Episode 11: Transcending Time and Musicalizing Silence with Orlando Garcia

In this interview, Orlando Jacinto Garcia discusses his compositional style, which focuses on creating music that unfolds slowly and freezes time for the listener. He also shares his memories of working with composer Morton Feldman and reflects on the evolution of Miami’s contemporary music scene over the past 50 years. The episode features some of Garcia’s multimedia works, which incorporate videos, dancers, poetry, and unique instruments, as well as his works that pay homage to victims of the Second World War.

About Orlando Jacinto Garcia

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1954, Orlando Jacinto Garcia migrated to the United States in 1961. With a prolific portfolio of over 200 compositions spanning various performance genres, including interdisciplinary works in film, video, and dance, as well as site-specific and electronic pieces for orchestra, choir, soloists, and chamber ensembles, Garcia has firmly established himself as a prominent figure in the realm of new music and contemporary classical music. Critics have lauded the unique essence of his compositions, often characterized as “time-suspended sonic explorations,” a quality honed through his tutelage under Morton Feldman and other influential mentors.

Renowned as a guest composer, he has received numerous accolades and distinctions from various esteemed organizations and institutions including the Rockefeller, Fulbright, Knight, Civitella, Bogliasco, and Cintas Foundations, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, State of Florida, MacDowell and Millay Colony, and the Ariel, Noise International, Matiz Rangel, Nuevas Resonancias, Salvatore Martirano, and Bloch International Competitions.

Most recently, he has garnered 5 Latin Grammy nominations in the Best Contemporary Classical Composition Category (2009-11, 2015, 2021). With performances at prestigious venues worldwide by acclaimed musicians, his compositions are published on New Albion, O.O. Discs, CRI /New World, Albany, North/South, CRS, Rugginenti, VDM, Capstone, Innova, CNMAS, Opus One, Telos, Toccata Classics, and Metier/Divine Art.

Garcia’s book recommendation to our listeners

Give My Regards to Eighth Street (Exact Change) by Morton Feldman

Find more about Orlando Jacinto Garcia

Garcia’s website

New Music Miami ISCM Festival

Una Marea Creciente (A Rising Tide) – A multi-disciplinary non-narrative opera by Orlando Garcia