LaFi Publishers, Ltd.

Latin American Frontiers International Publishers, Ltd.

Efraín Amaya

American composer and conductor Efraín Amaya was born in Venezuela, where he began his musical training. Continuing his studies in the United States, he earned degrees in composition and piano from the University of Indiana, Bloomington, and a master’s degree in conducting from Rice University.

Amaya's compositions have been selected for performance at major international Festivals such as the Seattle Symphony's Viva la Música Festival: the American Composers Orchestra Festival of Venezuelan Music at Weill Recital Hall; The "XVII Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez" in Mexico City; The VIII and XI "Festival Latinoamericano de Música" in Caracas, Venezuela; the 31st and 29th Annual National Flute Association Conventions in Nashville, Tennessee and in Dallas, Texas; the Gala Concert of the Jeanne Baxtresser International Master Classes at Carnegie Mellon University and the Juilliard School, in Boston on the Modern Orchestra Project recital series.

Efraín Amaya received a 2004 Fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and has been a Meet The Composer Composer-in-Residence with Gateway to the Arts, WQED-FM, Renaissance City Wind Music Society and Shaler School District from September of 2001 to September 2004, made possible by Meet The Composer, Inc. and its New Residencies program. In Western Pennsylvania, the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, the Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University Contemporary Ensembles have performed his music. It has also been included in the Sewickley Bachfest, the Shadyside Concert Series and the Renaissance City Winds concert series. His opera Clepsydra was premiered as part of the "First Night" celebrations in Pittsburgh as a collaborative multimedia performance for tape, live performers, and edited video projection, sponsored by the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh and the Heinz Endowment. Élan Recordings released his debut CD "A Sense of Time" on June 1, 2001. Albany Records released in 2004 the two cello version recording of Silent Conversations in a CD entitled Zoo of Dreams featuring the Amici Chamber Players.

Mr. Amaya is a member of the School of Music faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. He is the Music Director and Conductor of the Greensburg America Opera as well as the founder and Music Director of The Point Chamber Orchestra, which made its debut performance during the summer of 2006 with a tour of seven concerts in Italy, performing in venues such as the Fenice Theater in Venice, the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and the Parco della Musica in Rome. Last season, guest-conducting appearances included the Washington Symphony Orchestra of Pennsylvania and the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil del Estado de Veracruz in Xalapa, Mexico. Recent work includes Four Xanadu, a piece for string quartet and dancers (Pennsylvania Dance
Theater 2008); and Phantasmagorilla? No! Phantasmagoria, a children’s opera commissioned by Gateway to the Arts and Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, 2007 and was recently released on a CD along with Clepsydra by Albany Records.

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