The music of Eric Estrada Valadez has been performed in Korea, México, Canada, USA, and Germany, and has received numerous awards, like the Arturo Márquez Composition Award (2019), the International Composers Competition New Symphony Vienna (2020), the National Composition Competition for Percussion Quartet SAFA (2019), and MUSIQA’s Emergent Composer’s Competition (2022). He has been the recipient of grants from the Young Creators Program of the Fine Arts Institute of Mexico (2021), and the Institute of Fine Arts-Conacyt (2022). In his works, Eric blends different music genres, such as rock, jazz and latino music, with contemporary composition, and explores the relationship between language, cultural identity, and music. Commissions have come from organizations like MUSIQA, Mexico’s National Endowment for the Arts, Cynthia Woods Mitchel Center for the Arts, the Public Arts University of Houston System, the Bowdoin International Music Festival and KISA International Music Composition Program. He has collaborated with artists such as Hub New Music, Aura Contemporary Ensemble, Texas New Music Ensemble, Orquesta Mexicana de las Artes, Safa Percussion Quartet, Kazoku Saxophone Quartet, Project Fusion Quartet, among others.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the field of composition by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and is currently pursuing a fully funded doctoral degree in composition at the University of Houston Moores School of Music with Rob Smith.
Spare Parts Spin
Composed December 2022 – Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello
From the composer: “This work was inspired by one of the pieces on display in “Intimate Confessions,” a temporary exhibition at the Blaffer Museum in Houston, Texas. The artwork features components from various old machines, such as an old fan, bound and nailed together with raw materials like wood and copper. The rawness of the materials, the stark contrast between them, and the seemingly disjointed arrangement of the parts inspired me to compose a piece with different motif cells that spin around themselves without an apparent connection, gradually uniting to form a coherent idea.“