Born in Barcelona in 1980, Sergi Casanelles has received a versatile education: He studied Harmony and Theory of Music (2002) and the piano (2003) to degree level at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu. In 2007, he obtained a further high qualification in composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and during 2008 he finished degree studies in Information technology at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). In 2004 and 2005 he studied at the Rimsky-Korsakov Saint Petersburg State Conservatory, taking part in the Special training courses program. During his time in St. Petersburg he premiered his work Three Sketches in Scherzo Form, in a concert which paid tribute to the Russian pianist Leonid Sintsev.
He studied piano with Leonid Sintsev, composition with Carles Guinovart and Dr. Salvador Brotons and orchestration with Albert Guinovart and Bernat Vivancos. He also studied electronic composition with Dr. Eduard Resina and film scoring with Arnau Bataller and Lluís Vergés.
He has written works for piano, chamber music, concertos for soloist and orchestra, and works for orchestra and choir. His concertos for piano, violin, electric guitar and clarinet are particularly notable. His works have been played in concert halls such as the Symphonic Hall of Barcelona's L'Auditori or in Cleveland (USA) and Saint Petersburg (Russia). In 2004, his work Postlude to Chopin's f minor Fantasy won a prize at the COM Radio Tutto awards, and he was commissioned to write a guitar concerto, which was premiered at the closing concert of the Tutto awards the following year.
Sergi Casanelles (*Barcelona, 1980)
Composer, Computer scientist
At present, he lives in New York.
He mainly works in Catalonia and USA.
In 2008, he won the III composition competition Evaristo Fernández Blanco with the piece Des de l’Infern: 4 escenes de la Divina Commedia de Dante Alighieri for orchestra, which was performed for the first time at the 21st Festival de Música Española de León, with the Orquesta de Castilla y León under the baton of Rubén Gimeno.
He is the artistic director of ConjuntXXI!, a group of young musicians which is dedicated to the production and creation of musical activities, and to chamber symphonism (ensemble versions of orchestral works). With ConjuntXXI! he has orchestrated many works for instrumental ensemble concerts.
He works with the music publishers Brotons & Mercadal as a music editor and is also a java/web developer for Justinmind S.L.. Some of his works are published by Brotons & Mercadal.
In september 2009, he began a new life in New York, attending to the Masters Degree in Film Composition at the New York University (NYU).
