Biography
Ramon Lazkano (Donostia-San Sebastián, 1968) studied composition in San Sebastian, Paris and Montreal. He received a First Prize of Composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris, a DEA in 20th Century Music and Musicology at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and a PhD in Contemporary Creation Research at the University of the Basque Country. He has been awarded the Prince Pierre de Monaco Foundation Prize, the Georges Bizet Prize of the French Academy of Fine Arts, the Leonard Bernstein-Jerusalem Prize, the Colegio de España Award and the Musika Bulegoa Prize of the Basque Bureau of Music twice.The recording of his piano music for Kairos received the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros.
Ramon Lazkano is a member of the Musical Council of Monaco and was a composer in residence with the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España, the Musica Festival in Strasburg, the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris and the Civitella-Ranieri Foundation. Lazkano currently holds a composition professor position at the Music Academy of the Basque Country Musikene. He programmed the contemporary music series of the Quincena Musical festival in San Sebastián (2003-2015), is an active member and a former president of the Basque Association of Composers Musikagileak, and has been invited to give masterclasses and seminars in many international academies such as the Peter Eötvös Foundation, Royal Academy in London, Cornell University in New York, CNSM in Paris, Hochschüle für Musik in Berlin, Freiburg, Graz and Frankfurt, Synthetis Summer Course in Poland, Académie Ravel in Saint-Jean de Luz, Festival Mixtur in Barcelona, ...
recent work
La Main gauche, his opera after Jean Echenoz's novel Ravel, focuses on the mental imprisonment and the loss of the linguistic functions during Ravel's last years. Written for three voices and a chamber orchestra and commissioned by Festival Ravel and Ensemble Intercontemporain, the staged premiere conducted by Pierre Bleuse took place in October 2025 at the Paris Philharmonie.
Mare Maginis, a piano concerto commissioned by Radio France, Euskadiko Orkestra and WDR Köln for Alexandre Tharaud, explores an acoustic territory where one reckons on familiar signs. The virtuosity, the dialogues, the dramatic display are set in two mirroring versions with differently sized orchestras (Pleine Lune and Nouvelle Lune) where the same trajectory and sound content show the heads and tails of the proposal. The premieres were conducted by Robert Trevino with the Euskadiko Orkestra and Sylvain Cambreling with the WDR Orchester.
Préludes, a series of 19 chamber music pieces intertwined with Chopin’s opus 28, was written for the Ensemble Cairn and has been premiered in Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany and Hungary; a cd by bastille musique was released in September 2025 .
Ziaboga for 29 musicians summarizes the ideas on flow, trajectory and unveiling of the matter in an instrumental environment. Conducted by Matthias Pintscher at its premiere in 2019, this work was commissioned by the Ensemble Intercontemporain.
Actual sound residue, the weight of ergonomics in the instrumental playing as well as the obsolescence of the tools as a reflector of the fossilisation of the musical memories are the main ideas found in recent works such as Irarki commissioned by the Witten Musiktage, A Glitch at the Edge for the Grossman Ensemble, ZIlarbizi for saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl and Irarki 3 for the Trio Catch.
the laboratory of chalks
Between 2001 and 2011, Ramon Lazkano worked on Igeltsoen Laborategia (Chalk Laboratory), a large collection of chamber music pieces divided into various cycles, which echo sculptor Jorge Oteiza's "experimental laboratory" and more particularly the concept of chalk as a matter of inscription, erosion and memory linked to childhood. The aesthetic purpose of the Laboratory led to Mugarri (2010), commissioned by the Spanish Association of Symphony Orchestras, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra and its conductor Ernest Martínez-Izquierdo. The pieces of the Laboratory were premiered in Austria, Germany, Poland, Mexico, France and Spain; the ensemble recherche in Frankfurt, Ensemble 2e2m in Paris, Ars Musica in Brussels and Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles programmed portrait concerts of the Laboratory, and two monography cd's were recorded by ensemble recherche and Smash ensemble.
words and sediments
The works following the Laboratory not only pay new attention to the architecture and the duration as in Lurralde, written for the Quatuor Diotima, but also adopt engaged texts by Rosa Luxemburg (Eine Ehrenpflicht) and Edmond Jabès in the vocal works written for the Neue Vocalsolisten (Main Surplombe at Ars Musica Brussels 2013 and Ceux à Qui at Stuttgart Éclat Festival 2015). The latter got its USA premiere with the Neue Vocalsolisten and Ensemble Talea in New York in 2016, while the Paris Festival d'Automne offered a portrait in several concerts including the commission and the premiere of Ravel (Scènes) based on Jean Echenoz’s book. The festival Présences at Radio France completed this portrait in 2017 with the premiere of Etze by the Quatuor Diotima and the Diptyque Jabès. In June 2015, the Ensemble Musikfabrik conducted by Peter Rundel premiered Erlantz (commissioned by the Siemens Foundation and the Goethe Institut), and in 2017 the Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo commissioned Hondar for orchestra, premiered that same year and recorded with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic and Pierre-André Valade.
an orchestra trilogy (2001-2006)
His fellowships in Rome (at the Royal Academy of Spain and at the Academy of France ) allowed him to carry out a reflection on the meaning of composition, focusing on intertextuality, silence and the experience of sound, all of which gave birth to emblematic pieces as Ilunkor (commissioned by the Euskadiko Orkestra Sinfonikoa), Hauskor (a commission by the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid) and Ortzi Isilak (commissioned by the Orquesta Nacional de España). In June 2012, Peter Eötvös conducted Ilunkor with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester at the Munich Musica Viva series, while the Venice Biennale programmed Ortzi Isilak with Shizuyo Oka and the Basque National Orchestra conducted by José Ramón Encinar in 2014. Kairos Music published a cd with the three orchestra works conducted by Johannes Kalitzke (Ilunkor, Ortzi Isilak, Hauskor).
festivals & interpreters
Lazkano's music has been premiered by conductors such as Robert Trevino, Sylvain Cambreling, Peter Eötvös, Matthias Pintscher, Tito Ceccherini, Lawrence Foster, Baldur Brönnimann, Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, Brad Lubman, Peter Rundel, Johannes Kalitzke, Pascal Rophé, Manuel Nawri, Josep Pons, Juanjo Mena, Pierre-André Valade (among others) and performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra, Orchestra della RAI a Torino, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Hermitage Orchestra, National Orchestra of Spain, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, and the ensembles Intercontemporain, recherche, Smash, Musikfabrik, Talea, l'Instant Donné, Neue Vocalsolisten, Diotima, Wiener Collage, Cairn, Ictus, Taller Sonoro, Kuraia, Mosaik, Grossman, Smash, Synchronos, 2e2m, Feedback, Sigma, Wiener Collage, Sinkro, Vertixe Sonora, Sigma Project, ...
Among the festivals: Focus, Takefu, Ensems, Resis, Festival Ravel, Wittener Musiktage, Musik der Zeit, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Éclat, Monday Evening Concerts Los Angeles, Biennale Venezia, Ars Musica Bruselas, Musica Viva, Unerhörte Musikreihe, Festival de Alicante, Festival Hispano Mexicano Puentes, Impuls, Salzburg Biennale, Ultraschall Berlín, Festival Internacional de Monterrey, Warsaw Autumn, Moscow Autumn, Printemps des Arts Monte-Carlo, Musica Strasbourg, Présences Radio France, LA Philharmonic Green Umbrella New Music Series... Lazkano has as well been involved in several educational projects developing young people's sensitivity to contemporary musical expression.