About
José Rafael Pascual Vilaplana, also known as Pascual Vilaplana, was born in Muro de Alcoy, Alicante, in 1971. He is a contemporary Spanish composer, music educator and band director.
Biography
Born on April 30, 1971 in Muro (Alicante) where he began his musical studies with the horn and piano in the Musical Union of Muro, being his teachers Salvador Martínez and Mª Ángeles Palacios.
Later he continued his professional studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Alcoi and at the Conservatory Superior of Valencia. Since 1988, he has studied Band Management with the Dutch teacher Jan COBER, taking several advanced courses in band direction with Eugene CORPORON (University of North Texas). In 1993 he was selected in the specialty of Orchestra Conducting within the "Wiener Musikseminar" in Vienna, studying with Karl ÖSTERREICHER and Yuji YUHASA. In 1994, he attended the management classes of James CROFT in Chicago at the "47th. Mid West Band and Orchestra Clinic". In 1995 he obtained the Orchestra Conducting Diploma of the "Wiener Meisterkurse für Musik" at the Vienna Higher School of Music, with the teacher Hans GRAF. He has expanded management knowledge in various courses with professors such as José Collado, Gerardo Pérez Busquier or Norman Milanés. In 2004, he conducted a Master Class in Orchestra Conducting with the prestigious Georges Pehlivanian and the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra in Ljubljana.
Career
He has worked as director of several bands in Alicante (Castell de Castells and Muro) and Valencia (UM de Yátova), highlighting his activity in the group of Traditional Music "La Xafigà" (1988-1996), the Band of the Associació Unió Musical de Bocairent (1994-1998), in the Band of the Artistic-Musical Group "The Work" of Xixona (1995-2002), in the Band of the Societat Unió Musical de Muro (2002-2007) and in the Band of the Musical Society "La Nova" of Játiva (2007-2009). From 2001 to 2014 he has been the principal conductor of the Albacete Symphony Orchestra. He has been guest conductor of the National Band of Cuba, Bands of the Tilburg Conservatory, Municipal Bands of Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Castellón, A Coruña, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Pontevedra, Sta. Cruz de Tenerife, Santander, Santiago de Compostela , and Vitoria, Municipal Band of Matanzas (Cuba), Municipal Band of Buenos Aires (Argentina), Band of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the University of Buenos Aires, Band of the Royal Dutch Navy of Rotterdam, Band of the Superior Conservatory of Canarias, Banda y Orquesta del CS of the Principality of Asturias, Band of MUSIKENE, Band of the Superior Conservatory of Jaén, Symphonic Band of Sta. Maria da Feira (Portugal), Symphonic Band of Bairrada (Portugal), Portuguese Symphonic Band of Porto, Jungend Blassorchester of Bavaria, AULOS Wind Band of Switzerland, Civica Filarmonica di Lugano, Band of the Armed Forces of Slovenia, Band of the Professional Conservatory of Albacete, Band of the Conservatory of Tortosa, Band of the Conservatory of Calahorra, Band of the Conservatory of Pontevedra, Band and Orchestra of the Conservatory of Almansa, Band of the Federation of Musical Societies of the Valencian Federation (2002 season holder), Band of the Murcian Federation of Bands, Band of the Navarre Federation of Bands, Band of the Diputación de Tarragona, Symphony Orchestra of Matanzas, Symphony Orchestra of Bucharest (Romania ), Chamber Orchestra "Manuel de Falla" of Cádiz, Choir of the University of Cádiz, Symphony Orchestra of Albacete, Sinf Orchestra Nica de Castellón, Symphony Orchestra of Murcia, Symphony Orchestra of Vallés, Camera Musicae Orchestra of Tarragona (principal guest conductor 2010-2013), as well as various band bands from the Valencian Community, Galicia, Canary Islands, Castilla La Mancha, Murcia, Catalonia ...
He has collaborated as a director with soloists such as Jorgen van Rijen, Ben van Dijk, Spanish Brass, Ximo Vicedo, Luis González, Pedro Valero, Yulia Nefiodova, Pablo Suárez, Josep Trescolí, Ashan Pillai, Luisa Pereira, Lito Fontana, ... So In lyrical productions he has worked with singers such as Ana Mª Sánchez, Amparo Navarro, María Ribera, Cristina Sánchez, Ruth Rosique, Andeka Gorrotxategui, Andrés del Pino, Alberto Arrabal, Javier Agulló,…
He is a composer of various works for band and instrumental ensemble, some of his works appearing in the Piles Publishing House, Albadhoc Publishing House, Rivera Editions, Tot per l'Aire Publishing House, EGC Editions and the Omnes Bands Publishing House in Valencia. He regularly participates as a jury in different composition competitions for Banda (Altea, Bocairent, Benidorm, Callosa, Calpe, Elda, Pego, Dènia, Algemessí, Sant Vicent del Raspeig ...). He has been appointed International Jury of the National Bands Contest of Switzerland held in the city of Montreux in 2001, the Contest of Management of Pordenone (Italy, 2006), the Contest of Bands of the Italian Switzerland in Lugano (2009), of the Contest International Management of the WMC of Kerkrade (2010), of the Contest of Management of La Toscana (Italy, 2010), of the National Contest of Bands of Colombia in the city of Paipa, (2010), of the International Contest “Flicorno d'Oro” of Riva del Garda (Italy, 2014), as well as jury of the Provincial Bands of Alicante (2001) and Castellón (2002) and of the Contest of Bands of La Senia (2006). He has written commissioned works for groups such as Spanish Brass Luur Metalls, 2i2 Quartet, Ximo Vicedo, Luis González, Juan C. Matamoros, Francisco González Azorín,. In 2006 he premiered his musical Balansiyyà with lyrics by Carlos Veiga, performing in Valencia, Torrevieja, Madrid and Rabat (Morocco), guest conductor in the Colombian Youth Symphonic Band on the margin of the Celebra la Música project (2015).
Currently
Since January 2015 he is artistic director of the Municipal Music Band of Bilbao. He is also director of the Orchestra of Vents Filharmonia and principal principal guest conductor of the UCAM Symphony Orchestra of Murcia. He is artistic director and professor of the Musical Improvement Courses of the Istituto Musicale Guido Alberto Fano of Spilimnbergo (Italy) since 2007. Since 1995 he is a professor at the Regional School of Music of the Vall d'Albaida, from 1999 to 2004 at the Academy "Allegro" from Valencia and from 2002 to 2007 at l'ECM of the Comtat. He is a member of the SGAE, a founding member of the Association of Composers ACMMIC (Association of Music Compositors of Moros i Cristians), a member of WASBE (World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles) and COSICOVA (Association of Valencian Symphonic Composers).