Bio
Carlos Bandera is a composer whose music explores the expressive potential of contextualization and transformation of musical materials. He often expands simple elements into large-scale, glacially unfolding musical structures, through which he explores the interplay of harmony, noise, and texture.
Bandera’s orchestral work Materia Prima, which was premiered in 2023 at Carnegie Hall by the American Composers Orchestra, was described by the New York Classical Review as having “one of the most immersive and elegant transitions from nothingness to complexity that one has heard.” His music has been performed by groups such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American Composers Orchestra, the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, the Westside Chamber Players, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, the International Contemporary Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, the ~Nois and Cerus saxophone quartets, Ensemble Linea, Hotel Elefant, Earspace, Hebrides Ensemble, Nebula Ensemble, and Omnibus Ensemble. In 2022, his piece Meristem was performed by the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra during their “On the Road” tour across South East England. Recently, his dissertation composition sic rerum summa novatur semper was premiered by the Chicago Composers Orchestra.
He has been a fellow at Copland House’s CULTIVATE, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s DeGaetano Composition Institute, Composers Conference, and the Underwood New Music Readings. His music has been performed at festivals and conferences such as the 34th International Review of Composers in Belgrade, Serbia, NUNC! 6, the Ear Taxi Festival, the Midwest Graduate Music Consortium’s 29th annual conference, the American Music Festival, the Walden School’s Young Musicians Program, and the Remus Georgescu International Music Festival in Timișoara, Romania. He has been awarded the Otto Ortmann Award in Composition, the William T. Faricy Award, and was a winner of the Remus Georgescu International Music Festival Competition. He has received recognitions from the American Prize, Tribeca New Music, the RED NOTE Composition Competition, and the Cortona Prize.
Bandera holds degrees from the Peabody Institute (MM) and Montclair State University (BM). His mentors have included Elizabeth Brown, Dean Drummond, Marcos Balter, Kevin Puts, Alex Mincek, and Hans Thomalla. He is currently based in Chicago, where he is pursuing his PhD in Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University and serves as an Instructor of Music at Northeastern Illinois University.
COMPOSER