GARCIA ABRIL, ANTON  BIOGRAPHY

Antón García Abril was born in Teruel on 19 May in 1933. Between 1952 and 1955, he studied at the Madrid Royal Conservatory of Music under Julio Gmez and Francisco Cales, and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena under Vito Frazzi (composition), Paul van Kempen (orchestral conducting) and Angelo Francesco Lavagnino (film music). In 1964, he furthered his studies at the Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome under Goffredo Petrassi, on a scholarship from the Juan March Foundation in Madrid. In the following year he won the Tormo de Plata Prize on the occasion of the IV Cuenca religious Music Week for Cantico delle creature. With Luis de Pablo and Cristbal Halffter, he also represented Spain at the 39th International Festival held by the International Contemporary Music Society (SIMC) in Madrid. He became lecturer in Musical Composition and Form at the Madrid Royal Conservatory Music in 1974. Five years later his Hispavox recording of Concierto aguediano granted him the Ministry of Culture Prize and in 1981 the Ministry of Cultures Andrés Segovia Composition Prize for Evocaciones and Cross of San Jorge (St. George) awarded by the Teruel Provincial Authority.

In 1982 he became an elected member of the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid and in 1985 he took the Tomás Bretón medal from the Association of Spanish Authors and Artists. Following an international symposium held to discuss the figure of Valle-Inclán in 1986, Abril was commissioned by the National Institute of Dramatic Arts and Music (INAEM) to write an opera based on Divinas palabras, to be prèmiered at the Teatro Real in Madrid after completion of its reconversion into an opera house. Between 1988 and 1989, he participated in the International Contemporary Music Festival, Festival of Peace, held in Leningrad, the Ministry of Culture Board of Cultural Affairs and in the Hispano-Soviet Festival held in Georgia. In 1993 he was awarded the Aragon Regional Authority Medal for Cultural Merit, the National Music Prize and the Guerrero Foundation Spanish Music Prize.