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Composer Albert Carbonell Sauri is a distinctive voice of architectural lyricism in contemporary music. His musical language, rooted in the European tradition, combines meticulous craftsmanship with a rich, layered avant-garde exploration.
Born in Barcelona (Catalonia), Carbonell began his musical studies at the Conservatory Superior of Music of Barcelona, where he graduated summa cum laude in percussion, harmony, fugue, composition, and orchestration. His training encompassed piano studies with Albada Olaya and Miquel Farré, percussion with Santi Molas and Xavier Joaquín, harmony with Vicens Acuña and Xavier Boliart, counterpoint with Mª Àngels Reixach and Josep Poch, composition and orchestration with Carles Guinovart, and orchestral conducting with Albert Argudo.
Throughout his early career, he received numerous awards, grants, and scholarships, including grants from the Spanish Association of Artists and Performers (AIE) in 1994 and 1995, a grant from the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers ("Fundación Autor/SGAE") in 1999, and the "Agustí Pedro Pons Scholarship" from the University of Barcelona (UB) in 2000. He also completed advanced composition courses at the Manuel de Falla International Music Composition Course in Granada, studying with Franco Donatoni, and at the Veruela International Music Composition Festival Música Viva, where he worked with Samuel Adler, Leon Schidlowsky, and Yitzhak Sadai.
In 1999, Carbonell moved to New York City with a grant from Fundación Autor/SGAE (the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers), to continue his studies at the Juilliard School of Music. After receiving a Fulbright Scholarship in 2001, he completed his Master of Music at the Mannes College of Music (2002–2004), studying composition with David Loeb, music theory with Robert Cuckson, and Schenkerian analysis with Carl Schachter. In 2004, he was appointed composer-in-residence at the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance of New York City, under the direction of pianist Marc Ponthus, with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, and Mario Davidovsky serving on the board.
His work has been featured in theatrical and concert settings, including the incidental music for the Off-Broadway production Teresa’s Ecstasy, premiered in 2012 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village. In 2017, his composition Sketches was selected among 110 works for the final round of the Third Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers' Competition in Radom, Poland, with Penderecki himself presiding as head of the jury.
Carbonell’s catalogue spans solo, chamber, orchestral, choral, and theatrical works, as well as pedagogical music and compositions for children. His style is characterized by a refined command of counterpoint, a strong grounding in traditional harmony, and a meticulous attention to timbre, texture, and extended instrumental techniques.
In recent years, he has developed a compositional approach inspired by Trencadís, a Catalan artistic technique associated with Modernist architects such as Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and Antoni Gaudí. Translated into musical terms, this mosaic-like method employs a "parametric counterpoint" in which pitch, rhythm, timbre, and playing technique function as interrelated yet independent layers. Through the use of small, minimalistic cells that are fragmented, recombined, and expanded over time, his music unfolds as a hypnotic and continuously evolving sonic architecture.
Born in Barcelona (Catalonia), Carbonell began his musical studies at the Conservatory Superior of Music of Barcelona, where he graduated summa cum laude in percussion, harmony, fugue, composition, and orchestration. His training encompassed piano studies with Albada Olaya and Miquel Farré, percussion with Santi Molas and Xavier Joaquín, harmony with Vicens Acuña and Xavier Boliart, counterpoint with Mª Àngels Reixach and Josep Poch, composition and orchestration with Carles Guinovart, and orchestral conducting with Albert Argudo.
Throughout his early career, he received numerous awards, grants, and scholarships, including grants from the Spanish Association of Artists and Performers (AIE) in 1994 and 1995, a grant from the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers ("Fundación Autor/SGAE") in 1999, and the "Agustí Pedro Pons Scholarship" from the University of Barcelona (UB) in 2000. He also completed advanced composition courses at the Manuel de Falla International Music Composition Course in Granada, studying with Franco Donatoni, and at the Veruela International Music Composition Festival Música Viva, where he worked with Samuel Adler, Leon Schidlowsky, and Yitzhak Sadai.
