A Spanish composer born in 1968 at Saint-Sébastien.
A pianist by training, Ramon Lazkano studied composition with Francisco Escudero at the Conservatory of San Sebastian in Spain. He continued his apprenticeship at the Paris Conservatory with Gérard Grisey (orchestration) and Alain Bancquart (composition). He studied computer music at Ircam and completed his training in composition and analysis with Gilles Tremblay at Montreal Conservatory. Lazkano also followed classes in conducting with Jean-Sébastien Béreau and Arturo Tamayo and obtained a DEA in Music and Musicology of the 20th Century at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
A composer in residence at Rome with the Spanish Academy of history, archeology and the fine arts, and then at the Villa Medici, Lazkano examines composition and his own musical ideas concerning intertextuality, silence and the experience of sound, and also of a renewed attention to architecture and duration. His language incorporates micro-intervals and polyrhythmic techniques within harmonic and metrical clarity. He studies literature, poetry and cinema and often makes reference to the visual arts and particularly to sculpture, as in Igeltsoen Laborategia (Laboratoire des Craies), a large collection of pieces of chamber music (2001-2011) that refers to the work of the sculptor Jorge Oteiza.
Lazkano composes for all formations, from solo instrument to orchestra, including the voice. His works include Su-Itzalak for eight cellos, first performed by the octet Octocello conducted by Pascal Rophé at the festival Présences of Radio France (1991); Hitzaurre Bi for piano and orchestra, first performed by Patrick Zygmanowski and the Orchestra of the Paris Conservatory conducted by Jean-Sébastien Béreau (1993), a concerto with which Ramon Lazkano won the Composition Prize of the Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco, the recording of which by Alfonso Gomez and the Symphony Orchestra of Bilbao received the Prix International du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros in 2019; Canciones de Ausencia for voice, guitar and cello, first performed by Caroline Potrel, Justine Laurenceau and Philippe Mouratoglou at the festival Musica in Strasburg (1999); Ortzi Isilak for clarinet and orchestra, first performed by Enrique Pérez Piquer and the National Orchestra of Spain conducted by Rumon Gamba in Madrid (2005); El Hombre Acecha for eight voices, first performed by Les Jeunes Solistes conducted by Rachid Safir Bastille Opera in Paris (2008); Egan-4 for instrumental ensemble, commissioned by the French State and premiered by the ensemble 2e2m (2011); Ceux à qui for six voices and instrumental ensemble, first performed by the Neue Vocalsolisten of Stuttgart and L’Instant Donné conducted by Manuel Nawri at the festival Éclat in Stuttgart (2014); Hondar for orchestra, first performed by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice conducted by Pierre-André Valade in Monaco (2016); Irarki for violin, clarinet and accordion, first performed by Tianwa Yang, Kilian Herold and Teodoro Anzelotti at the festival Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik in Witten, Germany (2020).
After having taught orchestration at the Strasburg Conservatory and composition at the Higher School of Music in Barcelona, Ramon Lazkano was appointed composition teacher at Musikene, the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country.
