Ricardo Lorenz

Venezuelan-born Ricardo Lorenz is currently Professor and Chair of Music Composition at Michigan State University College of Music.   His compositions have received praise for their fiery orchestrations, and rhythmic vitality as well as for raising awareness about global societal challenges that concern the composer.  These impressions have accompanied performances of his works at prestigious international festivals such as Carnegie Hall’s Sonidos de las Américas, Ravinia Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, France’s Berlioz Festival, Spain’s Festival Internacional de Música Contemporanea de Alicante, the Festival Cervantino in Mexico, Turkey’s Uluslararasi Summer Festival and South Korea’s PAN Music Festival, among others.  His orchestral compositions have been performed in the U.S. by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, among many others and by orchestras in Venezuela, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, Canada, Israel, and the Czech Republic.  Between 1999 and 2003 Ricardo Lorenz worked as Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Armonia Musicians Residency Program and as Associate Director of the Indiana University Latin American Music Center between 2003 and 2005. He has received awards and commissions from American Bandmasters Association/University of Florida Commissioning Project, National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell Colony, National Flute Association, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Meet-the-Composer Midwest, MetLife Creative Connections, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Concert Artists Guild, Ravinia Festival, and The University of Chicago.   He has served as Composition Faculty of the Wintergreen Summer Music Academy (Virginia) and as Composer-in-Residence of Music in the Loft (Chicago), Sewanee Summer Music Festival (Tennessee), the Billings Symphony Orchestra (Montana), and the Pan and Young-Nam International music festivals in South Korea.  Ricardo Lorenz’s compositions are published by Keiser Southern Music and by Boosey & Hawkes.  They can be heard on the following record labels:  ECM, Naxos, Albany Records, Arabesque Recordings, Navona Records, Cedille Records, GIA Publications, and Blue Griffin Recordings as well as labels in Turkey, Mexico, Venezuela, and the U.K.  In 2019, Ricardo Lorenz was honored with the Michigan State University César Chávez Community Leadership Award.

He holds a Ph.D. degree in composition from The University of Chicago and a MM degree from Indiana University and studied composition with Juan Orrego-Salas, Shulamit Ran, and Donald Erb.  Ricardo Lorenz previously taught at Indiana University, The University of Chicago, and City Colleges of Chicago.