Julio Estrada

Works for Cello

Tres Instantes, for cello and piano

Canto Alterno, for cello solo

Yuunohui’yei, for cello and double bass

Julio Estrada

Mexican composer, historian and pedagogue, born April 10, 1943

Born in México City, México. Julio Estrada studied composition with Julián Orbón in Mexico (1953-65), Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen in Paris (1965-69), Karlheinz Stockhausen in Germany (1968) and with György Ligeti (1972). He completed his PhD in Musicology at Strasbourg University (1990-94). 

Estrada has served a a researcher in music at the UNAM Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas and help design the Música, Sistema Interactivo de Investigación y Composición. He was recognized as a National Researcher by the Mexican Education Ministry (1984) and was the first music scholar to be honored as a member of the Science Academy of México. He has written over one hundred articles based on his research and held the editor position of La Música de México. 

Many of his compositions are based on his discontinuum-continuum theory which integrates elements of macro timbre. His theories are mathematically and acoustically based which emphasize musical elements of sound, time and form. His compositions offer new notation for composers to freely transcribe for instrumental or vocal music through personal criteria. He is the recipient of the French award Ordre des Arts et de Lettres (1981, 1986), the Premio Universidad Nacional en Creación Artística (2000) and the Medalla Bellas Artes (2016).