Dr. Juan Carlos Vasquez is an award-winning composer, sound artist, and researcher. His electroacoustic music works are performed constantly around the world and to date have premiered in more than 30 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Vasquez has received grants, awards, and/or commissions from numerous institutions, including the ZKM, the International Computer Music Association, the Sibelius Academy Foundation, the Nokia Research Center, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, the Arts Promotion Centre in Finland, the Finnish National Gallery, and CW+ in partnership with the Royal College of Music in London, UK. Some of the events and venues that have featured Vasquez’s works include Ars Electronica (AU), Ateneum Art Museum (FI), The New York City Library for Performing Arts (Lincoln Center, NY, USA), the Berklee College of Music, Matera Intermedia Festival (IT), Sonorities Festival Belfast (UK), BEAST FEaST (UK), New Music Miami ISCM Festival (USA) and the Seoul International Computer Music Festival (KR), along with a diverse number of academic events held by universities across the globe. Juan Carlos is also sponsored by Genelec, the world leader in studio monitors, and is a member of the Society of Finnish Composers. He is currently an Assistant Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
As a researcher, Vasquez’s writings can be found in the Computer Music Journal (MIT Press), Leonardo Music Journal (MIT Press), and the proceedings of all the standard conferences of the field (ICMC, CHI, SMC, and NIME). Vasquez received his education at the Sibelius Academy (FI), Aalto University (FI), and the University of Virginia (US). He has taken workshops with Barry Truax, Robert Normandeau, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Miller Puckette, Marco Stroppa, Steven Stucky, William Mival, Jonty Harrison and the Eighth Blackbird Ensemble, among others. Vasquez’s scores are published by Babel Scores, and his music is distributed by Naxos, MIT Press (US), Important Records (US) and Phasma Music (Poland).
In 2014, The Sibelius Birth Town Foundation, Sibhack, and the Ateneum Museum (Finnish National Gallery) commissioned Vasquez to compose an electroacoustic rendition to Jean Sibelius’ Romance Op. 24 No.9, as part of the official 150th anniversary of the Finnish composer’s birth. In 2016, Vasquez was awarded the “Contemporary Music Composition Grant” by the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, and an Award in “Excellence in Art, Design and the Production of Sound” by the Audio Engineering Society’s (AES) president and the AES Student section in Hamburg during the Klingt Gut! Symposium on Sound in Germany. Also in 2016, Vasquez’ received the Dean’s Grant in Aalto University, the award for exceptional achievements reserved for only one person per graduation of a Masters’ Degree. In 2017, Vasquez received a music composition grant by the Finnish government (Taike), and in 2018, Vasquez was granted a fully-funded 5-year award to pursue doctoral studies at the McIntire Department of Music of the University of Virginia.
Later, in 2019, Vasquez was invited to Finland to be awarded as Primus Master at the Conferment Ceremony of the Aalto University School of Arts, Design, and Architecture. In 2020, Vasquez received a distinction as an exceptional peer reviewer by the Leonardo Journal (MIT Press), and in 2021, based on the merit of his dissertation, Vasquez was the recipient of the Jefferson Fellowship, the premier graduate fellowship offered at the University of Virginia. In 2022 his piece “Channel Zero” was ‘highly commended’ at the Sound of the Year Awards 2021 in the category “Composed with Sound”, and in 2023 Vasquez was recognized as the winner of the “Best Computer Music” award at the Latin American Showcase of the International Computer Music Association for his piece, “Maquina M.”
Other spaces supporting the diffusion of his work include the University of Oxford (Ashmolean LiveFriday 2017), Aalborg University (NIME 2017), Queensland Conservatorium (NIME 2016), HKU University of the Arts Utrecht (ICMC 2016), University of North Texas (ICMC 2015), New York University (SID 2015 and ICMC 2019), University of Kent (Symposium of Acoustic Ecology), Wesleyan University (Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States 2014 National Conference), Leeds College of Music (International Festival for Artistic Innovation), Salone Internazionale del Mobile 2012, Helsinki Music Center / Sibelius Academy, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Deep Listening Institute, and the Electronic Language International Festival (FILE – Brazil).