«Creator with multiple influences who started with the
electric guitar, moving in his youth from progressive rock
to instrumental rock and jazz fusion, to then focus on traditional Indian music and early music, before finding in the
contemporary music his true field of expression.»
[Accents – Ensemble Intercontemporain Webmag, Jéremie Szpirglas]
Aurélio Edler-Copes's work is recognized for its intensity, dynamism and considerable dramatic force. His artistic research has led him to electrify acoustic instruments and merge them with electric instruments in unique electronic setups, which integrate analog and digital in real time, exploring also interactive light and video setups.
A highly active creator, he collaborates with prestigious soloists and ensembles (Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Musikfabrik, United Instruments of Lucilin, Quatuor Diotima, Quatuor Béla, Nieuw Ensemble, L'Itinéraire, Mosaik, Vortex, Taller Sonoro, Orchestras of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, Bilbao, Euskadi, Lorraine, et al.) and has received some thirty international composition prizes, , in particular the New Forum Jeune Création Prize, the "Premio Roma" of the Spanish Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the Georges Wildenstein Prize of the French Académie de Beaux Arts.
He has been composer in residence at the Royal Academy of Spain in Rome, the Casa de Velázquez–Académie de France in Madrid, and KulturKontakt–Federal Chancellery of Austria, in Vienna. He has also worked in residence at IRCAM, GRAME, GMEM, SCRIME, Phonos Foundation, Royaumont Foundation and with the Ensemble Taller Sonoro, with the support of Ibermúsicas Program. He has been co-founder and artistic director of the Krater Ensemble and associate composer of the Cie. Éclats. He is co-curator of the new radiophonic concert series Live.Bazar, in Paris.
In addition to his work as a composer, Aurélio Edler-Copes regularly acts as performer of electronics and electric guitar in his pieces as well as in the programs that accompany them, thus linking the contemporary repertoire including electric guitar and electronics with his own works. This is the case of his recent collaborations with United Instruments of Lucilin, the Ensemble l'Itinéraire and Bazar Électrique. In 2017 he released IN C+50, his first solo CD, which brings a new version of Terry Riley’s In C, for electric guitar, 17 virtual delays and 8-channel spatialization, in addition to a new work of him, In Resonance, for the same setup. IN C+50 has been presented in concert in France, Austria, Spain, Sweden and Brazil.
Aurélio Edler-Copes earned a bachelor degree in classical guitar with Daniel Wolff at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul–UFRGS, Brazil, and in composition with Gabriel Erkoreka at the Centro Superior de Música del País Basco–Musikene. He also earned a master's in composition and musical theater with Georges APERGHIS at the Hochschule der Künste Bern–HKB, Switzerland, and completed his training in the Cursus of Composition and Computer Music at IRCAM–Centre Pompidou in Paris. He is teacher of composition and electronics at the Conservatoire Henry Dutilleux de Clamart in the south region of Paris.