Biography
Miguel Franco, composer
Miguel Franco was born in Murcia in 1962 and since he began his musical studies in the early 80s, his training as a double bass player and his career as a composer have run in parallel.
He began his music career at the conservatory in his hometown with teachers Isabel Torregrosa and Ginés García Abellán while he was part of the newly created Youth Orchestra of the Region of Murcia and the National Youth Orchestra of Spain as a double bass player. During the years 85 and 86, he lived in Barcelona where he alternated his work in the Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceo with higher studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Music with the double bass player Ferrán Sala and the composers Antoni Besses and Joan Guinjoan. Later, he won a scholarship from the British Council, which allowed him to work in the Hallè Orchestra of Manchester and enroll in the Royal Northern College of Music to complete his double bass studies with Duncan McTier and attend various composition seminars with figures like Alexander Goher and Michael Tippett. After his graduation in 1988, he returned to Spain where he currently combines his work as a composer, deserving of the composition awards “Joventuts Musicals de Barcelona (1985)” and “Ciutat de Llíria (1998)”, with that of a solo double bass player of the RTVE Symphony Orchestra.
He has composed both symphonic and chamber music as well as theater (“La Celada Fuente”, by Muñoz Clares and “Pedro de Urdemalas”, by Miguel de Cervantes) and cinema (“El Número Marcado”, “El Infierno Prometido”, “Amores que matan,” «Magos como tú» and “Zapping”, by Chumilla Carbajosa).
He has also written and published a good number of pieces for educational purposes based on Spanish folklore. His presence as a composer stands out in various music festivals such as the ‘V and XXIII International Festival of Youth Orchestras’ of Murcia; the ‘Downing College Music Society’ of Cambridge; ‘VII Encuentros de Percusión de Xixona’, in Alicante; the ‘Kamer Muziekcentrum De Suite’ of Amsterdam; the ‘Mayo Musical’ of Murcia in 1994, the 3rd Festival of Contemporary Music of Barcelona; the ‘Festival Nova Música’ of the Bulgarian Society of Contemporary Music the III National Percussion Convention, held in 1997 at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, The 47th Week of Religious Music of Cuenca and the II Cycle of Contemporary Spanish Music in Europe.
His works have been programmed in various musical institutions, such as the Center for the Dissemination of Contemporary Music in Madrid, numerous editions of the Chamber Music Cycle of the RTVE Orchestra and Choir, the Pablo Sarasate Orchestra of Pamplona, the Cordoba Orchestra, the Region Orchestra of Murcia, the Primitiva Band of Llíria, the Malaga Symphony Orchestra, the Hermitage Chamber Orchestra of St. Petersburg, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Tomsk in Siberia, the Classical Orchestra City of Murcia, The Symphony Orchestra of the Province of Bari in Italy, the SWR Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden and Freiburg, the Choir and the RTVE Symphony Orchestra and the Madrid Symphonic Band.
Entre los artistas que han interpretado sus obras se encuentran destacadas figuras como los pianistas Joaquín Soriano, István Székely, Roderigo Robles de Medina y Mariana Gurkova; los violonchelistas Stanimir Todorov, Ángel García Jermann, Amparo Lacruz y Suzana Stefanovic; los violinistas Miguel Borrego, Víctor Arriola, Rubén Reina, Miguel Pérez Espejo, Michael Pearson, Marguerita Marseglia y David Mata; los violas Luis Artigues, Sergio Sola, Eva Martín. Octavio de Juan Ayala y Scott Rawls; los contrabajistas Chris West, Manel Ortega y Roberto Terrón; los percusionistas Rafael Más, Iñaki Martín, Enric Llopis y Juanjo Guillem; los oboístas Salvador Barberá y Carlos Alonso; el flautista Vicente Cintero; el clarinetista Miguel Civera; los trompetista Benjamín Moreno y Germán Asensi; los cantantes Rodrigo Esteves, Celia Alcedo, Milagros Poblador, Sarah Fulgoni, Carmelo Cordón, Marina Pardo y Carmen Ávila; y los directores Enrique García Asensio, Lorenzo Ramos, Mariano Alfonso, Eduardo Marturet, Manuel Hernández Silva, James Judd, Adrian Leaper, César Álvarez, Óliver Díaz, José Miguel Rodilla y Alexis Soriano. Gran amante de la literatura, en su obra abundan los textos de grandes escritores como Miguel de Cervantes, Gonzalo de Berceo, Fray Luís de León, Francisco de Quevedo, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Jorge Manrique, Juan de Tassis, Garcilaso de la Vega, el Duque de Rivas, Samuel Beckett, etc. También cabe resaltar su trabajo en común con importantes personalidades de las artes plásticas, como los pintores José María Párraga y José Lucas, el cineasta Chumilla Carbajosa y los poetas José Luis Mata, Gracia Iglesias, José Francisco Burgos y Gloria Fuertes.