FULL BIOGRAPHY

An “undeniably exciting composer” (Opera News), Jimmy López is widely recognised as one of the most compelling and versatile voices in contemporary orchestral music. Praised for his “brilliant command of orchestral timbres and textures” and “virtuoso mastery of the modern orchestra,” his music is performed regularly by ensembles worldwide, including New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony and Orchestre symphonique de Montréal. 

The 2026–2027 season sees López continue his tenures as Composer‑in‑Residence with Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and San Diego Symphony. The residencies which span the 2025–2026 and 2026–2027 seasons, culminate in premiere performances conducted by Rafael Payare of a joint-commission of Symphony No. 6: Monarch, which draws inspiration from the migratory patterns of Monarch butterflies. During the 2 seasons, the orchestras present a wide range of his works, while López appears in pre-concert talks and panel discussions and works closely with the orchestras’ education departments’ community and mentorship programmes. Within season 26-27 OSM presents Symphony No 4: First Contact, and SDS presents his trombone concerto Shift which they also co-commissioned.

Also upcoming in the 26-27 season, violinist Blake Pouliot and pianist Henry Kramer premiere Memento Mei, which is inspired by Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas. There will also be performances of Symphony No.5: Fantastica with co-commissioner Bodensee Philharmonie Konstanz, Loud by San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Atlanta Symphony, and the premiere of the second movement of Symphony No. 4: Eclipse, entitled Umbra, by the BBC Concert Orchestra and Anna-Maria Helsing, along with performances of his piano concerto Ephemerae by Javier Perianes with Gustavo Gimeno and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and a performance of Dreamers in Oakland.

The 2025/26 season saw the premiere of a new wind quintet entitled On Love and Flesh written for both Ilmiö Ensemble and Wind Quintet of the Americas, and performances of López’s Trombone Concerto Shift with co-commissioner San Francisco Symphony, featuring soloist Timothy Higgins. In the 2024/25 season, López served as Mead Composer-Curator with Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), where he curated an evening of chamber music for CSO’s MusicNOW series. The 2023/24 season saw the world premiere of the first movement of Symphony No. 4: Eclipse, performed by Houston Symphony under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and the debut of his new song cycle Quiet Poems, written for tenor Michael Fabiano, which premiered at Arizona’s Tucson Desert Song Festival.

López’s critically acclaimed orchestral tone poem Aino (2022) was commissioned and premiered by Orchestre de Paris, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Klaus Mäkelä, and has since been performed in the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic and the USA. In December 2022, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and Catalyst Quartet gave the world premiere of López’s song cycle Airs for Mother at 92NY Center for Culture & Arts in New York. López’s piano concerto Ephemerae (2021), commissioned by London Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado and Philadelphia Orchestra, continues to receive performances by its dedicatee Javier Perianes. López’s Symphony No.3: Altered Landscape (2020), a project in collaboration with the Nevada Museum of Art, was premiered in May 2022 by Reno Philharmonic conducted by Laura Jackson. The work received its UK premiere in 2023 with BBC Concert Orchestra and Anna-Maria Helsing.

Among López’s earlier orchestral output is the ever-green Perú Negro (2012), which received its BBC Proms debut in 2023 with BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Klaus Mäkelä. The much-loved Fiesta! (2007) has received over 150 performances worldwide, making it one of the most-performed contemporary works in the orchestral repertoire.

Fascinated by works presented on a grand stage, López is best known for his 2015 opera, Bel Canto (based on Ann Patchett’s novel of the same name). Commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bel Canto was the bestselling opera of the company’s 2015-16 season, broadcast by PBS, and nominated at the 2016 International Opera Awards. His oratorio Dreamers received its world premiere in California in 2019 by Esa-Pekka Salonen and Philharmonia Orchestra.

López’s discography includes four portrait albums dedicated to his works, most notably 2022’s Aurora & Ad Astra, released by Pentatone and featuring Andrés Orozco-Estrada, violinist Leticia Moreno, and Houston Symphony. Aurora was nominated for a 2022 Latin GRAMMY award in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition. The same year, his song Where Once We Sang with lyrics by Mark Campbell was also recorded on Pentatone by mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and pianist Kirill Kuzmin.

López studied at the Lima National Conservatory of Music, completed a Master of Music degree from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, and holds a PhD from University of California, Berkeley. Peruvian-born and a naturalised American citizen, López lives in California.

Jimmy López is published by Birdsong Music Publishing and Filarmonika Music Publishing.

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2026/27 season only. Please contact Birdsong Music Publishing if you wish to edit this biography.