During his journey through Latin America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Alexander von Humboldt not only shaped a holistic worldview of the world, one in which nature and humanity are inextricably interwoven, but he also underwent a personal transformation that turned him into an empathetic and compassionate author. more > Composed: 2025Length: c. 25 minutesOrchestration: 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 3 clarinets (2nd=bass clarinet, 3rd=E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (crotales, xylophone, triangle, guiro, vibraslap, Chinese opera gong, splash cymbal, suspended cymbal, crash cymbal, congas, tom-toms, bass drum,

Continue reading…Humboldt’s Nature World Premiere, LA Phil

Was Alexander von Humboldt the first acoustic ecologist? Ricardo Lorenz (Professor of Music Composition at Michigan State University) shows how the naturalist took in the tropical environment by relying not only on his eyesight, but also on his acute sense of hearing. Academy Building at Gendarmenmarkt, Einstein Hall, Jägerstraße 22/23, 10117 BerlinDezember 202518:00 more>

Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the newest orchestral work by composer Ricardo Lorenz, “Humboldt’s Nature,” will premiere at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on Feb. 12, 2026. Lorenz, a Michigan State University College of Music professor of composition, is excited to make his second premiere under the direction of famed conductor Gustavo Dudamel, and his preparation includes continued research. more>

Latin Grammy-nominated in 2020! The MSU College of Music is proud to present the MSU Wind Symphony conducted by Kevin L. Sedatole as they present the world premiere of Ricardo Lorenz’s Pataruco: Concerto for Venezuelan Maracas and Wind Symphony featuring guest soloist Manuel Alejandro Rangel.

Liaisons:Re-imagining Sondheim from the Piano has been described as a landmark commissioning project that brought together thirty-six of the world’s foremost contemporary composers from across the musical spectrum in order to “re-imagine” Sondheim’s songs as solo piano pieces.  Lorenz’s The Worst [Empanadas] in London is one of re-imaginations included in a 3-CD box set released by the record label ECM featuring pianist, and Liaisons co-producer, Anthony de Mare. Other composers included are Pulitzer, Grammy and Academy Award winners like Steve Reich, Wynton Marsalis, Thomas Newman, Frederic Rzewski, William Bolcom, David Rakowski, and many others.

The Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra led by conductor Kevin Noe performed Lorenz’s En Tren Vá Changó (Destination Macondo) on Friday November 16, 2012.  It is the second time in eight years that this work is heard live on the MSU campus.  In 2004, then MSU Assistant Director of Orchestras Raphael Jiménez brought the work for the first time to the University’s Wharton Center.  This performance took place before Lorenz joint the MSU College of Music Faculty and only three years after En Tren Vá Changó received its premiere performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia Festival.   The

Continue reading…MSU Symphony takes a ride to Macondo….again

As Composer-in-Residence of the 9th Annual Dali Quartet Chamber Music Festival and Camp, Ricardo Lorenz spent several days this past summer 2012 in North Wales, Pennsylvania, working on two of his works with some of the East Coast’s most talented young string players.  Lorenz conducted his Rochela for nine cellos, originally composed for and premiered by the cello section of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and attended the premiere of a new string orchestra work composed especially for the Festival’s pre-college orchestra.  Titled Habanera Science, the work is conceived as a response to the news that the data collected from the recently

Continue reading…New Work for Strings Premiered at Dali Chamber Music Festival

Ricardo Lorenz attended the London premiere of his new work Cacerola Soul on May 3rd, 2012 at the Southbank Centre.  Cacerola Soul roughly translates as “the soul of the frying pan” and calls for a SATB choir, instrumental ensemble and optional rapper. The work was commissioned by The Iberian and Latin American Music Society of London (ILAMS) specifically to pay tribute to pot-banging protests as instruments of nonviolent resistance.  Cacerola Soul closed a concert that offered a kaleidoscopic view of five hundred years of Latin American classical music in honor of the recent bicentennial celebrations of Latin America’s independence. It featured

