Continuum XXI
Ensemble Modern
hr-Bigband
hr-Sinfonieorchester
IEMA-Ensemble 2025/26
Synergy Vocals
Trondheim Voices
Alberto Arroyo
Hed Bahack
Sylvain Cambreling
Helena Cánovas Parés
Pia Davila
Caio de Azevedo
Justine Emard
Bernard Foccroulle
Georg Friedrich Haas
John Hollenbeck
Eloain Lovis Hübner
Justė Janulytė
Michael Jarrell
Malika Kishino
Eungjin Lee
Lucie Leguay
Leon Liang
Brad Lubman
Sarah Nemstov
Felicitas Magdalena Pfaus
Julian Prégardien
Steve Reich
Diego Ramos Rodríguez
Rebecca Saunders
Yixie Shen
Miroslav SRNKA
Toby Thatcher
Thierry Tidrow
Stefan Weiller
Adriane Westerbarkey
Haotian Yu
Artist
© Sinje HasheiderHelena Cánovas Parés
Helena Cánovas Parés was born in Tona, Barcelona in October 1994; she is a freelance composer. In 2017, she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in composition from the Conservatory of Aragón (Zaragoza). During the last year of her studies, she received a scholarship for an artist residency at the Etopia Centro de Arte y Tecnología in Zaragoza.
She currently lives in Cologne, Germany, where she graduated with two master’s degrees, one in composition/instrumental music (Marcus Hechtle) and another in composition/electronic music (Michael Beil), from the Academy of Music and Dance.
Her compositions have been created in collaboration with ensembles such as Musikfabrik, FRAMES Percussion, the Meitar Ensemble, the Trio Catch and handwerk. She has received commissions from the Acht Brücken Festival, the Bielefeld Theatre, the Münster Theatre and Forum Neue Musik, among others.
Helena Cánovas Parés is a recipient of the scholarship Beca Artística Ciutat de Vic (2019), the D-bü-Preis (2020) with her colleagues from the Oops Kollektiv, as well as a Neustart Kultur stipend in 2022. She won the second edition of the Carmen Mateu Young Artist European Award of the Fundació Castell de Peralada in 2021. She is also an alumna of the academy Musiktheater Heute (2022-2024).
Her interest in curatorial work, education and public relations has taken her to further interesting positions. Since 2019, Helena Cánovas Parés has been the artistic director of the festival AvantGarten Liedberg and was part of the education team ›Junge Oper‹ at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in 2022/23 and 2023/24. In addition, Helena Cánovas Parés went through several training phases, from her conservatory education in Spain to composition workshops at various institutions. Helena Cánovas Parés is currently a docent at the University in Münster.
She finds inspiration in films by Jacques Tati or Aki Kaurismäki, texts by Remedios Zafra, Dubravka Ugrešić and Goran Petrović, or the paintings of Leonora Carrington, Ethel Adnan and Xenia Hausner. Her sonic palette could be described as somewhere between documentary and dreamy, and she often visits spaces that might be abandoned, cold, humorous, kitschy or fresh.