Nicolás Benavides
About this Artist
Nicolás Lell Benavides’ (Ben-ah-VEE-des) music has been praised for finding “…a way to sketch complete characters in swift sure lines…” (Anne Midgette, Washington Post) and cooking up a “jaunty score [with] touches of cabaret, musical theater and Latin dance.” (Tim Smith, OPERA NEWS). He has received commissions from groups like The New York Philharmonic/The Juilliard School, Eighth Blackbird, New Century Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Hope, SFCM Orchestra with Edwin Outwater, West Edge Opera, Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Music of Remembrance, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Fry Street Quartet, Friction Quartet, and Khemia Ensemble. His music has received support from organizations such as the American Composers Forum, The Barlow Endowment, New Music USA, Opera America, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
In 2024, Nicolás was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, which will allow him to focus on upcoming projects including his Barlow Foundation commission for Eighth Blackbird, a new song cycle for oboist Anne Marie Gabriele and tenor Joshua Blue, and two opera projects including Dolores. His opera about civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, commissioned by West Edge Opera’s Aperture and now part of the Pacific Opera Initiative, will premiere with WEO, San Diego Opera, The BroadStage, and Opera Southwest in 2025. Dolores, with libretto by Marella Martin Koch, tells the story of a pivotal moment in civil and labor rights when the Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, and Larry Itliong coordinated the United Farm Workers to fight for Senator Bobby Kennedy be elected president to help with the Delano Grape Strike and Boycott. He is also developing an opera called Caravana de mujeres with librettist Laura Barati as part of MassOpera’s New Opera Workshop, which was a featured performance at Opera America’s New Works Forum.
He recently premiered Querencia with the New York Philharmonic and The Juilliard School Pre-College program, with support from the American Composers Forum as part of Composing Inclusion. He was a fellow at the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, where he was part of the Composing Earth initiative. Nicolás was the first ever Young Artist Composer in Residence at The Glimmerglass Festival and has been a fellow at the Del Mar International Composers Symposium. His music has been heard all over the United States, including as part of the California Festival with New Century Chamber Orchestra and The San Francisco Girls Chorus.
He premiered a new opera for Washington National Opera called Pepito with librettist Marella Martin Koch. He and Marella also premiered a new opera, Tres minutos, with Music of Remembrance in 2022 with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Other recent projects include an upcoming album on Innova with Friction Quartet and mezzo-soprano Melinda Martinez Becker, a dance piece called On Trac|< for The Glimmerglass Festival in collaboration with choreographer Amanda Castro, Little Cloud for Khemia Ensemble’s album Intersections, Lek for Fry Street Quartet and electronics, and Cuates for Lucia Lin and Shaw Pong Liu as part of the In Tandem series.
Nicolás has studied at Santa Clara University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.
IPA pronunciation: /nikoˈlas lel βenaˈvidez/ (Ni-co-LAS Lell Ben-ah-VEE-des)
pronouns: he/him/his