spain (1975), Santiago holds a Bachelor's Degree in Jazz Guitar and a Master's of Music Degree from the University of Miami (USA). In 2003 he moves to Paris and becomes an active member of the contemporary music scene, while also obtaining a Master's Degree in Musicology (focusing on electroacoustic music) from Université Paris 8 (France) and continuing composition studies with José Manuel Lopez Lopez.

Santiago has written music for contemporary ensembles, solo performers, dance companies and as a guitarist he has worked with some of today's leading figures in Jazz and contemporary music (Kenny Wheeler, Mark Foster), performing emblematic pieces such as Steve Reich's Electric Counterpoint, or premièring Petet Eötvös "Seven" with the Caën Orchestra. His pieces have been premiered in the US, Europe and Brazil, and his groups have been featured in festivals such as Europa Jazz Festival in France. After 2008 he directs the Jazz and Improvisation program at the Le Mans Conservatory in France.