| Hector Armienta |
| Hector Armienta has received numerous awards and commissions, including those from: Meet the Composer CA, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts International, the California Arts Council, the American Composers Forum, Opera Pacific, the City of Los Angeles, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Pacific Symphony. Recently, he received a commission from the Oakland East Bay Symphony as part of the Words & Music Project (and funded by The James Irvine Foundation). This world premiere will bring together the creative forces of composer Hector Armienta and several young poets, who will be selected by California Poets in the Schools. Though he has written several works for orchestra, chorus, and voice, his passion lies in composing bilingual operas for youth and adults, such as Un Camino De Fe/A Journey of Faith and Los Coyotes y las Conejas/The Coyotes and the Rabbits, and Zapata ( a work in progress). These operas have been performed by several organizations, such as Opera Pacific, Forth Worth Opera and the Music Theater Collaborative. Currently, he is developing his most ambitious project, an music theater trilogy. The second installment of that trilogy, River of Women/Rio De Mujeres was presented at San Francisco’s Theater Artaud in May of 2001 by Theater Artaud and the Music Theater Collaborative. He is now in the process of completing the first installment of the opera trilogy, La Llorona/The Weeping Woman, which will premiere at the Western Stage Theater in 2008. The La Llorona project received a 2007 National Endowment for the Arts Grant: Access to Artistic Excellence. The theme of all of these works revolves around the spiritual element of water and how myths and legends affect the lives of women today. River of Women told the story of Mr. Armienta’s grandmother and her desperate attempt to escape the life she was born into. As an artist and as Mexican American, Mr. Armienta tries to find balance between the culture he was born into and the one that is his ancestry. In the process, he has created work that is able transcend cultural and racial boundaries. His stories are universal ones, but ones that are seen through a unique cultural perspective In addition he was founder and artistic director of Music Theater Collaborative (MTC) in San Francisco (1997 - 2006), whose mission it was to create and produce high caliber music theater and opera that is multicultural and multigenerational, acting as a bridge between new work and new audiences, and which draws on universal themes. He holds a Bachelor of music from California Institute of the Arts and under the tutelage of Maestro Conrad Susa, received a Master in Music Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. |
| Biography |
"Mr. Armienta is a gifted composer and
in addition to having an excellent ear for
both music and language, he takes
great care to be an artist who acts
responsibly in the context of the larger
community."
Maestro Michael Morgan
Music Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony
in addition to having an excellent ear for
both music and language, he takes
great care to be an artist who acts
responsibly in the context of the larger
community."
Maestro Michael Morgan
Music Director of the Oakland East Bay Symphony