Alcides Lanza

"My music reflects a cross fertilization of cultures between North and South America ... With a career spanning nearly fifty years, from the wildly experimental sixties to the more reflective nineties, I am currently interested in exploring my cultural and musical roots."

Alcides Lanza is a pianist and composer of electronic, instrumental, and theater music. He is also a musical director, co-directing GEMS, a performance ensemble integrating acoustical instruments, interactive electronics and musical theater.

His music has been commissioned and performed by actress-singer Meg Sheppard, pianists Hugo Goldenzweig and Arminda Canteros, the Municipal Chamber Orchestra, Santos Symphony Orchestra, McGill Concert Choir, and guitarist Alvaro Pierri at Nachtkonzert Festival (St. Sebald, Germany), Swedish Academy of Music, Alice Tully Hall (New York), ICMC (Banff and Aarhus), ISEA (Montreal), Festival da Musica Nova (Brasil), Festival de Musica Contemporanea (Alicante, Spain), and New Music America-Montreal. He has received awards and honors from Consejo Interamericano de MÅsica, Canada Council for the Arts, Government of Canada, Deutscher Akademischer Austaunsdienst, and Guggenheim Foundation.

Alcides Lanza is currently EMS Director Emeritus at McGill University, Montreal.