JOSÉ RAFAEL PASCUAL-VILAPLANA

Born on April 30, 1971 in Muro (Alicante) where he began his musical studies with the euphonium and piano in the Unión Musical de Muro, being his teachers Salvador Martínez and Mª Angeles Palacios. Later he continued his professional studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Alcoi and at the Superior Conservatory of Valencia. He is a student of Band Conducting of the Dutch maestro Jan COBER ("Brabants Conservatorium" of Tilburg) and of the North American conductor Eugene CORPORON (University of North Texas). He studied conducting in Vienna with Karl ÖSTERREICHER, Yuji YUHASA and Hans Graf. He has broadened his knowledge of conducting in various courses with professors such as James Croft, José Collado, Gerardo Pérez Busquier, Norman Milanés and George Pehlivanian. He studied Harmony and Composition with Rafael Alcaraz and Javier Darias. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

He has attended Musical Pedagogy Courses with teachers Diego Ramón Lluch, Ana Lucía Frega and Maravillas Díaz at the Escola Comarcal de Música de la Vall d'Albaida.

He has worked as a regular conductor in several bands in Alicante (Castell de Castells and Muro) and Valencia (U.M. de Yátova), highlighting his activity in the group of Traditional Music "La Xafigà" (1988-1996), the Band of the Associació Unió Musical de Bocairent (1994-1998), in the Band of the Agrupació Artístico-Musical "El Trabajo" of Xixona (1995-2002), in the Band of the Societat Unió Musical de Muro (2002-2007) and in the Band of the Societat Musical "La Nova" of Xàtiva (2007-2009). From 2001 to 2014 he has been principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Albacete. He has been guest conductor of the National Band of Cuba, Bands of the Conservatory of Tilburg, Municipal Bands of Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Castellón, A Coruña, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Pontevedra, Sta. Cruz de Tenerife, Santander, Santiago de Compostela, and Vitoria, Banda Municipal de Matanzas (Cuba), Banda Municipal de Buenos Aires (Argentina), Banda de la Facultad de Filosofía y Letras de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Banda Sinfónica de Montevideo, Banda Nacional Juvenil de Colombia, Banda de la Marina Real Holandesa de Rotterdam, Banda del Conservatorio Superior de Maastricht, Banda del Conservatorio Superior de Canarias, Banda y Orquesta del C. S. del Principado de Asturias, Band of MUSIKENE, Band of the Superior Conservatory of Jaén, Symphonic Band of Sta. Maria da Feira (Portugal), Symphonic Band of Bairrada (Portugal), Portuguese Symphonic Band of Oporto, Jungend Blassorchester of Bavaria, AULOS Wind Band of Switzerland, Civica Filarmonica di Lugano, Band of the Armed Forces of Slovenia, Symphonic Band of the Turina Festival of Seville, Band of the Professional Conservatory of Albacete, Band of the Conservatory of Tortosa, Band of the Conservatory of Torrelavega, Band of the Conservatory of Calahorra, Band of the Conservatory of Pontevedra, Band and Orchestra of the Conservatory of Almansa, Band of the Federation of Musical Societies of the Valencian Federation (headliner season 2002), Band of the Murcian Federation of Bands, Band of the Navarra Federation of Bands, Band of the Provincial Council of Tarragona, Symphonic Orchestra of Matanzas, Symphonic Orchestra of Bucharest (Rumania), Chamber Orchestra "Manuel de Falla" of Cadiz, Choir of the University of Cadiz, Symphonic Orchestra of Albacete, Symphonic Orchestra of Castellón, Symphonic Orchestra of Murcia, Symphonic Orchestra UCAM of Murcia, Orquesta Sinfónica UCAM de Murcia, Orquesta Sinfónica del Vallés, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, Orquesta Filarmónica de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao BOS, Orquestra CAMERA MUSICAE de Tarragona (main guest conductor 2010-2013), Orfeón Donostiarra, Sociedad Coral de Bilbao, Coro Discantus de Murcia, .... . as well as with various band ensembles of the Valencian Community, Galicia, Canary Islands, Castilla La Mancha, Murcia, Catalonia, ....

