Rodríguez Picó, Jesús

He was born in Barcelona in 1953 and studied music at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu, where he obtained the title of Senior Professor of the Clarinet. After that he continued his study of this instrument in France and later became familiar with a repertoire of contemporary music and played the clarinet in various chamber music groups. Between 1976 and 1990 through his performances in numerous concerts he made music for the clarinet more widely known, debuting and recording works by contemporary composers.

The year 1976 saw the beginning of his creative stage with compositions in which he used flexible procedures and new manners of notation. Three years after he dispensed with this practice and returned to conventional notation. The first of his numerous symphonic works was La ciutat de les estrelles (The city of stars). From that moment on he received commissions from various orchestras. From these commissions arose works like the Concert n.1 for clarinet and orchestra, and the Simfonia Americana (American Symphony), and more recently the Fantasia sobre l’òpera El viatge de Marlow (A fantasy about the opera Marlow’s Journey) and the Danses d’Ibèria (Dances of Iberia).

Picó has an extensive chamber music oeuvre which is the result of his friendship and collaboration with different instrumentalists in which he displays a special preference for groups with clarinet and/or saxophone. Among these the Sonata a Colombina for clarinet and piano stands out along with the Sonata Marina for saxophone and piano, and the Danses de Zaira for clarinet, oboe and bassoon. He also wrote various chamber works such as El paradís de les muntanyes (The paradise of the mountains), which debuted in 1998 and was recorded to be released on disk by Columna Música, as well as Hotel Occident and Urbs.

In 1987 Picó drew up the project for the Catalunya Música broadcast and was head of programs until December 1990. He is the author of the book Xavier Benguerel, obra y estilo (Xavier Benguerel, his work and style), (2007, Idea Books).

Jesús Rodríguez Picó