The Fifth International Festival of Music and New Technologies Visiones Sonoras (www.visionessonoras.org) will be presented by the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS) from November 4th to 7th in the Cultural Academic Unit of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Morelia. Visiones Sonoras has positioned as the main event in the field of music and new technologies in Mexico and it is one of the most important festivals in Latin America. Visiones Sonoras is a space for generating ties between artists and students, developing new publics and promoting the creation of musical works that integrate the use of technology.

The activity program is focused on showing, sharing and discussing various aspects of music composition and performance with new technologies, providing the ideal infrastructure for the presentation of some of the most contemporary proposals for the integration of technology and music. Through its composers meeting, a series of conferences and workshops, an exposition of sound installations and commisions granted to Mexican artists, this festival aims to create a space fo the exchange of ideas around the use of these tools in music composition.

Since its first edition in 2005, “Visiones Sonoras” has been host of some of the main artists in the scene of electroacoustic music, such as Francis Dhomont (France), Miller Puckette (U.S.A.), Dennis Smalley (United Kingdom), and many others. This year, the guests of the festival will gather Mario Lavista (Mexico),  Joao Pedro Oliveira (Portugal), Alejandro Viñao (Argentina / United Kingdom), Antonio Russek (Mexico), Ricardo de Armas (Argentina), Gabriel Paiuk (Argentina), Juan Reyes (Colombia), Dario Palermo (Italia), Frankie J. Kelly (U.S.A.),  Manuel Rocha (Mexico), Mauricio Valdés (Mexico) and Federico Schumacher (Chili).This selection of artists aims not only to show a scope of the diversity of voices that characterize the international scene of music and technology, but also to build a dialog between different aesthetics, styles and musical languages that can give the assistants a clear view of the possibilities that the  use of today’s technological tools offer for music creation.

The concerts programme of this year is particularly interesting not only due to its great quality and variety but also because of the caliber of the performers that will participate in it. The first concert will be held by Onix Ensamble, a well known and acclaimed group of Mexican musicians dedicated to promote the best of Latin American contemporary music today. All members have an international career and the experience of soloists and virtuosi musicians, a fact that less had a powerful impact on the collective musical result, reviewed as “Unique in Latin America”, “exceptional”, “hypnotic” and “with amazing strength and musical expressiveness” (Classical Music Review). One of the most awaited premieres of the concert is Mario Lavista’s “Plegaria” (“Prayer”),  a piece for bassoon and electronics commissioned by “Visiones Sonoras”. What is very special about this piece is that it is the first one that Lavista, one of the main pillars in the education of today’s many generations of live composers in Mexican contemporary music (and maybe the most recognized Mexican composer in the international contemporary music scene), creates with electronic tools after many decades of working exclusively on instrumental music. “Plegaria” will be performed by Wendy Holdaway, who has worked closely with Lavista since various decades for the creation of his works.

The second concert of “Visiones Sonoras” will be presented by Horacio Franco, one of the most succesful Mexican musicians who has created fame not only in the field of ancient music but also in the folk, popular and contemporary music scenes. With his unusual pop star image, Horacio Franco has grabbed the attention of young audiences of different social classes. His interes in approaching music in different ways has been one of the main reasons that led Franco to participate in the project that he will present during this festival. The programme of Horacio Franco’s concert is made by a series of pieces composed in 2008 by a selection of Mexican composers who worked very closely with him during the Young Composers Programme for the Development in the Area of Electroacoustic Music “Flight Practices”organized by the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Arts (CMMAS).

The last two concerts will be presented by the guest composers of the festival and by virtuosi musicians like Alex Bruck (alto), Alejandro Tello (oboe) and soprano Frances Lynch, who will perform Alejandro Viñao’s “Hildegard’s Dream” and “Chant d’Ailleurs” by Alejandro Viñao (two classicals of the electroacoustic repertoire).

All along the festival, the “Visiones Sonoras” International Electroacoustic Composition Meeting will be held by the main guests of the festival and will allow the audience and the composers selected through the international call made by CMMAS to assist to workshops, conferences and develope bonds with artists from different countries.

 “Visiones Sonoras” is presented by the Mexican Centre for Music and Sonic Artes through the support of the Ministry of Culture of the State of Michoacán (SECUM), the National Council for Arts and Culture (CONACULTA), the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the Conservatory of Las Rosas, the National Centre for the Arts, Instrumenta Oaxaca, the Vinculation Unit of UNAM, Campus Morelia, the Centre for Ecosystems Research (CIECO) and the Incubator Programme of the British Council.

All the information of this and past editions is available at www.visionessonoras.org.