Biography
photo credit : Mai Toyama
He initiated his composition studies at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music, earning the composition award and the Roberto I. Ferdman prize. Supported by the Zaleski Foundation, he continued studies in Paris culminating with a Master’s degree from the Paris National Conservatory (CNSMDP) and the Ircam Cursus. Winner of several international competitions and awards, he obtained the first prize at the 'New Classics' International Composition Competition in Moscow (2020), as well as the first prize at the Iannis Xenakis International Electronic Music Competition (Greece), the Salvatore Martirano Award (USA) and the Grand Prize of the Ise-Shima art committee in Japan. Most recently he was awarded the 2022 Composition Prize from the Académie des Beaux-arts in France (Prix Pierre Cardin) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 2024.
His work has been showcased all around the globe in venues like Festival Manifest, the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris (Centre Pompidou), and the Born Creative festival in Japan, while also collaborating with ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, L’Instant Donné, and the Illinois Modern Ensemble.
Born in Puerto Rico, Luis Quintana is an internationally prized composer who develops his work in France and abroad in the field of contemporary classical music, extending the frontiers of his musical universe from concert music to acousmatic pieces and sound installations.
Often inspired by nature and various forms of traditional and popular music, particularly Caribbean soundscapes, he confronts the conventional and the modern — recontextualizing these elements and experimenting with suggested, effaced, and disseminated imagery. As such, his music recurrently explores the subject of erosion, aiming to weave subconscious and indirect connections with the audience.
photo credit : Mai Toyama