Continue reading…Cacerola Soul premieres in London

On April 21, 2012, Ricardo Lorenz attended the New York premiere of Liaisons: Re-imagining Sondheim from the Piano, a concert project involving over thirty of the world’s foremost contemporary composers, including Lorenz, and their solo piano creations based on Sondheim songs.  Produced by Rachel Colbert and performed by pianist and  co-producer Anthony de Mare, Liaisons gathers short piano pieces commissioned from composers such as Steve Reich, William Bolcom, Fred Hersch, Frederic Rzewski, Paul Moravec, Mason Bates, and two dozen others. Regarding Lorenz’s re-imagination of Sondheim, the composer writes:  “Summer of 1982 was wonderfully diabolic.  I danced a waltz with Mephistopheles and

Continue reading…Ricardo Lorenz re-imagines Sondheim

On December 1st, 2011 Music in the Loft founder Fredda Hyman passed away in her Chicago loft.  On that day, up and coming performers and composers lost one of their greatest champions.  As for myself, I lost one of my greatest friends and supporters, a surrogate mom and a confidant.  Please read my Tribute to Fredda Hyman, founder and artistic director for almost two decades of Music in the Loft.

  A year after its first performance at Michigan State University, Ricardo Lorenz’s Viola Concerto received its East Coast premiere on October 15, 2011.  This time it was outside of Philadelphia, once again with violist Roberto Díaz for whom the concerto titled Canciones de Jara was especially composed, and this time accompanied by Symphony in C, a recently created professional training orchestra lead by conductor Rossen Milanov.   Lorenz’s concerto opened the orchestra’s 2011-2012 season along with staple works from the symphonic repertoire such as Listz’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1 and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique.

    As a guest composer of the 2nd Congress of Musical Creation hosted by the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico in San Juan, Ricardo Lorenz attended the Caribbean premiere of his work Merengue en el Espejo and delivered a two-part lecture presentation on the topic of finding appropriate spaces for optimal musical creation. The Conservatory of Music’s composition faculty Alfonso Fuentes organized the multidisciplinary event that gathered composers and performers as well as visual artists, authors, musicologists, and folklorists during the dates of February 10-13, 2011.   Founded by the famous cellist Pablo Casals, the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto

Continue reading…Second Congress of Musical Creation in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Read about Lorenz’s Canciones de Jara on the Discovery Channel’s Blog. Read more about the premiere on the Michigan State News website. Listen to Ricardo Lorenz talk about Canciones de Jara with Spartan Podcast host Russ White. Listen to violist Roberto Díaz and conductor Leon Gregorian talk about the premiere of Canciones de Jara on NPR affiliate WKAR  90.5FM

On October 22, 2010 Violist Roberto Díaz premiered Ricardo Lorenz’s Canciones de Jara: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra with the Michigan State University Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Leon Gregorian at the Wharton Center for Performing Arts.   After consecutive tenures as Principal Violist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, Roberto Díaz currently heads the Curtis Institute of Music and performs extensively as a soloist worldwide. Canciones de Jara bridges the old concerto model and the more recent genre of the so-called protest song. Lorenz’s intention was to merge the extraordinarily expressive range of violists Roberto Díaz

Continue reading…Violist Roberto Díaz premieres Canciones de Jara

  An international group of euphonium players and music institutions has joined forces to commission a work from Ricardo Lorenz that will feature the euphonium while calling for the same instrumentation of Leos Janacek’s seldom performed Cappricio for piano and winds.   The consortium is spearheaded by Robert Benton, currently on the University of Windsor Brass Faculty and hailed for being “a compelling performer and outstanding Embassador for the euphonium.”   Other distinguished euphonium players joining the commissioning consortium who will co-premiere Lorenz’s upcoming work are Hidenori Arai (Japan) , Tormod Flaten (Grieg Academy in Norway), Adam Frey (Emory University), Fritz Kaenzig

Continue reading…Euphonium Music Commissioning Consortium

As part of their 2010 Meadowlark Music Festival engagement, Guest Composer Ricardo Lorenz and the Dali String Quartet appeared as featured artists of “Live from the Mill,” a laidback yet incredibly informative art news show that is broadcasted live from The Mill, a landmark café in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska.  “Live from the Mill” is hosted by Bill Stibor every Friday morning and is heard throughout Nebraska on KUCV Net Radio 91.1 FM, an affiliate of NPRN. 

