Ricardo Llorca

Ricardo Llorca (born August 29, 1962) is a Spanish-born composer of classical music and opera. A member of the Juilliard School faculty since 1996, he was a recipient of the Premio Virgen de la Almudena for Composition in 1999 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2001.

Llorca was born in the Spanish city of Alicante. He studied at the Madrid Royal Conservatory from 1974 to 1983 and at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna. He later moved to New York for further study at the Juilliard School, where he received his Master of Music degree in 1993, studying under the composers David Diamond and John Corigliano. He joined the Juilliard faculty in 1996 while maintaining an active career as a composer. He has been composer-in-residence for Henning Rübsam's New York-based dance company SENSEDANCE, which has premiered several of his works and from 2009 through 2011 composer-in-residence at the New York Opera Society.

Llorca's opera Las horas vacias (The Empty Hours), which premiered on March 31, 2007 in concert version during the XII Semana de Música Sacra in Benidorm, has since been performed in concert at the Berlin Cathedral in September 2007 and at the UN General Assembly as part of the celebrations for the International Year of Languages in 2008. The opera received its first staged performance on November 19, 2010 at Alice Tully Hall in New York City.

• Llorca: Concierto Italiano, The Dark Side, 3 Academic Pieces. Orquestra Camára del Liceo. Label: Columna Icm 0126.

• American Record Guide (March 2005); Reverter, (February 10, 2005)