José Luis Turina

Who is José Luis Turina?

José Luis Turina is a Spanish composer, grandson of Joaquín Turina.

He studied composition under Antón García Abril, Román Alís, Rodolfo Halffter and Carmelo Bernaola at the conservatories of Barcelona and Madrid, and then, with a grant from the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs for studying at the Spanish Fine Arts Academy in Rome, he attended the classes in composition given by Franco Donatoni at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.

In 1981, his work Meeting Point won the First Prize in the International Composition Contest organised by the Orchestra of the Valencia Conservatory to mark their first centenary. In 1986 he won the First Prize of the Musical Composition Contest “Queen Sofía”, from the Ferrer Salat Foundation, with his piece Ocnos. He was awarded Spain's Premio Nacional de Música for composition in 1996.

Teacher of Harmony in the Conservatories of Cuenca and Madrid since 1981, in 1983 he was designated technical advisor of the Ministry for Education and Science, for the reformation of musical teaching in the realm of the new education law of 1990. In February 2001 he was appointed Artistic Director of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain, and in 2004 he became the President of the Spanish Association of Youth Orchestras.