Soundologia Episode Cover Page Orlando Garcia
Orlando Garcia at the Soundologia Podcast

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

To Contact Orlando Garcia, send an email to:

orlando@orlandojacintogarcia.com

garciao@fiu.edu

Tags
Share your love
Pedja Kovačević
Pedja Kovačević

Pedja Kovačević is a Serbian-born musicologist, curator, and music producer, and the founder of Soundologia — a curatorial platform, record label, podcast, and festival dedicated to contemporary and experimental music. He moved to the United States in 2018 and holds degrees in musicology from the Faculty of Music, University of Arts in Belgrade, and in Music Management and Production from Florida International University’s School of Music.

As curator and executive producer of the Soundologia Anthology series, Pedja has commissioned, produced, and released three volumes documenting the work of South Florida’s contemporary composers and sound artists, presented in connection with the Soundologia Anthology Festival in Miami. He has taught experimental and electroacoustic music at FIU’s School of Music and has worked as a program coordinator and music administrator at music and arts schools in Miami.

As a musicologist and music writer, Pedja has published articles and presented research at international conferences and forums in the United States, Poland, Greece, and Serbia. His writing explores the relationship between music and other art forms, including painting, architecture, poetry, prose, and photography, as well as questions of listening, sound, and musical perception. His research has also examined Deep Listening, a concept introduced by American composer Pauline Oliveros, as a way of reconsidering the aesthetic dimensions of sound. Through Soundologia, Pedja promotes contemporary and experimental music and presents extended conversations with composers and sound artists about their work.

Articles: 24

Related Episodes

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *