On 13 February 2013, the Rafael del Pino Foundation organised the presentation of the book "Inteligencia musical" written by íñigo Pírfano.
"What is music for? Why can it move me? Do you need special training to understand and enjoy it? What are the keys to lead an orchestra efficiently? How do you manage talent? How do you acquire the necessary greatness to perform a Beethoven symphony? These are some of the many questions that Íñigo Pirfano answers in this book. Combining his condition as an entrepreneur, orchestra conductor and philosopher, the author helps us to approach one of the realities that has fascinated men of all times.
Musical Intelligence is not only an extraordinary book about music -which would already be a lot- but, from music, it offers a multitude of fresh and surprising ideas perfectly applicable to other human realities: emotional life and interpersonal relationships, management and leadership skills, the development of spiritual facets and one's own inner wealth... This book will surely open up unsuspected horizons for the reader".
Íñigo Pirfano was born in Bilbao in 1973. He studied music theory, piano and harmony while studying philosophy, which he completed at the Complutense University of Madrid.
In 1997 he entered the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst "Mozarteum" in Salzburg (Austria), where he studied conducting, choir and opera with Karl Kamper, co-repetition with Wolfgang Niessner and piano with Karl Wagner. There he graduated in conducting with the highest qualification (Auszeichnung). In 1998 he conducted with great success the extraordinary concert at the Schloss Frohnburg of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, in which, besides performing works by Stravinsky and Falla, he premiered works by young composers of the Seminar für neue Musik of that school. Subsequently, he studied with Sir Colin Davis in Dresden and with Karl-Heinz Bloemeke and Kurt Masur in Detmold (Germany).
In 2002 he made his operatic debut with a production of El Retablo de Maese Pedro by Manuel de Falla - highly praised by the specialised critics - on the occasion of a tribute by the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid to the figure of Miguel de Cervantes. As for his work as a composer, in 1998 he was commissioned to compose, orchestrate and conduct the original soundtrack for the feature film El Sudor de los Ruiseñores, for which he was nominated -together with Lalo Schifrin- for the award for best music by the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos. Subsequently, he premiered with great success his Quatre Alcools for mezzo-soprano and orchestra at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid. In 2004 he was commissioned by the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha to compose the official music for the celebration of the 4th Centenary of the publication of Don Quixote.
He has conducted in the main cities of our geography, as well as in Germany, Austria and Poland, with orchestras such as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi, Sinfónica de Bilbao, Stettin Philharmonic, Frohnburg Ensemble of Salzburg, Bundeswettbewerb Orchestra "Jugend Musiziert" or the Orquestra Filharmònica de la Universitat de València, always obtaining the unanimous praise of the critics and the public. He is the founder and chief conductor of the Orquesta Académica de Madrid, with which he has given around one hundred concerts in recent years. He has recently been awarded the Rafael del Pino Foundation's Young Leadership Award for his work at the helm of the orchestra.
