Miguel Pérez Iñesta was born in Spain. He studied ballet, clarinet and piano in Asturias and conducting at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. In 2003 he moved to Berlin to continue studies at the HfM Hanns Eisler and at the Karajan Akademie with the Berlin Philharmonic, where he had the chance to work closely with conductors like Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa or Bernhard Haitink. In the last years he has received important musical impulses from colleges like Peter Eötvös, Titus Engel, Matthias Pintscher and Vladimir Jurowsky.
Pérez will perform next on Sunday, 27th September 2020 for ‘UA Berlin – The 1910s: Necks with crosses’.
1: Wonder.
2: Yes.
3: How.
QUESTIONS:
1. What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Movement, light and darkness.
2. How and when did you get into making music?
I had my first stage-experience as a dancer at age 6. At 7 I started taking solfège lessons and at 9 clarinet and piano lessons. I combined music and ballet from then on, until my twenties. Music had then taken over professionally but movement has always been there as a spatial translation of sound.
3. What are 5 of your favourite albums of all time?
I love most of the music out there but here are the five titles which gave me energy in difficult as well as in great times:
Tom Waits – The Black Rider
John Coltrane – A Love Supreme
Bruckner 8th with Celibidache and the Munich Phil.
John Zorn – Masada
Mozart’s ‘Entführung’ with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
4. What do you associate with Berlin?
Love, focus.
5. What’s your favourite place in your town?
It used to be Tacheles in my first years here. The Philharmonie has a great energy, I love that place. I’m originally from the north of Spain: anywhere near the seashore would make it too. I love cliffs, from where it is possible to experience the slowness and at the same time the immense power of the sea.
6. If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I’d work with silence and movement.
7. What was the last record/music you bought?
The Clash – London Calling
8. Who would you most like to collaborate with?
Stage director Frederic Wake Walker.
9. What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As a performer: ‘Quatre Chants Pour Franchir le Seuil’ by G. Grisey with Barbara Hannigan and Sir Simon Rattle some years ago.
As spectator: Björk’s ‘Homogenic’ arranged for string quintet by Ian Anderson and Wooden Elephant.
10. How important is technology to your creative process?
Zero.
11. Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career/art?
Yes, two sisters. Full support.
Miguel Pérez Iñesta was born in Spain. He studied ballet, clarinet and piano in Asturias and conducting at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares, Madrid. In 2003 he moved to Berlin to continue studies at the HfM Hanns Eisler and at the Karajan Akademie with the Berlin Philharmonic, where he had the chance to work closely with conductors like Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa or Bernhard Haitink. In the last years he has received important musical impulses from colleges like Peter Eötvös, Titus Engel, Matthias Pintscher and Vladimir Jurowsky.
Miguel cultivates a broad musical repertoire reaching from Baroque to the music of our time, feeling most at home whenever two or more artistic disciplines run side to side like in the opera, ballet or music theatre. He has conducted the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop, the Zafraan Ensemble, the Asian Art Ensemble, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the Vokalensemble Phoenix16, the Junge Norddeutsche Philharmonie, the Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich and has had the honour to present the Podium Festival Chamber Orchester with different projects at important venues like Berliner Konzerthaus, Radialsystem, Pierre Boulez Saal or Luzern Saal in KKL at the Luzern Festival.
Photo ©Neda Navaee
