Biography
MARISA (MARÍA LUISA) MANCHADO TORRES (Madrid, 1956)
Composer, teacher, pianist and writer, educated at the Colegio Estilo y Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid; degree in Psychology (Complutense University and Comillas Pontifical University, in Madrid), Maîtrise and DEA in Music Sciences-Computer Assisted Composition, at Université Paris VIII-Saint Denis; PhD UCM-Madrid; researcher and disseminator on topics that relate music, society, women and feminism; PhD cum laude in Musicology from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM).
Deputy Principal of Teresa Berganza Conservatory of Madrid until 2017, where she was a teacher since 1994. Associate professor at the Faculty of Education of the Autonomous University of Madrid (2001-2004).
General Deputy Director of Music and Dance of the INAEM-Ministry of Culture (2007-2008).
Collaborator for Radio Nacional de España (RNE) Radio Dos (current Radio Clásica- RNE) with the program Women in music (1982-1983). Compiler of the first book in Spain that relates musical research and feminist theory (Music and women, gender and power, Madrid, Horas y horas (1998) and new edition, Ménades (2019). In 2023 he published his essay Mis Queridas Genias, in Editorial Huso.
As a composer, she has received numerous national and international commissions, as well as awards, including: National Music Award in the Composition category, 2024; Comuarte Ibero-American Music Award, 2007; Daniel Montorio National Award, 1995; Second prize in the 10th Cristóbal Halffter Organ Composition Competition, 1989; Final Degree Honor Mention in Composition, 1983.
Among the scholarships obtained, the following stand out: Darmstädter Ferienkurse (1982); EMS-Stockholm (1990); Ministry of Education of Spain (1990/1995); Manuel de Falla International Courses-Granada (1982/1984); Scholarship-Pensionary Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome (1995/1996); Center Acanthes-Paris- Avignon (1995/1999).
Among the commissions received, the most notable are: Spanish National Orchestra and Choir (2012 and 2026); Teatro Campoamor-Oviedo (2025); Morelia Festival-Mexico (2025); Teatro Real-Madrid (2023); Spanish National Choir (2023); Orchestra and Choir of the Community of Madrid (2021); Sacred Music Festival-Madrid (2019); Alicante International Music Festival (2015); Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid (2006); Guanajuato Festival-Mexico (2002); Chard Festival UK (2000); X and XI Havana Contemporary Music Festival (1997/1998); Ensemble Musiques Croisées-Paris (1996); Accademia Spagnola in Rome (1996); XX Manuel Enríquez International Forum of Contemporary Music, in Mexico City (1995); Compagnie Alternancia- Paris (1995).
As a composer, her catalog is very extensive, covering a total of more than 150 works including pedagogical music, chamber music, vocal music, symphonic music, opera and electroacoustics.
Among the latest most important premieres, the following stand out:
The Pink Tree, a work for choir, symphony orchestra and soprano soloist, with texts by Emilia Pardo Bazán and performed by the Orchestra of the Community of Madrid (ORCAM) and commissioned by the Spanish Association of Symphony Orchestras (AEOS) and the SGAE Foundation (September 16, 2021).
La Cité des dames, for female choir and piano based on texts from the book of the same name by Christine de Pizan, commissioned by the Satellite Cycle of the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain (OCNE) premiered the 13th March 2023-National Auditorium.
Her third opera La Regenta, produced by the Teatro Real in Madrid, together with the Teatro Español, based on the novel of the same name by Clarín, premiered 23th October 2023. This opera was nominated for the 2024 International Opera Awards and will be performed again at the Spanish Music Festival of the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo, 12th April 2025.
Her latest commission has been Un mar de hielo (A sea of ice), an orchestral suite from his third opera La Regenta, commissioned by the Spanish National Orchestra and premiered at the National Auditorium of Madrid the 10th-11th and 12th April 2026, with great critical and public success.
He is currently working on his fourth opera, Medea.
Madrid, May, 2026