A composer of "turbulent fantasy" (Odessan Press, Ukraine), Miguel del Aguila has been hailed by critics as "a spontaneous creator" (El Pais, Montevideo)"armed with a distinctive compositional voice" (Los Angeles Times)and "a fine sense of direction and drama" (American Record Guide). Reviewers have found his music "unusual...superb" (Fanfare), "of obsessive vitality" (Wiener Zeitung, Vienna), "wonderfully expressive" (American Record Guide), "remarkable, strikingly rhythmic" (Der Landbote, Switzerland), and, no less, "thrilling and ghastly" (Kleine Zeitung, Austria).

On the CD Salón Buenos Aires (Bridge Records): "Latin American music is what animates Miguel del Aguila’s chamber works on Camerata San Antonio’s insightful rollercoaster through pieces spanning nearly a quarter of a century – a thrills-and-spills journey undertaken with evident affection. The insouciant toungue-in-cheekery of 'Presto II', and glittering caprice of 'Charango Capriccioso' act as preludes to the love-letter title track. . . 'Clocks' is a piano quintet shot through with tick-tocking inventiveness and the odd flight into whimsy."
-- Paul Riley, BBC Music Magazine (June 2010)

Conga-Line in Hell for large chamber ensemble (and arranged as Conga for full orchestra) sums up his style: Allan Kozinn remarked in the New York Times that it "sounds, at first, like idiosyncratic pop, and it touches on jazz and salsa before morphing briefly into a slow, lush Viennese dance, then back to speedy jazz." (November 2005).

• June 26, 2010 - Broken Rondo for english horn and orchestra, World Premiere
  Johanna Cox, David Lockington, IDRS Orchestra. International Double Reed Society Conference 2010. Norman, OK
• July 14, 2010 - Summer Song for oboe and piano
  Katsuya Watanabe, oboe, Sunheart-Music-Hall, Yokohama, Japan.
  also 7/23, 8/5, 8/31 in Tokyo, Osaka and Saitama
• Sept. 24, 2010 - Presto II for string quartet
  Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Grand Salon, Invalides, Paris
• October 18, 2010 - Wind Quintet No. 2
  Windscape, Manhattan School of Music, New York City
• February 2012 - The Fall of Cuzco for orchestra
  Winnipeg Symphony, Alexander Mickelthwate conducting: The 2nd performance of this Magnum Opus commission, premiered by the Nashville Symphony

American composer Miguel del Aguila was born 1957 in Uruguay. He moved to the US in 1978 and received his B.A. from San Francisco Conservatory. He then traveled to Vienna to further his musical studies. After ten years there, during which time he was active as a composer, pianist, conductor and music teacher, he returned in 1992 to live in Southern California. Numerous premieres of his works followed, and in 1994 local critics chose him "resident music man of the year" (Los Angeles Times) and to "cap the list of our top 10 people to watch" (The Star). He was honored with a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1995 and a California Arts Council Artist in Residence Award in 1996. Miguel del Aguila's catalog of over 50 compositions includes opera, orchestra, choral, solo, and chamber works, as well as music for theater and TV.

His orchestral works have been commissioned and performed by the Welsh BBC Symphony, Odessa Philharmonic, Budapest Youth Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Tucson, Santa Barbara, Long Beach, Ventura, and New West Symphony orchestras, New York's Cosmopolitan Symphony, the New Juilliard Ensemble, the American Music Ensemble-Vienna, the Mendocino Festival Orchestra, the Ojai Camerata, the Bach Camerata, and by university orchestras in the US and abroad. The long list of performers of Aguila's chamber music includes renowned European, Asian and American ensembles and soloists, as well as members of such orchestras as the Berlin, Vienna, Oslo, Dresden, and Moscow Philharmonics.

Premieres of his works in international music festivals and concert series have been broadcast worldwide by ORF-Austria, BBC, RAI, Ukrainian TV, Slovenian Radio. Eight of his orchestral and chamber works have been recorded on CD by Metro, Albany, and the ACA labels in the US, and by SONY-Austria and KKM-Vienna in Europe. Recent CD releases include Presto II on New Albion, performed by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano, and Woodwind Quintet No. 2 on Helicon, performed by the Borealis Woodwind Quintet.

The numerous awards received by Aguila for his work include: California Arts Council Artist in Residence Award, 1996; Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, 1995; several Meet The Composer Awards; City of Ventura Arts Fellowship, 1994 and 1995; and first prizes in United Students Of The Americas Competition (New York 1988), Olympiad Of The Arts (California, 1984), and the AEMUS and Jeunesses Musicales Competitions (Montevideo '77 and '78). An active pianist and conductor, Miguel del Aguila performed as soloist with several orchestras and directed numerous ensembles. He has appeared at Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Hall in NY, and at Konzerthaus and Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna. He was the conductor and music director of the Ojai Camerata from 1995-1999.

To Miguel del Aguila's home page