In 1999, Carbonell moved to New York City with a grant from Fundación Autor/SGAE (the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers), to continue his studies at the Juilliard School of Music. After receiving a Fulbright Scholarship in 2001, he completed his Master of Music at the Mannes College of Music (2002–2004), studying composition with David Loeb, music theory with Robert Cuckson, and Schenkerian analysis with Carl Schachter. In 2004, he was appointed composer-in-residence at the Institute and Festival for Contemporary Performance of New York City, under the direction of pianist Marc Ponthus, with Elliott Carter, Pierre Boulez, and Mario Davidovsky serving on the board.
His work has been featured in theatrical and concert settings, including the incidental music for the Off-Broadway production Teresa’s Ecstasy, premiered in 2012 at the Cherry Lane Theatre in Greenwich Village. In 2017, his composition Sketches was selected among 110 works for the final round of the Third Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers' Competition in Radom, Poland, with Penderecki himself presiding as head of the jury.
Carbonell’s catalogue spans solo, chamber, orchestral, choral, and theatrical works, as well as pedagogical music and compositions for children. His style is characterized by a refined command of counterpoint, a strong grounding in traditional harmony, and a meticulous attention to timbre, texture, and extended instrumental techniques.
In recent years, he has developed a compositional approach inspired by Trencadís, a Catalan artistic technique associated with Modernist architects such as Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and Antoni Gaudí. Translated into musical terms, this mosaic-like method employs a "parametric counterpoint" in which pitch, rhythm, timbre, and playing technique function as interrelated yet independent layers. Through the use of small, minimalistic cells that are fragmented, recombined, and expanded over time, his music unfolds as a hypnotic and continuously evolving sonic architecture.
Artistic Statement
Geometry, order, chance, and freedom.
My music is founded on the conviction that sound is not arbitrary, but part of a deeper underlying order. Composing, for me, is not an act of creating from nothing, but rather an act of re-creation: a way of making an inner architecture audible.
Number plays a central role in my compositional language, not as a rigid system, but as an organizing force. Mathematical structures, proportions, and symbolic geometries —like magic squares, magic circles, magic stars, magic cubes, or even numerical sequences— define fields of possibility within which musical intuition can unfold freely. Number does not dictate the music; it reveals its inner coherence.
Within these structures, however, chance and freedom occupy an equally important place. Many aspects of my writing incorporate elements of controlled randomness, open gestures, and aleatoric procedures, allowing the music to flow, expand, and remain alive in performance. Structure provides the frame; uncertainty introduces motion, risk, and invention.
Proportion, and especially principles related to the golden ratio, functions as a form of structural breathing rather than a visible formula. Balance and form are perceived intuitively by the ear, even when they remain analytically hidden. This approach leads to what I understand as a geometry of sound, where time becomes trajectory, pitch becomes space, timbre becomes volume, and musical texture becomes architecture. Sound does not simply unfold; it inhabits, challenges, and transforms structure.
An essential aspect of my work is its ritual dimension. Music is conceived as an act of presence, creating a time apart from the quotidian —shaped by attention, structure, freedom, and transformation. Ultimately, each work functions as a musical microcosm, where order and chance, geometry and gesture, converge into a living experience.
Geometry, order, chance, and freedom.
My music is founded on the conviction that sound is not arbitrary, but part of a deeper underlying order. Composing, for me, is not an act of creating from nothing, but rather an act of re-creation: a way of making an inner architecture audible.
Number plays a central role in my compositional language, not as a rigid system, but as an organizing force. Mathematical structures, proportions, and symbolic geometries —like magic squares, magic circles, magic stars, magic cubes, or even numerical sequences— define fields of possibility within which musical intuition can unfold freely. Number does not dictate the music; it reveals its inner coherence.
Within these structures, however, chance and freedom occupy an equally important place. Many aspects of my writing incorporate elements of controlled randomness, open gestures, and aleatoric procedures, allowing the music to flow, expand, and remain alive in performance. Structure provides the frame; uncertainty introduces motion, risk, and invention.
Proportion, and especially principles related to the golden ratio, functions as a form of structural breathing rather than a visible formula. Balance and form are perceived intuitively by the ear, even when they remain analytically hidden. This approach leads to what I understand as a geometry of sound, where time becomes trajectory, pitch becomes space, timbre becomes volume, and musical texture becomes architecture. Sound does not simply unfold; it inhabits, challenges, and transforms structure.
