Biography
Carlos Bandera is a composer based in Greeley, Colorado, whose music explores the expressive potential of contextualization and transformation of musical materials. He often expands simple elements into large-scale, glacially unfolding musical structures, through which he explores the interplay of harmony, noise, and texture.
Bandera’s orchestral work Materia Prima, which was premiered in 2023 at Carnegie Hall by the American Composers Orchestra, was described by the New York Classical Review as having “one of the most immersive and elegant transitions from nothingness to complexity that one has heard.” His music has been performed by groups such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American Composers Orchestra, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Westside Chamber Players, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, the ~Nois and Cerus saxophone quartets, Ensemble Linea, Hotel Elefant, Earspace, Hebrides Ensemble, Nebula Ensemble, and Omnibus Ensemble. In 2022, his piece Meristem was performed by the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra during their “On the Road” tour across South East England.
He has been a fellow at Copland House’s CULTIVATE, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s DeGaetano Composition Institute, Composers Conference, and the Underwood New Music Readings. He has also been a resident composer at the Black House Collective New Music Workshop and has attended the Delian Academy for New Music and Time of Music (Musiikin aika). His music has been performed at festivals and conferences such as the 21st Thailand International Composition Festival in Salaya, Thailand, New Music on the Bayou, the 34th International Review of Composers in Belgrade, Serbia, NUNC! 6, the Ear Taxi Festival, the Midwest Graduate Music Consortium’s 29th annual conference, the American Music Festival, the Walden School’s Young Musicians Program, and the Remus Georgescu International Music Festival in Timișoara, Romania. He has been awarded the Otto Ortmann Award in Composition, the William T. Faricy Award, and was a winner of the Remus Georgescu International Music Festival Competition. He has received recognitions from the American Prize, Tribeca New Music, the RED NOTE Composition Competition, and the Cortona Prize.
Bandera holds a PhD in Composition and Music Technology from Northwestern University, an MM in Composition from the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, and a BM in Theory/Composition from Montclair State University. His mentors have included Hans Thomalla, Alex Mincek, Kevin Puts, Elizabeth Brown, Dean Drummond, and Marcos Balter. While at Northwestern, Bandera taught independent studies in composition and courses in aural skills, composition, and notation software, and he has also served as an Instructor of Music at Northeastern Illinois University.