Jorge Amado, COmposer-In-Residence
Jorge Amado graduated with highest honors in violin and music theory from the National School of Music (ENA) in 2016. He later earned a Summa Cum Laude degree in Composition and Violin from the University of the Arts of Cuba (ISA), studying under Professors Juan Piñera and Carmen Amador, respectively. During this time received master classes in composition from Eddie Mora, Ileana Pérez, Martin Rokeach, and Boris Alvarado.
He later earned a Master's degree with distinction in Composition from DePaul University in Chicago in 2024, studying with Dr. Christopher Wendell Jones and Dr. Osnat Netzer. During this time, he has performed with DePaul’s +20 Ensemble, directed by Michael Lewanski, and served as a Teaching Assistant in Aural Training and Music Theory.
As a composer and performer, Amado has participated in numerous festivals and events, including the XII Chamber Music Festival (2015), the Havana Contemporary Music Festival (2016–2019, 2021, 2022), the Havana Mozart Festival (2019), the Austin Chamber Music Festival (2017, USA), the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival (2018, 2022, USA), Mozart+Festival (2022, Salzburg), Young Euro Classic (2023, Berlin), and the Rheingau Musik Festival (2023, Germany), among others. In 2019, he took part in Habana Clásica, where he performed a concert featuring instruments built by the lutherie workshop of the Office of the Historian of Havana. All pieces were his own compositions, performed by the Impulsus String Quartet under his direction. He has also performed at Septiembre Barroco (2019), Festival Música Nova (1st edition), Festival Música Sacra (2019, 2020), and Festival La Ruta de Mozart (2020, 2021), among others.
Amado's music is a vibrant fusion of Afro-Cuban heritage, characterized by dynamic energy, well-crafted compositions, and a profound spiritual essence inspired by Santeria rituals and traditional Cuban dance music.
In July 2023, Amado performed as a violinist and composer with the Cuban American Youth Orchestra, conducted by Maestra Daiana García. The concert, held at Minnesota Orchestra Hall for International Music Day, featured Jon Kimura Parker as host and included the premiere of Amado’s chamber orchestra version of Del Canto y la Rítmica.
In August 2023, Catalyst Quartet and Gabriel Cabezas performed the New York premiere of Amado’s Relatos Mágicos, a quintet commissioned by Catalyst Quartet.
In October 2023, his Concertino for flute, viola, cello, and strings premiered at Merkin Hall in New York, performed by Eight Strings & a Whistle as soloists with the United Nations Orchestra under the baton of Predrag Vasić.
His works have been performed by numerous Cuban and international ensembles, including Cuarteto de Cuerdas Habana, Camerata Romeu, Orquesta de Cámara de La Habana, Orquesta del Lyceum de La Habana, and the National Symphony of Cuba. Internationally, his music has been performed by Catalyst Quartet, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Eight Strings & a Whistle, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, Fear No Music
Ensemble, and the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic (USA); José White String Quartet (Mexico); Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia (Costa Rica); and the Cuban American Youth Orchestra (Cuba-USA). Recently, musicians from the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra have also included his works in their chamber concerts series.
Amado’s recent commission, entitled Marabuzal, from the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, was premiered in March, 2025 at Zankel Hall, marking his Carnegie Hall debut.
Amado has been recognized in various competitions, winning First Prize at the Harold Gramatges Composition Contest (UNEAC, 2015, 2021), the 8SW Composition Competition (2018, USA), and the Nuestra América String Quartet Composition Competition (2019, Mexico). He was also a finalist in the Alfred Schnittke Competition and Composers Forum (Ukraine, 2016) and won the Ojalá Symphonic Creation Award (2018), chaired by the renowned Cuban composer Leo Brouwer. Additional accolades include the Conmutaciones Musical Creation Grant (2019), the Ibero-American Performance Award (2020), and the Cubadisco 2022 Award in two categories for his first monographic album Ofrenda. In 2020, he received the Joven Intérprete Award from Iberorquestas Juveniles, and his work La Cesta was selected as a mandatory piece for Cuba’s National Competition of Lyrical Singing (2022).
In 2023, he was nominated for a Jeff Award for original music alongside Orbert Davis for their score in Measure for Measure, directed by Henry Godinez at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
In 2023, the Havana Lyceum Orchestra embarked on a European tour, during which they performed Amado’s piece La danza de los fugitivos in prestigious venues such as Konzerthaus Berlin and Wiener Konzerthaus, among others.
Amado has composed music for feature films, documentaries, video dances, and short films, notably El Mundo de Nelsito, directed by renowned Cuban filmmaker Fernando Pérez. He has also collaborated as a composer and arranger with Danza Contemporánea de Cuba.
His work has been featured in multiple recordings, both national and international. His compositions appear on …And Nothing Remains the Same… by Eight Strings & a Whistle (Ravello Records), featuring Eidos II, and Nuestra América 2019-2020, the latest album by José White String Quartet, which includes his String Quartet No. 6 Carnavalesco. Additionally, he was commissioned to compose a work for an album produced in Belgium for accordionist Didier Laloy.
Amado has shared the stage with renowned musicians such as Orbert Davis, Jon Kimura Parker, Niurka González, Nicole Mitchell, Ensemble Dal Niente, Tomeka Reid, and Augusto Blanca. In Havana, he has also collaborated as an arranger with the embassies of Poland, Portugal, Italy, and Norway for various concerts.
His compositions have been performed in Cuba, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Costa Rica, France, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain. His catalog spans solo works, chamber music, electroacoustic pieces, and six symphonic works, including Concerto No. 1 for Violin and Orchestra "Equinoccio", which won the Ojalá Symphonic Creation Competition (2018) and was premiered with Amado as soloist alongside the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, conducted by Maestro José Antonio Méndez.
In addition to his musical career, Amado has written articles for La Jiribilla and Toda la danza magazine as an essayist. He has also taught Music Analysis and Music History at the National School of Music and has worked as a music digitizer at Maestro Leo Brouwer's publishing house Ediciones Espiral Eterna.
He is a member of the Cuban Agency of Musical Copyright (ACDAM) and the General Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE).
He currently serves as Assistant to the Director for the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic and is composing for the Annapolis Chamber Music Festival, which has commissioned a new ensemble piece from him. Additionally, as Composer-in-Residence with Conjunto Antillano, an ensemble supported by the Caribbean Culture Fund, Amado is creating music that aims to reconnect Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba through their shared musical heritage. He is also scheduled to deliver composition lectures at schools and universities across these countries.