©Photo: Ashkan Image

©Photo: Ashkan Image

Jimmy López Bellido

Composer

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An “undeniably exciting composer” (Opera News), Jimmy López Bellido’s music displays “a brilliant command of orchestral timbres and textures” (Dallas Morning News) and “a virtuoso mastery of the modern orchestra” (The New Yorker). His works have been performed around the world by leading orchestras and in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Kennedy Center and Konzerthaus Berlin.

During the 2023/24 season, tenor Michael Fabiano will premiere a new song cycle by López entitled Quiet Poems at Arizona’s Tucson Desert Song Festival. The first part of López’s Symphony No.4: Eclipse will also receive its world premiere by Houston Symphony conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season included López’s critically acclaimed orchestral tone poem Aino, commissioned and premiered by Orchestre de Paris conducted by Klaus Mäkelä on 8 September 2022. Co-commissioned by Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Aino has since been performed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada and the USA. On 22 June 2023, the orchestral work Loud received its world premiere in San Francisco by International Pride Orchestra conducted by Christine Brandes. Loud was commissioned by the orchestra for its inaugural performance along with San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. On 1 December 2022, mezzo soprano J’Nai Bridges and Catalyst Quartet gave the world premiere of López’s song cycle Airs for Mother at 92NY Center for Culture & Arts in New York.

In 2022, López’s piano concerto Ephemerae premiered on 23 February at Royal Festival Hall, performed by Javier Perianes and London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Berman. LPO commissioned the concerto together with Oslo-Filharmonien, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo and Philadelphia Orchestra. Perianes will give further performances of Ephemerae during the 2023/24 season with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and then with Philadelphia Orchestra, both conducted by Rafael Payare.

Further highlights include Rise (2020), commissioned and performed by Berkeley Symphony with director Joseph Young in celebration of their 50^th anniversary on 12 June 2022, and Symphony No.3 ‘Altered Landscape’ (2020), premiered on 7 and 8 May 2022 in Reno, Nevada by Reno Philharmonic conducted by Laura Jackson.

Among Jimmy López Bellido’s earlier orchestral output is Perú Negro (2012), which received recent performances by Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra at Oslo Konserthus on 17 February 2022 and by BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms on 4 August 2022, both under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä. The much-loved Fiesta! (2007) has received over a hundred performances worldwide, making it one of the most-performed contemporary works in the orchestral repertoire.

López’s discography includes four portrait albums dedicated to his works, notably 2022’s Aurora & Ad Astra, released by Pentatone and featuring Andrés Orozco-Estrada, violinist Leticia Moreno, and Houston Symphony. Aurora was nominated for a 2022 Latin GRAMMY award in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition. The same year, his song Where Once We Sang with lyrics by Mark Campbell was also recorded on Pentatone by mezzo soprano Sasha Cooke and pianist Kirill Kuzmin.

A native of Lima, Jimmy López Bellido studied at the city’s National Conservatory of Music before graduating from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with a Master of Music degree. López currently lives in California and completed his PhD in Music at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jimmy López Bellido – Ephemerae, Piano Concerto (World Premiere) © London Philharmonic Orchestra

Jimmy López Bellido: Where Once We Sang © Epiphany Foundation for the Arts

Jimmy López Bellido (Perú) - Symphony No.1 "The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda" © Andres Felipe Jaime

"Bel Canto the Opera" from Lyric Opera of Chicago | Great Performances on PBS © Great Performances | PBS

Lopéz Bellido: América salvaje ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada © hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony

Fiesta! - Four Pop Dances For Orchestra - Jimmy Lopez Bellido © Jimmy López Bellido

“Bellido’s enthralling ‘Aino’… was more pure magic”

(Chicago News, February 2023)

“…masterful and indeed gorgeous…”

(Chicago on the Aisle, February 2023)

“…a fascinating, brilliantly orchestrated work…”

(WTTW, February 2023)

“The expressive, keenly crafted ‘Aino’ has all the hallmarks of great storytelling: foreshadowing, high-stakes drama, emotional appeals so plangent that the listener, too, aches. It was one of the most effective CSO commissions in recent seasons”

(Chicago Tribune, February 2023)

“López plays with all possible orchestral colours… Ever-forming waves of sound rippled magnetically from the stage into the hall.”

(Bachtrack, January 2023)

“Aino concludes the first part of the concert in masterful fashion and leads Jimmy López Bellido, under the frank applause of the public, to the triumph he deserves.”

