CCM Professor and Composer José Beviá Wins Robert Avalon International Competition
His Composition Cenizas Fuego Will be Performed in Houston this November – Posted 9/25/14
An international award-winner, Dr. José Beviá, professor of music at County College of Morris (CCM), now has another global honor to add to his list as a first-place winner in the 2014 Robert Avalon International Competition for Composers.
As a winner in the Career Professionals category, Beviá will have his composition Cenizas Fuego performed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, on November 1. As a first-place winner, he also will be receiving a $1,000 cash award.
“I am humbled and honored to be presented with this award,” said Beviá. “The Robert Avalon Competition is known for drawing submissions from both emerging and established composers with talented and fresh approaches to contemporary compositions.”
Also this month, Bevia traveled to Australia to hear his composition Noit-Alimissa (Assimilation) performed by the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra for its Music Contemporary 2014 program. Noit-Alimissa was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute and first performed in June 2013 by the American Composers Orchestra at Miller Theatre (Columbia University) in New York City, with Oliver Hagen conducting.
Raised in Spain, Beviá is also the winner of the 2011 Lee Ettelson Composer Award, the 2010 International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition from the National Academy of Music and the Municipal Conservatories of Neapolis and Sykies in Greece, the 2007 BMI Foundation Charlie Parker Composer Prize in New York, and the 2006 University of West Florida Phillips Jazz Piano Competition. He also was a finalist at the 2006 Brussels Jazz Orchestra International Composition Contest and the 2009 Artez International Composition Contest in the Netherlands. He also received an Honorable Mention at the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute.
His classical, jazz, and contemporary compositions and arrangements have been performed around the world by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, the BMI/New York Jazz Orchestra, Millennium Jazz Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He has been a composer in residence at the Visby International Centre for Composers in Sweden, and a visiting artist and scholar at the American Academy in Rome. In 2009, he released a CD of his contemporary classical music with MSR recordings, featuring the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra.
This past summer, his second symphony, Symphony No. 2, was recorded by the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice and Vit Micka, an internationally respected conductor.
Following his graduation from the Valencia Conservatory of Music in Spain, Beviá attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship where he earned his bachelor’s degree. He then earned a dual master’s degree in music composition and jazz performance and his Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Florida State University.
At CCM, he teaches Music Theory, Electronic Music, Music Appreciation, Piano and private classes, among other courses. He also is director of the County College of Morris Chamber Ensemble.