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Alex Nante, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott
Ludwig van Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 3 C minor, Op. 37
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 107 «Reformation»
Alex Nante, composition
Rafał Blechacz, piano
Dresdner Philharmonie
Kent Nagano, conductor
Alex Nante cultivates a music that is both abstract and organic, whose primary value is this fusion between the concerted shimmering of instrumental effects and the overall meaning and architecture of the score: musical time and spiritual dramaturgy then merge admirably in a frenzied race of about 20 minutes, which constantly sparkles. Classique News, 4 September 2021
Alex Nante's extensive oeuvre is characterised by a nocturnal and dreamlike atmosphere that opens the door to a spiritual world. Born in Buenos Aires in 1992, he has already firmly established himself in the concert hall with his works, as demonstrated by his recent world premières: both for the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel and for the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano under Kent Nagano, he composed the orchestral works El Rio de Luz and O nata lux, which were performed with great success in 2022. This was followed in April 2024 by A Subtle Chain, performed by the orchestra Les Siècles under François-Xavier Roth with soprano Jodie Devos at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and composed during a residency for which he was invited to New York as the first winner of the Pizar Prize created by the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Villa Albertine and the Juilliard School.
The series of world premieres of large-scale works continues in the 2024/25 season: His Symphony No. 3 Anahata for soprano, baritone, choir and orchestra will be performed in June 2025 in the Elbphilharmonie with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra under the direction of its dedicatee Kent Nagano. It is inspired by spiritual traditions and texts centred around the heart as a universal symbol.
In 2021, his Sinfonía del cuerpo de luz, premiered during his residency at the Orchestre National de Lille and nominated for the Victoires de la musique classique, caused a sensation. This was followed in 2022 by Luz de lejos, a piano concerto for Alexandre Tharaud, which was performed in 2023 by the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn for its German premiere. The residency in Lille concluded with the premiere of Mysterium for narrator, soprano, tenor, choir and orchestra. In 2021, his first string quartet Prima Materia was premiered at the Lucerne Festival with the Quatuor Diotima, followed by Escenasy sueños premiered by the JACK Quartet.
The young Argentine, who is also trained as a guitarist, pianist, and conductor, has studied with George Benjamin, Peter Eötvös, Stefano Gervasoni, Luis Mucillo, Santiago Santero, and Daniel D'Adamo, earning degrees from the Conservatoire de Paris, the National University of the Arts of Argentina, Université Paris 8, the Conservatoire de Reims and the King's College London. The first major premieres of Alex Nante’s works took place in relation to his numerous early awards. These include compositions such as Fulgor, (1st Prize 2010 Daegu Contemporary Music Orchestra Competi-tion, South Korea), Tres sueños lúcidos (1st Prize “Guillermo Graetzer“ composition competition 2013, premiere with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional 2017), La pérégrination vers l’Ouest (Orchestre National d’Île de France, Composition Prize Île de Créations 2015) and Helles Bild (Sinfonieorchester Basel, Basel Composition Competition 2019). Several works were written in 2018 as part of the Peter Eötvös Mentoring Program; among others, the flute concerto de luz y sueño was premiered with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Two major commissions followed in 2019: Invocación was premiered by the Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon, and Las noches de las piedras was launched by Ensemble Musikfabrik under Peter Eötvös in Cologne. Also in 2019, Alex Nante received the Prix de composition de la Fondation Salabert for Estrella de la mañana, based on poems by Jacobo Fijman – an example of the influence of mystical poetry from East and West present in many of his vocal works.
Alex Nante is the founder and artistic director of the vocal ensemble Terra Lucida, which has set itself the task of performing sacred music from various traditions and thus contributing to interreligious and intercultural dialogue. The ensemble regularly performs in hospitals, works with various social projects and is committed to creating and strengthening community through music.
