Bio

Iván Fernández la Banca (Uruguay, 1976) is a composer, pianist and software developer. He holds a degree in Composition from the Escuela Universitaria de Música (UdelaR, Montevideo) and a piano teaching diploma from the Conservatorio Municipal de Maldonado, and his training blends a rigorous grounding in the academic tradition with a constant exploration of contemporary languages.

His catalogue, which opens with a 1999 trio for violin, cello and piano, spans more than two decades and a wide range of formats: chamber music, orchestral works, a substantial body of percussion pieces, electroacoustic music and chamber opera. His premiered works include Magneto X (2003) and El Esfuerzo de los Inmortales (2007) for percussion ensemble, the electroacoustic pieces Fon (2003), Epsilon Eri (2007) and Keid (2017, for eight channels), and a cycle for solo marimba, Álbum para un Cyborg, whose movements were performed across several concerts between 2012 and 2017. His work often draws on astrophysical imagery —stars, constellations and cosmic phenomena give titles to much of his output— a thread that culminates in Hipernova (2018), his most ambitious project.

Hipernova, a chamber opera of some sixty to seventy minutes for three soloists, choir, eleven instrumentalists and live-processed electronics, with music and libretto by the composer, was commissioned by Púlsar – Conciertos Contemporáneos through Uruguay's 2017 Fondos Concursables (Ministry of Education and Culture) and premiered in October 2018 at the Sala Zavala Muniz of the Teatro Solís. His music has also travelled abroad: in 2013 the Lemmensinstituut in Leuven (Belgium) invited him to take part in the rehearsals and world premiere of Ubicuo —a concerto for marimba and four percussionists commissioned for the occasion— alongside his Compositional Study No. 5. More recently, his trio La Cola del Diablo (Bagatela), for violin, marimba and piano, was awarded Second Prize in the Classical/Contemporary category of Uruguay's 2025 National Music Awards.

A working pianist, he has built a career as an accompanist, among others, with the National Ballet School of SODRE. His work is equally shaped by programming: trained in C/C++, Java and Flutter, he integrates computational tools into his creative process —from Csound synthesis and Max/MSP patches to his own algorithms for generating compositional material— and works as a freelance developer.

Based in Montevideo, Iván Fernández continues to compose, revise works from his catalogue, and explore the meeting points between music, science and technology.