(Bachtrack, September 2022)

“His orchestration shows a high-quality craftsmanship which is served with brilliance by the various sections of the orchestra.”

(Altamusica, September 2022)

“López Bellido’s Rise, a buoyant 11 minute festival of brisk rhythms and melodic fireworks, made a perfectly apt opening”

(San Francisco Chronicle, June 2022)

“Again, the movement takes us into some astonishingly brilliant writing for the instrument…”

(Seen and Heard, February 2022)

“The response of this notably young crowd was ecstatic…”

(Musical America, February 2022)

“ ‘Perú Negro’…is a work that deserves to find its way into the standard orchestral repertoire of the 21^st century.”

(ARTS ATLANTA, January 2016)

“The strength of Mr. López’s music is its bright, brass-tinged propulsion, a riot of orchestral color…”

(WALL STREET JOURNAL, December 2015)

“Mr. López proves himself expert in orchestration…”

(NEW YORK TIMES, July 2015)

Orchestral

Loud

Orchestral

Instrumentation

2+picc.2.2.2(2=Cbsn) — 4.2.3.1 — timp — perc(3) — harp — str

Year

2023

Duration

5 minutes

First performance

22 June 2023 at the Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall, San Francisco by International Pride Orchestra

Sheet music

To hire the score or to receive a quote please register at www.Hire.com

Commissioned by

International Pride Orchestra

Aino

Orchestral

Instrumentation

3.3.3.3 — 4.3.3.1 — Perc(3) — Hp — Str

Year

2022

Duration

14 minutes

First performance

8 September 2022: Klaus Mäkelä (conductor) and Orchestre de Paris at Philharmonie de Paris

Sheet music

To hire the score or to receive a quote please register at www.Hire.com

Commissioned by

Commissioned by Orchestre de Paris, Concertgebouworkest, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra

A Wedding Blast

Orchestral

Instrumentation

2.2.2.2 – 2.2.2.1 – Perc (1) – Str

Year

2005

Duration

2 minutes

Sheet music

To hire the score or to receive a quote please register at www.Hire.com

The Plea

Orchestral

Year

2005

Duration

13 minutes

Sheet music

To hire the score or to receive a quote please register at www.Hire.com

Carnynx

Instrumentation

Koto and Orchestra: 3(III=picc).2.3(III=bcl).3(III=cbsn) – 3.2.0.1 – Perc (2) – Str (12.10.8.6.4)

Year

2004

Duration

27 minutes

Sheet music

To hire the score or to receive a quote please register at www.Hire.com

Commissioned by

Utrechtse Muziekacademie (UMA-orchestra)

Arco de Luz

Concertos

Chamber

Accordion and Piano

Instrumentation

Accordion and Piano

Year

2009

Duration

13 minutes

Sheet music

Score for sale at Faber Music

Commissioned by

Oulu Music Festival, Finland

El Viaje

Chamber

Clarinet, Cello and Piano

Instrumentation

Clarinet, Cello and Piano

Year

2000

Duration

10 minutes

Speculorum

Chamber

Oboe and Koto

Instrumentation

Oboe and Koto

Year

2002

Duration

9 minutes

Sheet music

Score for sale at Faber Music

Trio

Chamber

2 Clarinets and Bassoon

Instrumentation

2 Clarinets and Bassoon

Year

1999

Duration

7 minutes

Solo

Ladybug

Solo

Vocal

Soprano, Alto, Piano and 5‑string double bass

Instrumentation

Soprano, Alto, Piano and 5‑string double bass

Year

2005

Duration

15 minutes

Stage Works

Los Magos del Silencio

Stage Works

Instrumentation

Ballet: 2.2.2.2 – 4.2.3.1 – Perc (2) – Str

Year

2004

Duration

24 minutes

Sheet music

To hire the score or to receive a quote please register at www.Hire.com

Commissioned by

Hernán Garrido-Lecca and Yvonne von Möllendorff

Jimmy López Bellido

Charlie-Rose Blockley

Liz Sam

Milly Paine

Megan O’Hanlon

Quiet Poems by Jimmy López Bellido Premieres at Tucson Desert Song Festival

JAVIER PERIANES PERFORMS JIMMY LÓPEZ BELLIDO’S​‘EPHEMERAE’ IN CANADIAN & US PREMIERES

LOUD BY JIMMY LÓPEZ BELLIDO PREMIERES WITH INTERNATIONAL PRIDE ORCHESTRA

Twenty-five artists perform in the 2023 BBC Proms season across HP, Polyarts, Birdsong & Touring

A conversation with… Jimmy López Bellido