Corwin Chair of Composition João Pedro Oliveira

UC Santa Barbara Corwin Chair of Composition João Pedro Oliveira Receives First Prize in Citta di Udine and Destellos Competitions

UC Santa Barbara Corwin Chair of Composition João Pedro Oliveira received First Prize in the Citta di Udine Competition in the Electroacoustic Music category and First Prize in the 13th International Foundation Destellos Competition of Electroacoustic Composition with his piece, La Mer Émeraude. Oliveira was also named a finalist in the Audiovisual category of the Citta di Udine Competition with his piece, Things I Have Seen in My Dreams.

Submissions for the thirteenth annual Citta di Udine Competition consisted of 455 scores, recordings, and audiovisual works from 49 countries, with Michele Biasutti (Italy), Juraj Ďuriš (Slovakia), Salvatore Macchia (USA), and Alexander Shchetynsky (Ukraine) serving as adjudicators.

Created in 2007 in Mar del Plata, Argentine, the adjudicators for this year’s Foundation Destellos Competition of Electroacoustic Composition included Zuriñe Guerenabarrena (Spain), Andrew Babcock (USA), Daniel Blinkhorn (Australia), and Pablo Freiberg (Argentina).

Oliveira’s notes for La Mer Émeraude are as follows: “Let us imagine a small invented world, a micro universe where everything exists...matter, energy, spirit, telluric movements, mysteries, natural and supernatural forces. That world is whole and from afar, whoever watches, sees it as a living ocean.” Oliveira composed the work in the Musiques-Recherches studio and dedicated the piece to composers Annette Vande Gorne and Francis Dhomont. Listen to La Mer Émeraude at soundcloud.com/jppo/la-mer-emeraude.

For his audiovisual work, Things I Have Seen in My Dreams, Oliveira writes: “We dream...sometimes we have nightmares, or dreams that make us sad, anguished, or simply indifferent. But occasionally, there are dreams that project in our mind images and sounds of great beauty. This piece is a recollection and variations on some of these images and sounds I remember from my dreams.” Oliveira dedicated the work to Argentine composer Mario Mary. Watch the work at vimeo.com/336105455.

Oliveira has received over 50 international prizes and awards for his works, including, among others, the Giga-Hertz Award and the Magisterium Prize from the Institut International de Musique Électroacoustique-Bourges (IMEB). In January of 2020, Oliveira joined the faculty at UC Santa Barbara as Professor and the Corwin Chair of Composition. He serves as the Head of the Composition Program and teaches courses in composition, electroacoustic music, visual music, and contemporary techniques. Learn more about Oliveira at music.ucsb.edu/people/jo%C3%A3o-pedro-oliveira.