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; researcher and disseminator on topics that relate music, society, women and feminism; Doctor cum laude in Musicology from the Complutense University of Madrid. Vice director of the “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). Deputy Director General of Music and Dance of the INAEM-Ministry of Culture (2007-2008). Collaborator for Radio Nacional de España (RNE) Radio Dos (current Radio Clásica) 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, Editorial Horas y Horas (1998) and new edition in 2019, Madrid, Editorial Ménades). 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: Ministry of Education of Spain; Darmstadt International Contemporary Music Meetings; Manuel de Falla International Courses in Granada; Center Acanthes in Paris; Scholarship-Pensionary from the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome; X and XI Havana Contemporary Music Festival; XX Manuel Enríquez International Forum of Contemporary Music, in Mexico City; Chard Festival UK.
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 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 for the Satellite Cycle of the National Orchestra and Choir of Spain (OCNE) premiered in March 2023 at the National Auditorium; his 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 in 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, in April 2025.
Madrid, January, 2025
