Carlos Franzetti

From symphonies to big band jazz, from chamber works to Latin American music and film scores – Carlos Franzetti has no limits. He is a 2006 Grammy Nominee in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition for his opera, “Corpus Evita,” a double 2003 Grammy Nominee for “Poeta de Arrabal,” in the categories of Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement, and the winner of the 2001 Latin Grammy Award for Best Tango Album, “Tango Fatal.” Carlos Franzetti has received many outstanding grants and awards, including the 2002 New Jersey Council on the Arts Composers’ Fellowship, The Yamaha Composers Award, The Trofeu Laus from Spain, a Clio Award, The Prensario Award, ACE Award and Premio Konex from Argentina, The Foundation for New American Music, The Penfield Music Commission Project, several grants from Meet The Composer, and two gold records. Mr. Franzetti adjudicates for SGAE and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation .
Carlos Franzetti’s compositions and arrangements have most recently been performed by the New World Symphony and at the Moab Music Festival; this summer he conducted his arrangements of music by Steve Kuhn (with Mr. Kuhn performing) at the Caramoor Festival. Collaborations with major orchestras include the opening concert of the VI International Music Festival in Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon with the Orquesta de la Plata, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony (Washington, D.C.), the St. Louis Symphony, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the National Symphony of Mexico, the National Symphony of Argentina, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, the Czech National Symphony, the City of Prague Philharmonic,The Sejong Solists,Modus Chamber Orchestra, the Janacek Philharmonic, the Bratislava Radio Orchestra, and orchestras in Mexico, Venezuela, Spain, Sweden, Norway and France.He performs and records with jazz artists Eddie Gomez,Arturo Sandoval, Steve Kuhn, David Sanchez,Miguel Zenon,Terence Blanchard, Jane Monheit, Jon Faddis, and Paquito D’Rivera and scores films for major producers and directors Sidney Lumet, Alan Pakula, Jerry Schatzberg, Harry Belafonte, and Edgardo Cozarinsky. Credits include “La Pelicula del Rey,” “Q&A,” “Misunderstood,” “Beat Street,” “The Mambo Kings,” “See You in the Morning,” “Dans le rouge du couchant,” “Ronda Nocturna,” and “Tango Fatal.”
2006 recordings include “Songs for Lovers” on Chesky Records. 2005 recordings by Carlos Franzetti are “Corpus Evita, an Opera in Two Acts” on Amapola Records and “Carlos Franzetti and the Jazz Kamerata,” on Chesky Records. 2004 recordings are his double CD, “Reflexiones,” on Amapola Records, “Promises Kept” with Steve Kuhn on ECM Records, and the Grammy Nominee/Latin Grammy Winner “Coral” with David Sanchez on Sony Records. “Carlos Franzetti - You Must Believe in Spring” was released on Amapola Records in May 2003 and EMI Argentina in October 2004. He conducted, arranged, and co-produced the 1997 Grammy Award Winner, “Portraits of Cuba” for Chesky Records. Music Director of Orquesta Nova, his 2 CDs for Chesky Records received international critical acclaim. Several works are included on “Images Before Dawn – Symphonic Music of Carlos Franzetti,” for Premier Recordings. World premieres and recordings of his compositions include “Concierto del Plata” for guitar and chamber orchestra, released by Klavier Records, “Millenium Concerto for Flute and Orchestra,” commissioned by the Municipal Government of Buenos Aires, Argentina and premiered in September 1999, and “Piano Concerto No. 2,” commissioned by the Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires as part of their 50th Anniversary season and premiered in September, 1996 at the Teatro Colon. This concerto is included on a CD with “Sinfonia No. 1,” released by Amapola Records. Sinfonia No. 1” was performed by the Bratislava Radio Orchestra in November 2000, the Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon in July 2003, and the National Symphony of Mexico in February 2005. Other projects include the 1999 Grammy Award Nominee, “Remembrances,” for Chesky Records, the 1999 Grammy Award Nominee, “Obsesion,” for Sony Records, produced by Branford Marsalis, “Tango” with the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra, released on DMP Records, and the 2002 Latin Grammy Nominee “Tango Bar” on Chesky Records.
A citizen of the United States for many years, Carlos Franzetti was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1948. He began his musical studies at age 6 at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires. He later studied piano privately with Guillermo Iscla and Lucia Maranca and composition with Manuel Juarez. During the years 1971 - 1973 he studied composition with Humberto Hernandez Medrano in Mexico. After coming to the United States in 1974, he studied conducting with Vincent LaSelva at the Juilliard School.
Biographies of Carlos Franzetti are listed in Latin American Classical Composers Second Edition by Michel Ficher and Furman Schleifer, published by Scarecrow Press, Maryland 2002, The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, published by MacMillan Press Ltd., London 1988, Diccionario de Compositores, published by La Nacion/Corregidor, Buenos Aires 1998, and Chronology of Western Classical Music Volume 2 by Charles J. Hall, published by Rutledge Great Britain Taylor & Francis Books, Inc.