Arturo Fuentes learned guitar and music theory through the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music between 1990 and 1995, completing his Bachelor of Arts in composition in 1995 at the CIEM Music School in Mexico City. Alongside his formal studies at the CIEM, he also attended Mexican-American composer and conductor Juan Trigos’s composition workshops. In 1992, Fuentes met the avant-garde Italian composer Franco Donatoni, with whom he studied until departing for Italy in 1997. He settled in Milan and attended composer Luca Cori’s lectures before composing his first works, including Interludi Continui for guitar (1997), which won a composition award sponsored by the publishing house Suvini Zerboni. This piece laid a foundational stone in his catalogue.

At Université de Paris 8 in 1998, Fuentes met Horacio Vaggione, who introduced him to new computer and electronic composition tools. Fuentes was selected for the composition and electronic music program at IRCAM in 2002. His end-of-course piece, Objet-Objet (Object-Object) for theorbo, electronics, and video, was debuted in IRCAM’s projection space in 2003.

In 2008, under the direction of Vaggione, Fuentes completed a doctorate in composition. He also holds a master’s degree in philosophy, completed in 2002 under the direction of Antonia Soulez.

Fuentes has received numerous composition grants, notably from the Fondation Internationale Nadia et Lili Boulanger (2002) and the Austrian State (2012). His works have been performed around the world and have regularly been scheduled in festivals and at institutions such as the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Philharmonie de Paris, and the Konzerthaus in Vienna.

His diverse catalogue is made up of chamber and solo music, including a series of solo works dedicated to the guitar. A large part of his output is works that combine electronics and video, and electroacoustic pieces. Fuentes has also composed operas, as well as pieces for dance performances and for musical theater, such as Carlotas Zimmer for soprano and ensemble (2018).

Snowstorm is one of Fuentes’s large-scale pieces. Inspired by the painting of the same name by the English painter William Turner, this piece was composed in 2014 for the Ensemble intercontemporain.

In 2016, Fuentes conducted his piece Musique des êtres imaginaires (Music of Imaginary Beings), commissioned by United Instruments of Lucilin and premiered at the Philharmonie Luxembourg.

Fuentes works to build bridges between Latin and Germanic cultures. He stimulates dialogue in art, cinema, literature, and philosophy, creating a link between complexity and lightness. Influenced by the writings of Jorge Luis Borges and Ludwig Wittgenstein, Fuentes sees his music as an organized chaos, a labyrinth of sound exploring the limits of dynamics, timbre, texture, and virtuosity.

A naturalized Austrian, Fuentes has lived in Innsbruck since 2004. His works are produced by LondonHall Editions.

Awards

• Electroacoustic Composition Competition Award, Música Viva, Portugal, 2007
• Julian Carrillo “20 de noviembre” Art and Science Prizes, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 2006
• Julian Carrillo “20 de noviembre” Art and Science Prizes, San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 2000
• First prize at the Lagonegro Composition Competition, Italy, 1998
• Second prize in composition, Suvini Zerboni Editions, Italy, 1997