Manuel Torres Arias (Mexico City, 1983)
Manuel Torres-Arias studied at the Centre for Music Research and Education (C.I.E.M.) in Mexico City and holds the degrees of licentiate in Music Theory, Literature and Criticism and of Compositional Techniques from the Trinity College of London. In the year 2011 he obtained with honours the degree of Master of Music with specialisation in composition from the Conservatory of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, where he studied with Klaas de Vries, Peter Jan Wagemans (composition) Rene Uijlenhoet (electronic music) and Willem Tanke (improvisation), among others. He has been recipient of the Mexican National Fund for the Culture and the Arts (FONCA) for his work as a composer, educator and researcher. His music has been performed in Mexico, The Netherlands, the UK, New York, Greece and Japan, by groups and performers such as Mexico City Philarmonic, Asko Schoenberg Ensemble, Lontano Ensemble or Maarten van Veen. His work has been awarded in competitions such as the Senzoku International Composition Competition, Japan (2nd prize, 2015), the Carl Von Ossietszky Competition, Germany (special mention of the jury, 2015) or the Young Creators Commissioning Scheme, (Mexico, 2016). Nowadays he lives in London working as a freelance composer and music educator and towards the attainment of a Phd from King´s College London, studying with professors Silvina Milstein, Rob Keeley and George Benjamin.