Torrents, Mercè

Mercè Torrents was born in Barcelona, she was daughter of the known Catalan cellist and music promoter Joan Torrents i Maymir, from who she inherits the great creativity. She studies piano in the Conservatoire of the Liceo de Barcelona with maestro Pere Vallribera and she gets the best qualifications. Self-taught in composition, she receives, however, teaching from Cristòfor Taltabull. Her works have received the acknowledgement from maestros Eduard Toldrà, Ricard Lamote de Grignon, Joaquim Zamacois and most recently Joan Guinjoan.
She has composed pieces for piano, for instrumental groups of different composition, for chamber orchestra and for cobla. She has put music, both for choral and soloist voice and piano, to the poems of several Catalan poets such as Josep Carner, Salvador Espriu, Pere Quart, Miquel Martí Pol and J. V. Foix, this last one expressing his gratitude and enthusiasm for the musicality of his compositions.
She has put music to Salvador Espriu’s poem Llibre de Sinera (1968) by means of an oratorio, to the work Final del Laberint by means of gospel and also to La Pell de Brau (1983), as well as to other poems. She has also put music to the First Part of the Miquel Martí Pol’s book Els Bells Camins by means of voice and piano, and to the Second Part by means of musical illustrations for piano and recitative.
Her work has been performed by singers such as Mercè Bibiloni, Francesca Callao, Assumpta Serra, Anna Ricci, Mª. Àngels Sarroca, Núria Feliu, Dolors Lafitte, Marina Rossell, Núria Batlle, Dolors Martí, Anton Carrera and Celdoni Fonoll, and also by the Choral Càrmina.
She has recorded several discs and as of 1989 she is a member of the Catalan Association of Composers.