Agustí Fernández (Palma de Mallorca, 1954), with a perfectly based career and a well-deserved international reputation, is one of the Spanish musicians of major international projection and a world reference in the field of improvised music. Fernández has worked with famous musicians of the free improvisation scene like Peter Kowald, Derek Bailey, Butch Morris, Evan Parker, Barry Guy, Mats Gustafsson, Joel Ryan and Peter Evans a.m.o. He is a member of the Blue Shroud Band, Mats Gustafsson NU Ensemble and Barry Guy New Orchestra. Up to the current date he has published more than 80 cd’s.
Agustí Fernández is one of the most important explorers of avant-garde music in Spain, combining his thorough knowledge of 20th-century modern classical piano with jazz free improvisation to a forge a unique and powerful style” (The Village Voice, New York).
He has also worked with the recognized composer of contemporary music Héctor Parra, who composed in collaboration with the pianist FREC, a solo for expanded piano. FREC has been premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in 2013 with the collaboration of the video artist Lucas Caraba.
He has conducted various improvised music ensembles like Ad Libitum Ensemble (Varsaw), Free Art Ensemble (Barcelona), Ansambl Studio 6 (Lujbljana) Orquesta FOCO (Madrid), Entenguerengue (Jérez de la Frontera), Impromtu Ensemble (Valencia), etc.
Awards and recognition
Along his professional life Agustí Fernández has received wide recognition. His solo for piano «Mutza» presented in New York in 2007 was distinguished by the New York magazine AllAboutJazz as one of 10 best concerts from that year. The CD «Un llamp que no s’acaba mai» on PSI (Agustí Fernández, John Edwards and Mark Sanders) has been distinguished by Allaboutjazz as one of the best 10 cd’s in 2009; the CD «Aurora» on Maya Recordings (Agustí Fernandez, Barry Guy and Ramón López) was selected by Cuadernos de Jazz magazine as the best CD in 2007, by the Jaç magazine as the best fourth disc of the history of the Catalan jazz and it was Disc d’émoi (February, 2007) for the French Jazz Magazine. The ”Agustí Fernández Aurora Trio” received the second prize at the BMW Welt Jazz Award 2012 celebrated in Münich, Germany.
In 2000 he received the Festival Altaveu Award, Sant Boi de Llobregat (Catalonia). In 2001 he received the FAD – Sebastià Guasch Award, Barcelona (Cataluña) with Andrés Corchero por el or the performance “A modo de esperanza”.
In 2010 he received the «Ciutat de Barcelona Music Award» granted by the Council of Barcelona. In 2013 he received the “National Prize of Culture” granted by the Catalan Government.
In 2011 Agustí Fernández was the main character of the documentary film “Los dedos huéspedes” by Lucas Caraba, which has been screened in several international festivals of documentary. In 2014 the Ad Libitum Festival (Warsaw) dedicated a monographic edition to celebrate Fernández’s 60th Birthday.
Teaching Activity
He’s professor of improvised music at the Escuela Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He’s developing an important teaching activity in the field of improvised music and, among other, he has been teaching in IRCAM in Paris, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre de Tallin, the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Holland), the Conservatory in Arhem (Holland), the Taller de Músicos in Gijón (Spain), the Taller de Músics in Barcelona (Spain) and the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Salamanca (Spain).