Hèctor Parra studied at the Barcelona Conservatory, graduating with highest honours in piano, music theory, and composition. He participated in the IRCAM Cursus (IRCAM’s composition and computer music course) in 2002-03, and undertook a residence at the Lyon Conservatory (CNSM) in 2004-05. He also studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough and Jonathan Harvey, as well as Michael Jarrell in Geneva, and received an advanced degree (DEA) in “Sciences and Technologies of the Arts” from Paris-VIII University, where he worked under the supervision of Horacio Vaggione.

Parra teaches composition at the Zaragoza Conservatory in Spain. Additionally, from 2013 to 2017, he served as composition supervisor for the IRCAM Cursus.

He has received commissions from numerous institutions. Following Strette for soprano and real-time video, premiered at the conclusion of the IRCAM Cursus, the same institution commissioned L’Aube assaillie (2004-2005), a choreographic work in which the composer’s artistic goals are clearly stated: the creation of energetic pulsations resulting from the friction between contrasting, juxtaposed temporalities. Subsequently, IRCAM and Ensemble Intercontemporain commissioned Chamber Symphony - Quasikristall, which premiered in 2005. Commissioned by the Île-de-France National Orchestra, Lumières Abyssales-Chroma (2006), like its earlier incarnation Chroma (2004), makes reference to the work of Cezanne, attempting to sonically reproduce the textures which characterise the painter’s technique.

Parra’s Antigone cycle (2002), marked by its use of the declamatory style associated with Greek tragedies, notably includes Abîme - Antigone IV, premiered by Ensemble Recherche, and Stasis - Antigone I, premiered by the Arditti Quartet. These works gave rise to further collaborations with the two groups: a second string quartet, Fragments on Fragility (2009), was written for the Arditti Quartet, and Love to Recherche and Early Life (both from 2010) resulted from commissions from Ensemble Recherche. Additionally, Parra has received commissions from the Berlin Academy of the Arts (String Trio [2006]), Ensemble Proxima Centauri (Ciel Rouillé [2005]), Contrechamps (Stress Tensor [2009]), and the Ars Musica Festival in Brussels (Equinox [2010]).

The opera Hypermusic Prologue, with a libretto by physicist Lisa Randall, was premiered in 2009 at the Agora Festival, and released on a double-CD on the Karios label (following the release of a monographic CD of his works, performed by Ensemble Recherche, on the same label). The subsequent opera Das geopferte Leben, with a libretto by Marie Ndiaye, was premiered by the Freiburger Barockorchester and Ensemble Recherche at the Munich Biennale in 2014. Inscape, an immersive work for ensemble, orchestra, and electronics, inspired by the cosmology theories of astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet, was premiered in 2018.

Hèctor Parra has received numerous accolades: the Composition Prize from the Spanish National Institute for Performing Arts and Music (2002), the Donald Aird Memorial Composition Prize (San Francisco; 2007), the Impuls Composition Prize (2009), the Tendencies Prize from the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the Ernst von Siemens Foundation Composition Prize (2011), and the Premio National de Cultura de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Barcelona; 2017).

Parra’s pre-2011 works are published by Editorial Tritó (Barcelona). Subsequent scores are published by Universal Music Publishing Classical/Durand (Paris).