Javier Álvarez

There are two artists by this name. One is a Spanish singer-songwriter, the other a Mexican electroacoustic composer. 1) Born in Cuatro Caminos (Madrid) 1969, his musical influences come more from the pop than from traditional song-writters. His influences are ABBA, Michael Jackson, James Taylor, The Eagles, Tracy Chapman, Nanci Griffith, Suzanne Vega and Emmylou Harris. He begins to study English Philology, and in 1991 it will spend months in London, where it begins to dedicate himself to music. When he returns to Spain he started singing in the Madrid subway and in El Retiro park, then singing on pubs and coffees like the mythical Libertad 8, where he meet other singers like Pedro Guerra. In 1994 he records his first LP, that will count with the collaboration of artists like Ana Belén, Víctor Manuel, Luis Pastor, Pedro Guerra or Rogelio Botanz. Songs like "La edad del porvenir" or "Uno, dos, tres, cuatro", will catapult him to the fame. Also it will record a cover of the song "Las casas de cartón", theme from the venezuelan songwritter Alí Primera. In 1999, his LP "Tres", where he experiences with electronic sounds and "more radical" letters, will undergo the censorship from part of the main musical radios. After the edition of "Tres" it has a series of problems with the record house EMI-Chrysalis (which criticized one of the songs of the disc) reason why breaks with it. Its following disc was published with DRO; one is "Grandes éxitos", singing covers from other artists. 2) Javier Álvarez (born 1956, Mexico City) is a Mexican composer who is known for creating works that combine a variety of international musical styles and traditions that often utilize unusual instruments and new music technologies. His works have been performed throughout the world by such ensembles as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Mexico City Philharmonic, and the Orchestre National de France among others. He also notably composed the music for Guillermo del Toro's acclaimed 1993 horror film Cronos. Composer John Adams stated, "The music of Javier Alvarez reveals influences of popular cultures that go beyond the borders of our own time and place."[1] A graduate of the Royal College of Music and City University London, Álvarez has received numerous prizes and honors including a Mendelssohn Scholarship, the Lionel Robbins Award, a Gemini Fellowship, the ICEM Prize (1987), Austria’s Prix Ars Electronica (1993), and awards at the Bourges International Festival. From 1993-1999 he was a Fellow of the Mexican Endowment for the Arts and Culture. He was a founding member of Sonic Arts Network and served as the Artistic Director of the Society for the Promotion of New Music in 1993. He has been a member of the music faculties of the City University London, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Malmö Music Academy, the Royal College of Music, and the University of Hertfordshire. He lived in England from 1982 through 2007 and now resides in Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico where he is the founding director of the Musical Arts Department of the Escuela Superior de Artes de Yucatán. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.