Agustín Fernández (composer)

In Bolivia Fernández began musical life as a child, singing and playing the charango in folk clubs, including Peña Ollantay, Peña Naira and the country's then only television channel. Still a teenager he worked as a violinist and then principal viola with the National Symphony Orchestra and taught harmony at the National Conservatoire, while studying composition with Alberto Villalpando.[2] He later studied in Japan with Takashi Iida and with Akira Ifukube, while working part-time at the Bolivian Embassy and as a language instructor at Nichisei Gakuin and later at Komagane Training Institute.[3]

In the United Kingdom, after obtaining an MMus at Liverpool University and a PhD at City University Fernández was composer-in-residence at Queen's University Belfast since 1990 until 1994.[1] Following a year's lectureship at Dartington College of Arts,[2] he worked as a composition lecturer at Newcastle University from 1996 until 2007 and Professor of Composition there from 2007 until his resignation in 2019.[4][5]

Fernández's work has been performed and acclaimed internationally, featuring at festivals such as Focus!, Summergarden (New York), ISEA (Montreal), International New Music Week (Bucharest), Latin American Music Festival (Caracas), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, London International Opera Festival and many others. Some of his folk arrangements have been singled out for their wide appeal.[6]

Misa de Corpus Christi, first premièred in La Paz under the twenty year-old composer's direction in 1978, was later destroyed and then recomposed in 2009 for performances in 2010 and 2011.[7]

While his first electroacoustic work, the opera Teoponte, had mixed reviews on its London première (1988), the also electroacoustic Wounded Angel (1989) was generally well received internationally and was released twice on commercial recordings. His second opera, The Wheel (1993), was generally considered a success on its London première by Royal Opera House's now extinct Garden Venture. Also well received were two subsequent works for baritone, choir and orchestra: Approaching Melmoth, premièred in 2000 with Thomas Allen as the soloist, and Notes from Underground (2016). Upon the New York première of his String Quartet No. 2 Sin tiempo (a Koussevitzky commission), one reviewer commented “…this city needs a Fernández festival”.[8]

Fernández has been a regular visitor to Romania for speaking engagements and performances of his work, especially at the Sigismund Toduță International Festival in Cluj-Napoca and also at the SIMN Festival in Bucharest. In 2018 the Music Academy Gheorghe Dima of Cluj-Napoca awarded him an honorary doctorate.[9]

In his native country he has been awarded prizes such as Golden Charango (1971), Honour to Merit (1975), National Composition Prize Sesquicentennial of the Republic (1975) and Meritorious Citizenship of Cochabamba (2016).

As was reported by the British tabloid press, in March 2020 Fernández was found guilty of sexual offences, for which Newcastle Crown Court gave him a lengthy custodial sentence. He was absent from the trial.[10][11] Fernández has vehemently denied the accusations made against him and considers himself the target of a miscarriage of justice. He has also refuted tabloid reports of his having fled after being sentenced,[12] stressing that he was absent from the country at the time of his trial. The issue remains unresolved.[13]

• Joel Sachs. 2013. "Fernández, Agustín." Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press.
• The Living Composers Project
• Interview with Dr Agustín Fernández
• Stahlie, María Teresa (1995). Música y músicos bolivianos. La Paz: Los Amigos el Libro. ISBN 8483702126.