An essential aspect of my work is its ritual dimension. Music is conceived as an act of presence, creating a time apart from the quotidian —shaped by attention, structure, freedom, and transformation. Ultimately, each work functions as a musical microcosm, where order and chance, geometry and gesture, converge into a living experience.
Awards & Grants
- Finalist at the International Composition Competition “Alfred Schnittke” 6th Edition (2023) with the work Metamorphosis I- Finalist at the III Krzysztof Penderecki International Composers' Competition (2017) with the work Sketches- 1st. Prize at XXIV Premi Musical de Composició per a cobla Ceret-Banyoles. (2007) with Concertone (new version for cobla)- 1st Prize project "Opera a secundària" by the "Gran Teatre del Liceu" (City Opera Hall in Barcelona) (2005) with the Children's opera Lisístrata- 1st Prize Bohuslav Martinu Award (2004) with the piece Chance "Atzar"- Honorary Prize at the "Murray Schafer" Composition Competition. Poland (1999) with The sepherd's boy- Prize as the best Catalan Composer at the 11th "Francesc Civil" Prize in Composition. (2001) with The magic square- 1st. Prize at the "III Concurs Internacional de Composició" de Música de Càmara de Montserrat (València). (2001) with Seqüencies- 1st. Prize "5th Composition Competition for Christmas Carols" Fundacion Caja de Granada. (1999) with Benid a Belen- 1st Prize Sardanes SGAE (1999) with Cant d'enyorança- 1st. Prize "Premi Ramon Serrat per a compositors de sardanes". Terrassa. (1999) with the sardana Eixerida- Premi d'Honor Grau Superior de Composició (1998)- Premi d'Honor Grau Superior d'Instrumentació (1998)- Special Youth Award at the XIVth Premi Musical de Composició per a cobla Ceret-Banyoles. (1998) Nyeros i Cadells- 1st Prize at the Chamber Composition Competition "Joaquim Maideu". Category A. Vic (1998) with El petit bestiari- 1st Prize at the Chamber Composition Competition "Joaquim Maideu". Category B. Vic (1998) with Variations- Grant by "Fundació Caixa Sabadell" (1996-97)- 1st. Prize of the "Agrupació Sardanista de Taradell". (1996) with the sardana Aplec daurat- 1st Prize Sardanes SGAE (1995) with the sardana Bellsolar- Special Award at the VIIIth Premi Musical de Composició per a cobla Ceret-Banyoles. (1992) La ciutat llunyana- Special Award at the VIth Premi Musical de Composició per a cobla Ceret-Banyoles. (1990) with El silenci del bosc
Scholarships & Certificates
- Fulbright Fellowship (2002-04)- Mannes College of Music Merit Scholarship. (2002-04)- "Fundació Agustí Pedro i Pons" (Universitat de Barcelona). Scholarship (2001)- "Fundación Autor/SGAE" (Spanish Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers) Scholarship (2000)- "Fundacón Autor/SGAE" (Spanish Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers) Scholarship (1998)- "Artistas Interpretes y Ejecutantes" (Beca AIE). Scholarship (1994 and 1995)- "Fundació Caixa Catalunya". Scholarship to assist to the Summer Festival in Torruella de Montgrí (Girona) 1992.- Master of Music by the "Mannes College of Music" (the "New School University") (2004)- Graduate Superior Professor of "Conducting" (2001)- Graduate Superior Professor of "Harmony, Counterpoint, Composition and Instrumentation" (1998)- Graduate Superior Professor of "Solfege, Music Theory, Transposition and Accompaniment" (1997)- Graduate Superior Professor of "Percussion" (1996)- Graduate Superior Professor of "Music Pedagogy" (1996)
PHOTO GALLERY
* Rehearsal with conductor Carlos Checa and the JOSB (Jove Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona) at the Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona) 11/26/2023.
© photos by Nacho Roca
https://photos.app.goo.gl/w4NDSqkqzbjA76127
© photos by Nacho Roca
https://photos.app.goo.gl/w4NDSqkqzbjA76127
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