George Lopez

I am convinced that many people would like and relate to my works, if only they had the opportunity to become acquainted with them: I never identified with the notion of "New Music". Rather, I was driven from the beginning by the need to manifest and actualize the primordial. I don't search for the new, rather I seek to liberate that which has been repressed. I don't believe in progress in art (there hardly is such a thing), but do believe in progress in the technology through which art is realized. My roots and sources lie partly in western art music, partly in surrealism (understood as method), in science and in the experience of wilderness. The motivation for creation originates in myself and is always connected to a strong effort of will – with respect to overcoming social barriers, overcoming the bourgeois concept of culture, overcoming the artificial boundaries between the various art forms. This effort of will intends to achieve an effect. In my opinion a work of art should be a "group-meditation", led by the artist, which unfolds in time through music, theatre, film, video.
Jorge E. López, September 1999

Jorge E. López was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1955 and moved to the USA in 1960, where he grew up in New York City and Chicago. He studied composition with Leonard Stein and Morton Subotnick and music at the California Institute of Arts from 1971-75, but describes himself as self-taught. He sees his roots as equally in Western art music, in Surrealism (seen as a method), in science and in experiencing the elemental force of nature. In 1990 he moved to Europe, and has lived since 1991 in Upper Carinthia, Austria. From 2000-01 he was a guest artist (video and sound design) at the Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM), Karlsruhe. His orchestral and chamber ensemble works have been performed at prestigious festivals for new music throughout Europe. He is supported by the Academy of Arts, Berlin; the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Munich; Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel; Heinrich Strobel Foundation of South West German Radio and through an Austrian State Scholarship.

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