Gabriel Pareyon

Gabriel Pareyon
Gabriel Pareyon, 2003.
Background information
Born	1974
Origin	Mexico
Genres	Contemporary Music, Mexican composers, 21st century music
Occupation(s)	Composer & musicologist
Years active	1995 – present

Gabriel Pareyon (born October 23, 1974, Zapopan, Jalisco) is a polymathic Mexican composer and musicologist, who has published literature on topics of philosophy and linguistics.

He has a Ph.D. in musicology from the University of Helsinki, where he studied with Eero Tarasti (2006–2011). He received bachelor's and master's degrees in composition at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague (2000–2004), where he studied with Clarence Barlow. He also studied at the Composers’ Workshop of the National Conservatoire of Music, Mexico City (1995–1998), with Mario Lavista.

Pareyon's output is specially known by Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli (2011), the first modern opera in the Americas that exclusively uses a Native American language (Nahuatl in this case) as well as music instruments native to Mexico.

As young composer (from 2006 and earlier), several works written by Pareyon were selected for the Thailand International Saxophone Competition for Composers (Bangkok, 2006, I Prize), the 2nd International Jurgenson Competition for young composers (Moscow, 2003, II Prize) and the 3rd Andrzej Panufnik International Composition Competition (Kraków, 2001, III Prize). His earlier production includes works for common objects (such as bottles, stones, etc.) as well as for classical (European) instruments and ensembles. He also experimented with Mexican traditional instruments (such as huehuetl, teponaztli and a wide variety of woodwinds), and metre and phonetics from Nahuatl and Hñähñu.