The Foundation for Iberian Music is delighted to welcome two new visiting researchers for the 2019, Nuria Blanco Álvarez and Isaac Diego García.

 Nuria holds a PhD in musicology from the University of Olviedo and specializes in 19th century zarzuela (Spanish musical theater). Her primary research interests are the music of composer Manuel Fernández Caballero (1835-1906) and the relationship of zarzuela to silent films. She writes for Codalario and Scherzo magazines, and her scholarly publications include “El dúo de La africana: Un hito en la historia de la zarzuela”, “Bribonas estropajosas”, “El compositor Manuel Fernández Caballero (1835-1906)”, “Cervantes en la música de Caballero”, “Los últimos días del gran Caballero”, “Chateaux Margaux y La viejecita, dos joyas en la Zarzuela”, “Peña y Goñi versus Caballero. Una polémica en la prensa: La marsellesa (1876)” and “De Julio Verne a Miguel Ramos Carrión: Los sobrinos del capitán Grant (1877)”.

Isaac is a musicologist, composer, sound artist, performer, singer, and a professor at Universidad Internacional de la Rioja in Madrid. He is a member of Spain’s Association for Electro-acoustic Music (AMEE), which the Foundation for Iberian Music has collaborated with several times in recent years to present sound-art performances and symposiums in NYC. With AMEE’s Ferrer-Molina and Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, Isaac co-authored a report on the history and status of sound art and experimental music in Spain for Harvard’s Observatory of the Spanish Language and Hispanic Cultures in the US. Since 2008 Isaac Diego has been the artistic director and conductor of Proyecto 23, a vocal group dedicated to experimental music and intermedia art. He is also the founder and conductor of Ars Vocem, an early music ensemble.