Estrada Julio

Mexican composer, musicologist, theorist, and researcher Julio Estrada was born in Mexico City in 1943, and is of Spanish descent. He studied composition with Orbón in Mexico, and, from 1965 to 1969, with Messiaen, Boulanger, Pousseur, and Xenakis in Paris; additionally taking courses with Stockhausen in Cologne from 1968 to 1969, and Ligeti in Darmstadt in 1972. He later studied computer music at Stanford University in 1981, and at CEMAMu in Paris from 1980 to 1983, as well as Amerindian music in New Mexico in 1987; and gained a doctorate from the University of Strasbourg, with his dissertation “Théorie de la composition: discontinuum-continuum” (1994). “After an initial phase in the tradition of Webern and Stockhausen, Estrada’s compositional process developed throughout the 1970s from the ‘controlled uncertainty’ of Memorias (1971) to the elaboration of his “theory d1”, beginning with the series “Cantos” (1974–80) and “Diario” (1980). “Eua’on” (1980), produced using the UPIC system (transcribed for orchestra in “eua’on’ome”, 1995), marks a turning point in Estrada’s creative work. Adopting Mexican Indian titles, his music draws inspiration from nature, utilizing materials in transition and fluid movements (such as glissandi or accelerandi– ritardandi), based on his theory of the continuum.” (Text: Monika Fuerst-Heidtmann in: Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2014)