He has collaborated as a conductor with soloists of the stature of Sergei Nakariakov, Jorgen van Rijen, Ben van Dijk, Spanish Brass, Ximo Vicedo, Lito Fontana, Luis González, Pacho Flores, Manuel Blanco, Rubén Simeó, Albert Guinovart, Pedro Valero, Yulia Nefiodova , Pablo Suárez, Asier Polo, Josep Trescolí, Luisa Pereira, Ashan Pillai, Joana Guillen, Claudi Arimany, José Franch-Ballester, Nuno Pinto, Albert Guinovart, Vicente Alberola, Juan Ferrer, Conrado Moya... Likewise, in lyrical productions he has worked with singers like Elisabete Matos, Ana Mª Sánchez, Estrella Morente, Amparo Navarro, María Ribera, Estefanía Perdomo, Cristina Sánchez, Ruth Rosique, Carmen Solís, Olatz Saitua, Ulrike Haller, Marta Ubieta, Miren Urbieta, Marifé Nogales, Miren de Miguel, Andeka Gorrotxategui, Andrés del Pino, Alberto Arrabal, Javier Agulló, Fernando Latorre, Jospe Doménech, Toni Marsol, Mikeldi Atxalandabaso, Beñat Egiarte and Elisabete Matos.
He is composer of several works for band and instrumental ensemble, appearing some of his works in Editorial Piles, Editorial Tot per l'Aire, Ediciones GTE, Editorial Omnes Bands de Valencia and his own publishing house Pascual-Vilaplana Music. He regularly participates as a jury member in different composition competitions for bands (Altea, Bocairent, Benidorm, Callosa, Calpe, Elda, Pego, Dènia, Algemessí, Sant Vicent del Raspeig...). He has been appointed International Jury of the Swiss National Band Competition held in the city of Montreux in 2001, of the Conducting Competition of Pordenone (Italy, 2006), of the Band Competition of the Italian Switzerland in Lugano (2009), of the International Conducting Competition of the WMC of Kerkrade (2010), of the Conducting Competition of La Toscana (Italy, 2010), of the National Contest of Bands of Colombia in the city of Paipa, (2010), of the International Contest "Flicorno d'Oro" of Riva del Garda (Italy, 2014), as well as jury of the Provincial Contest of Bands of Alicante (2001) and Castellón (2002) and of the Contest of Bands of La Senia (2006). He has written commissioned works for groups such as Spanish Brass Luur Metalls, 2i2 Quartet, Ximo Vicedo, Luis González, Juan C. Matamoros, Francisco González Azorín, Juanjo Munera, David Abellán or Juan Manuel Gómez. In 2006 he premieres his musical Balansiyyà with lyrics by Carlos Veiga, performing in Valencia, Torrevieja, Madrid and Rabat (Morocco).

He has been resident composer at various festivals such as the Elda Band Contest (1999), the Cocentaina “Fira Tots Sants” Choral Contest (2013), SBALZ (Alzira, 2015), Tubala Brass Week (Tafalla, 2018) or the International Band Contest. from Altea (2018).

He is the director of more than thirty CD's for record labels such as RTVE, Floc, Audioart, Molenaar, De Haske or L'Auditori Digital.

Since January 2015 he has been the titular and artistic director of the Bilbao Municipal Music Band. He has shared ownership with the Barcelona Municipal Band since 2018. He is also the founding conductor of the Orquestra de Vents Filharmonia and main principal guest conductor of the Porto Portuguese Symphonic Band. He has been artistic director and professor of the Musical Improvement Courses of the Istituto Musicale Guido Alberto Fano in Spilimbergo (Italy) from 2007 to 2018. Since 1995 he has been a professor at the Escola Comarcal de Música de la Vall d'Albaida, from 1999 to 2004 at the “Allegro” Academy in Valencia and from 2002 to 2007 at l'E.C.M. del Comtat. He has taught various conducting courses in Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland (Fribourg Conservatory), Italy, France, Portugal, Argentina and Colombia. He is a member of the SGAE, a founding member of the Association of Composers ACMMIC (Association of Music Composers of Moors and Christians) and of COSICOVA (Association of Valencian Symphonic Composers).

In 1991 he was awarded the "Batuta del Mtro. Guillermo Tomás" of the National Band of Cuba in Havana. In 1997 he won the First Prize "Batuta de Oro" of the "8th. International Conductor's Competition" of the WMC in Kerkrade (Holland). In April 2000 he obtained the First Prize "Baton of Honour" of the "1st. European Conductors' Competition" organized by the EBBA (European Brass Band Association) and held at the Symphony Hall of the English city of Birmingham, for which he was named "European Conductor Champion 2000". In October of the same year he was the only Spaniard selected to conduct opera in the "VI Concorso per a Giovanni Directore d'Orchestra de la Comunità Europea" organized by the Franco Capuana Foundation of Rome, the Academia Chigiana of Siena and the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale of Spoleto (Italy). In 2004 he received the Euterpe Award from the Federation of Musical Societies of the Valencian Community in two categories: Band Conducting and Composition of Music for the Festival, in 2010 he received the National Music Award "Ignacio Morales Nieva" of the Festival de Música de Castilla "La Mancha". In 2012 he received the Award for Best Musical Show of Castilla La Mancha with the Symphony Orchestra of Albacete. In 2020 he received the MAITENA Award from the Choral Society of Bilbao for his musical career.