To conclude a year of performances in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Lorenz’s Pataruco: Concerto for Venezuelan Maracas and Orchestra, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and soloist Ed Harrison performed the work at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion of Chicago’s Millennium Park.  During the 2009-2010 season, the work received performances in Nevada, Oregon and in Mexico by percussionists Ricardo Gallardo and Terry Longshore.  Pataruco was the result of a close collaboration between Venezuela-native Ricardo Lorenz and Ed Harrison, who studied with maraca virtuoso Maximo B. Teppa while on tenure as percussionist with the Caracas Philharmonic during the early 1980s.  Harrison,

Continue reading…Concerto for Maracas ends season at Millennium Park

    As Guest Composer of the 2010 Meadowlark Music Festival, Ricardo Lorenz curated a program of Latin American music that brought together Philadelphia-based Dali String Quartet and Puerto Rican percussionist/marimba virtuoso Orlando Cotto.  A highlight of the program was the Nebraska premiere of Lorenz’s Puente Trans-Arabico for percussion and string quartet.  Among other works for percussion and string quartet, the program included Lorenz’s arrangements of Cuban dance music as well as a brand new string quartet and marimba adaptation of Orlando Cotto’s Marimba for an Angel.   The festival was hosted between June 12 and 19 at the University of Nebraska

Continue reading…Convergence in Nebraska at this year’s Meadowlark Music Festival

Minnesota native and flutist Marissa Olin will premiere a new and improved version of Ricardo Lorenz’s Perfiles Sospechosos on Sunday, April 18, at Michigan State’s Hart Recital Hall.  Originally a trio for flute, cello, and percussion commissioned by the National Flute Association, Olin will premiere a quartet version of Perfiles Sospechosos that incorporates bass clarinet.  “As soon as it was premiered in 2007 at the NFA New Mexico convention,” explains Lorenz, “I felt the work could greatly benefit from the addition of a low wind instrument to back up the cello and complement the flute’s high register, particularly in the

Continue reading…Perfiles Sospechosos, 2007 NFA Commission, gets a makeover

Ricardo Lorenz receives commission from the University of Oregon to compose work for two world-renown flutists: Grammy-Award winning, University of Oregon faculty Molly Barth and revered Venezuelan flutist Luis Julio Toro.   In addition to having long standing solo careers, Molly Barth is a founding member of the nationally acclaimed sextet Eight Blackbird and Luis Julio Toro has traveled all around the world with his virtuoso contemporary folk ensemble Gurrufio. Lorenz and Toro have collaborated many times in the past.   They both met Molly Barth for the first time in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the 2007 National Flute Association’s convention where

Continue reading…University of Oregon Commission bridges north and south

Ricardo Lorenz will spend five weeks in residency at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.  As a MacDowell Colony Fellow, Lorenz will work during April and May 2010 on a new concerto for viola and orchestra.  The concerto is loosely based on a group of songs by the late singer songwriter Victor Jara, one of the first casualties of Chile’s 1973 military coup.  Lorenz is composing this concerto for Roberto Díaz, former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and current President of the Curtis Institute of Music. Founded by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife Marian in 1907, MacDowell