About his CD, Le Fil d'Ariane, which is a juxtaposition of his music with that of Pietro Locatelli made in collaboration with violinist Marianne Piketty and Le Concert Idéal, Le Monde wrote enthusiastically, "Each score page of our young contemporary is a masterpiece of sensitive diffrac-tion, as intelligently composed as it is deeply felt." Awards for the composer and his work include the “Gisela Timmermann” grant from the Mozarteum Argentino and the Ibermúsicas grant for composers. He is a laureate of the Fondation Banque Populaire, Académie Musical de Villecroze, Académie des Beaux-Arts – Institut de France, and Herrenhaus Edenkoben. Alex Nante's works are published by Durand/Universal Music Publishing Classical and Éditions Henry Lemoine.
2024/25 season
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions, or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
You can find a list of works by Alex Nante here or on Durand Salabert Eschig website.
“[The heart’s] energy became perceptible in Nante’s composition through constant sounds and movements as life energy, without its beat clumsily pushing into the foreground. Rather, the symphony turned into an emotional bath in the stream of being – which Nagano kept under tension. […] The texts for the symphony come from both Eastern and Western traditions. […] Nante added his own poetry to the traditional texts. Particularly impressive: the choir set itself in motion in the epilogue, walking through the Elbphilharmonie between the audience.”
Welt, Stefan Grund, 1 July 2025 – on Anāhata, premiere on 29 June 2025 at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
“Alex Nante’s Anāhata, a luminous meditation on spiritual awakening and human connectedness. […] The large orchestral forces – augmented by soprano Mojca Erdmann, baritone Evan Hughes, organ and the radiant Audi Jugendchorakademie – created a lush sound world. With a restrained harmonic language and slow harmonic shifts, the music felt both contemporary and timeless. At times, it evoked the atmosphere of a candlelit chant in a stone pilgrimage chapel, echoing the mystic sensuality of Szymanowski. The music writing, as Nante wished, is indeed very communicative. The performance was striking for its emotional sincerity.”
Bachtrack.com, Mengguang Huang, 29 June 2025 – on Anāhata, premiere at Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
“Alex Nante cultivates a music that is both abstract and organic, whose primary value is this fusion between the concerted shimmering of instrumental effects and the overall meaning and architecture of the score: musical time and spiritual dramaturgy then merge admirably in a frenzied race of about 20 minutes, which constantly sparkles.”
Classique News, Alexandre Pham, 24 September 2021
“[…] each page of our young contemporary is a masterpiece of sensitive diffraction, as intelligently written as deeply felt […]”
Le Monde, Pierre Gervasoni, 17 May 2019
Sinfonía del cuerpo de luz (2021)
Interview on Las noches de las piedras
Helles Bild, 2018
2nd Prize, Basel Composition Competition 2019. Inspired by Wassily Kandinsky's painting "Helles Bild" (1913)
Invocation, 2017
Piano solo
Estrella de la mañana – ocho canciones sobre poemas de Jacobo Fijman, 2019
Based on Jacobo Fijman's book "Estrella de la mañana " (1931)
Alex Nante: Luz de lejos – concerto for piano and orchestra
Alexandre Tharaud, piano · Orchestre national de Lille · Emilia Hoving, direction
Erato/Warner Classics 5021732491855, 2025
Alex Nante: Luz de otoño for recorder
Tabea Debus, recorders · Tom Foster, harpsichord/positive organ
TYXart TXA24191, 2025
Alex Nante: Bajo la estrella – concerto for violin and strings · arrangements of works by Lili Boulanger and Eugène Ysaÿe
Le Concert Idéal · Marianne Piketty, violin and direction
Evidence EVCD091, 2022
Alex Nante: Invocation for piano
Maroussia Gentet, piano
B Records LBM022, 2020
Alex Nante: Altro castello for saxophone quartet
Ensemble Rayuela
DUX 1635, 2020
Alex Nante: Arianna for solo violin, harpsichord and strings
Evidence EVCD053, 2019
Alex Nante: Ocho variaciones sobre la imagen de un sueño für Flöte, Fagott und Klavier
Ana Mainer Martín, flute · Carmen Mainer Martín, bassoon · Enrique Escartín Ara, piano
Brilliant Classics 95761, 2018