Guillermo Alonso Iriarte Composer
GUILLERMO ALONSO IRIARTE is a pianist and teacher — but above all, a composer. He studied with Ramón Coll and Josep Colom, and received guidance from Dr. Rosalyn Tureck, who selected him as her only student. He trained with her at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy, during the “Settimana Bach” in 1997, and later visited her in Oxford (UK) for further musical exchange.
He has been awarded several major prizes, including First Prize at Spain’s Infanta Cristina–Trofeo Loewe Piano Competition (1988), and First Prize in both the Junior and Senior divisions of the Marisa Montiel Competition in Linares. In 1987, he was a finalist in the European Broadcasting Union’s Young Musician Competition, where he also appeared on the television program Musiquísimos (TVE1). Further accolades include Third Prize at the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona (Piano Juniors, 1989), and a unanimous Honorable Mention at the Kawai–Caja Postal Award in 1989, when he was only 15 years old — in a competition with an upper age limit of 25. At age 18, he became a tenured professor of piano at Spain’s Professional Conservatories of Music, having passed the national public service examination in 1992.
As a composer, his Diez Nocturnos para piano were edited, compiled, and published in 2022 by EMEC in Madrid. These ten pieces offer an intimate and autobiographical glimpse into the evolution of his musical language over the past two decades. The collection has been published in two volumes (Nos. 1–5 and 6–10), and also released in digital formats as individual works. In autumn 2023, he joined the roster of composers published by the Austrian firm Universal Edition.
During the 2000s, he had the privilege of working with the distinguished pianist Maria João Pires, who premiered part of his work during her Spanish tour with duo partner Ricardo Castro, culminating in a performance at the Ciclo de Grandes Intérpretes organized by the Fundación Scherzo and El País in May 2004. This collaboration left a profound mark on his artistic direction, enriched by Pires’s ethical and aesthetic ideals and her lifelong artistic example.
Artistic Statements
“I would like to recommend Guillermo Alonso Iriarte as an exceptional talent for collaboration. I only recently encountered his music, and I was immediately struck by his outstanding ability to create powerful compositions. In our time, it is rare to hear new music that sounds so fresh and, at the same time, speaks so directly and sincerely to our emotions. I have great hopes for this young man and am convinced that a significant future lies ahead of him.”
Andrei Gavrilov (Pianist)
Andrei Gavrilov (Pianist)
“Guilherme is a man of extraordinary sensitivity and intuition. I would say he puts these qualities at the service of music, life, and others on a daily basis. His intelligence and clarity of mind, combined with a keen sense of synthesis and a broad cultural foundation, are the elements that shape all of his work. – Passionately devoted to composition, he continues to make steady progress in this creative process.”
Maria João Pires (Pianist)
Maria João Pires (Pianist)
“It gave me great satisfaction to see that you are on the right path, and that your musical ideas—within the context of contemporary music—possess an internal sense of tradition. Your surprising modulations will lead you to the development of your own artistic voice.”
Alicia de Larrocha (Pianist)
Alicia de Larrocha (Pianist)
“I have known Guillermo Alonso Iriarte for many years, and since then I have followed his professional career with great interest, as I have always admired him as a remarkable musician—both as a pianist and as a composer. Despite his youth, we are not speaking here of a future promise, but of a present reality: he possesses a vast knowledge base and an original creativity that make him a composer of the first rank.”
Guillermo González (Professor of Piano, Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid)
Guillermo González (Professor of Piano, Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid)
“I dispense with everything when I approach music. And when I do so with his music, above and beyond its formal rules, I let myself be carried away by its unaffected, instinctive and explicit nature and its great communicative value.”
Xavier Montsalvatge (Composer)
Xavier Montsalvatge (Composer)
