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Biography
Eduardo Diazmuñoz is a highly prolific Mexican-Spanish-American conductor, composer and arranger, performer and educator. He studied piano, cello, percussion, and conducting at the National Conservatory of Music (Mexico). In 1978, 1979 he became associate conductor of the newly founded Mexico City Philarmonic. Bernstein invited him to Tanglewood in 1979. He assisted in preparation for concertos of Leonard Bernstein and Eduardo Mata. In 1980-1982 assisted Leon Barzin in Paris. Diazmuñoz made his debut at Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City at 22. Diazmuñoz considers Barzin, Bernstein, and Francisco Savín were his principal mentors in conducting, in Paris, Tanglewood and Mexico City respectively.
Diazmuñoz has conducted orchestras worldwide. He has received numerous awards and prizes. While still a student he was awarded the Youth Value 1975 Award given by the President of Mexico. He was awarded the Mexican Union of Theatre and Music Chronicles Award an unprecedented four times, (1978, 1987, 1997, and 2002). In 2003 he was also presented with the 2003 International Musician of the Year, awarded by the International Biographical Centre based in Cambridge, England. He was nominated in 2000, for a Latin Grammy award in the Best Classical Album Category, for the first volume of his collection Twentieth Century Mexican Symphonic Music, a four CD collection, making him the first mexican conductor to be nominated. In 2001, he received his second nomination in the same category for his album "Tango Mata Danzón Mata Tango". In 2008 as Conductor, Diazmuñoz was awarded a Grammy for the Best Instrumental Album, Bogotá Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a composer and arranger, his works have been premiered and recorded in various cities of Europe and America. He has written many compositions for television, theater, and films. In 2010 he composed, conducted, produced and performed the score for the Mexican feature film Espíritu de Triunfo (Spirit of Triumph).
As an educator Diazmuñoz has held full-time positions at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) and the National Conservatory in Mexico City, the Société Philharmonique in Paris, as well as at the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida. From 2004 to 2014, he was Artistic and Music Director of the Opera Division at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where he built a well known Opera program.
Diazmuñoz's discography includes 37 recordings for two dozen labels. He is the first Mexican conductor to have received two Golden Discs and One Platinum Disc for his two recordings with the Mexican rock band “El Tri” (Warner Music México, El Tri Sinfónico & El Tri Sinfónico II.) He is the first Mexican conductor to receive two Golden Discs and a Platinum Disc for the Albums el Tri Sinfónico. He is the first Mexican conductor to receive two Golden Discs and a Platinum Disc for the Albums el Tri Sinfónico.