Capdevila, Mercè

Mercè Capdevila, born in Barcelona, began her musical training at the Marshall Academy, the Conservatori del Liceu and, later, the Barcelona Municipal Conservatory of Music. She studied Plastic Arts at the Massana school of art and design (Barcelona) and at the Kunshand Werk Schule in Pforzheim (Germany), taught by Edward Mosny. She later trained in electroacoustic music under Gabriel Brncic at Laboratori Phonos in Barcelona and attended composition courses with Luigi Nono, J.M. Mestres-Quadreny, Corian Aharionan, Carmelo Bernaola and Luís de Pablo.

Her works have been performed at several music centres across Europe, Canada and the Americas. She has received commissions from the Associació Catalana de Compositors (Barcelona) and from the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s Centro para la Difusión de la Música Contemporánea (CDMC) (Centre for the Diffusion of Contemporary Music). She spent a year (1993-1994) working at the studios at NYU’s Aaron Copland School of Music, as well as at Queens College as guest composer.

She is currently working on multidisciplinary montages with sound, light, laser beam and poetry in various spaces with diverse characteristics. She also collaborates with other plastic artists and poets such as Eloi Puig, Gabriela Vargas, Ester Xargay, Eva Hibernia, Carles Hac Mor, Glòria Rognoni, Javi Palma and Egill Friedlaison.

She has released two monographic CDs of her works, with other works recorded on group CDs. She has recorded works for Radio Nacional de España, for Catalunya Música, Radio France, Radio Kolomna, Radio Moscow and St Petersburg’s Radio Neva-3. Several of her works have been published by Clivis, Dinsic, Periferia and Musica Studio.

She is a member of the Associació Catalana de Compositors and a founding member of the Asociación de Música Electroacústica de España. For ethical reasons, she has never participated in any competition, contest or award.