Teresa Catalán, Gold Medal of Fine Arts.

The Spanish composer Teresa Catalán (Pamplona, 1951) is one of the 31 personalities distinguished by the Spanish Government with the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts 2021. With a PhD in Philosophy of Art and winner of the 2017 National Music Prize, Catalán was appointed Emeritus Professor of the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid in 2018, where she obtained in 1990, by competitive examination, the chair of Composition, Instrumentation and Musical Forms, which she still holds.

Catalán studied music at the Pablo Sarasate Conservatory in Pamplona, where she trained with teachers such as Fernando Remacha, Luis Morondo, Juan Eraso, Luis Taberna and Pilar Bayona, graduating in Piano and Composition. In 1985, together with Jaime Berrade, Koldo Pastor, Patxi Larrañaga and Josep Vicent Egea, she co-founded the group of composers Iruñeako Taldea Musikagilleak.

Author of several books, articles and papers, she has published some of her compositions in Spain and Germany, which form part of the syllabus in different conservatories, and is a member of the State Council for the Performing Arts and Music, the Artistic Council of Music and the Council of the Teatro Real. On 19 June, he was also awarded the Premio Príncipe de Viana de la Cultura, a prize given by the Government of Navarre. Among his projects for 2022 is the premiere in May of La victoria vacía, a commission from the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi that forms part of the programme Elkano: Mundubira musika bidelagun, which commemorates the 500th anniversary of the first round-the-world voyage.

© Photograph by Javier Ecay for the Fundacion Ars Incógnita, downloaded from Teresa Catalán’s website.