Joan Arnau Pàmies

The music of Joan Arnau Pàmies emerges from underlying issues related to text, sonic outcome, and the distinction between composition and interpretation as categorically different activities. Pàmies explores unconventional notational strategies in order to develop intricate formal processes.

Born in Catalonia in 1988, Pàmies's works have been performed and workshopped throughout the United States, Canada, Russia, and Europe by ensembles and individuals such as the Arditti Quartet, BCN 216, Dal Niente, Felix Del Tredici, ensemble recherche, loadbang, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, New Morse Code, Nora Volkova Ensemble, Kathryn Schulmeister, and Vertixe Sonora Ensemble. 

He is the recipient of numerous prizes and grants, such as the William T. Faricy Award for Creative Music and the Eckstein Fellowship from Northwestern University (Chicago), the Wallace Scholarship Fund from the New England Conservatory (Boston), and the Fellowship prize from the Darmstadt Summer Courses 2008. His collaboration with double bassist Kathryn Schulmeister has received support from New Music USA as one of their sixty featured projects in 2014.

Pàmies holds a Bachelor of Music degree with Honors from the New England Conservatory and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at Northwestern University. Furthermore, he has lectured on his own work at the University of Huddersfield (CeReNeM), Goldsmiths, University of London, UNAM (Mexico City), Columbia University, and Northwestern University.