Continue reading…2010 MacDowell Colony Fellowship Recipient

Several performances of Ricardo Lorenz’s concerto for maracas and orchestra are scheduled for the 2009-2010 season in cities across the US and Mexico. Premiered ten years ago and titled Pataruco, this first-ever concerto for maracas will be performed in Oregon and Nevada by percussionist Terry Longshore (http://www.terrylongshore.com) with the Rogue Valley Symphony and the Carson City Symphony respectively. Almost simultaneously, Mexican percussionist Ricardo Gallardo will performed the concerto with the Michoacan Symphony in Mexico City and Morelia.   Pataruco was premiered in March 1999 by the Chicago Sinfonietta and percussionist Ed Harrison, to whom the work was dedicated. Since then, the

Continue reading…Pataruco: Concerto for Maracas’ Tenth Anniversary

By invitation of the University of Florida Bands, Ricardo Lorenz visited the Gainesville campus on September 29-October 2, 2009 to attend the official premiere of El Muro, a work for wind symphony commissioned by the American Bandmasters Association and the University of Florida Bands.  The work was premiered on October 1st by the UF Wind Symphony conducted by David Waybright.  While at University of Florida, Lorenz met with graduate students in the Band and Music Composition programs, as well as with Composition Faculty Paul Richards and Paul Koonce.  Lorenz also had a chance to tour the brand new Steinbrenner Band

Continue reading…Ricardo Lorenz visits The Gator Nation

Ricardo Lorenz’s Rumba Sinfónica will receive its twentieth performance at the historic Severance Hall, home of the Cleveland Orchestra. On October 24, 2009 Tiempo Libre and The Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Carl Topilow will perform Rumba Sinfónica at Cleveland’s Severance Hall.  One of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, Severance Hall underwent a major, $36-million restoration and expansion in 2000.  This landmark building was one of the most modern, up-to-date concert facilities in America when it opened in 1931 as The Cleveland Orchestra’s permanent home. Ricardo Lorenz’s Rumba Sinfónica has toured many cities in

Continue reading…Rumba Sinfónica opens its third season at the historic Severance Hall

After fulfilling a commission from the National Flute Association in 2007, Ricardo Lorenz was the 2008 recipient of the American Bandmasters Association/University of Florida Commission Award.  The award, funded by a grant from the University of Florida band program, includes a commission honorarium to create a major artistic work for wind band.  After a preview performance at the 2009 CBDNA conference, the ten-minute work, titled El Muro , is scheduled to be premiered this upcoming October 1st by the University of Florida Wind Symphony conducted by David Waybright. El Muro is Spanish for “the wall,” and Lorenz describes the work

Continue reading…El Muro: 2008 ABA/University of Florida Commission

Links from MSUToday on TV Spartan Podcast: Ricardo Lorenz College of Music News: Composer Heats Things Up with Fusion of Cuban Rumba and Symphony Sound MSU News: MSU professor’s ‘Rumba Sinfonica’ to be performed by Detroit Symphony Orchestra [Video] MSUToday Show #12: Tiempo Libre performs “Rumba Sinfónica”

Get down. Listen up. Get down. How’s that for a history of Western music in six words? It’s also a neat preview of Michigan State University composer Ricardo Lorenz’ massive Latinsymphonic collision piece “Rumba Sinfonica.” For years, two men dreamed of a taboo liaison between full symphony orchestra and Latin dance machine: Lorenz and Jorge Gomez, founder of Grammy-winning Latin combo Tiempo Libre. Their dream comes alive Thursday night, when plugged-in, seven-piece Tiempo Libre joins the unplugged, seventy-or-so-piece MSU Symphony for a postmodern music party where people listen up AND get down. Read more: Your world, on shuffle

Ricardo Lorenz received a 2008 Michigan State University Intramural Grant (IRGP) from the Vice President’s Office for Research to compose a concerto for viola in collaboration with Roberto Díaz, former principal violist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and current President of the Curtis Institute of Music. The concerto is to be premiered by Mr. Díaz and the MSU Symphony Orchestra during the fall of 2010. Watch Roberto Diaz on youtube