Joan Josep Gutiérrez

Barcelona, 1957

Activities: Composition, musical research, piano performance, piano teacher.

Studies: Autonomous University of Barcelona (Master's Degree in Musicology and Musical Education), University of Barcelona (Postgraduate Degree in Management of Educational Centers), Barcelona Municipal Superior Conservatory of Music (Senior Professor).

Born in Barcelona into a family of artists, he began playing the piano at the Ars Nova Academy with Margarita Serrat, then continued his studies at the Municipal Superior Conservatory of Music with Carme Vilà (piano) and teachers Josep Poch, Manuel Oltra, Carles Guinovart and Josep Soler, among others. He expanded his studies in various courses in analysis, composition and performance, receiving advice from, among other teachers, Rosa Sabater and José Mª Pinzolas (piano) and Lleonard Balada (composition). While studying baccalaureate, he began playing the organ and repairing and restoring piano mechanics (Jorquera Pianos, Barcelona), which would mark his interest and knowledge of keyboard instruments. Among his instruments, in addition to several modern pianos, there is a harpsichord, a Christophe-Etienne harmonium from 1900 and a Collard & Collard, late Clementi Square piano from 1843.

As a performer, he forms a piano duo with Marina Rodríguez Brià, with whom he has made several recordings and has performed in Catalonia and Spain, Colombia and Germany.

As a composer, he has won several awards with works dedicated to children's choirs and sardanas for cobla. He is a member of the Catalan Composers' Association. He has written works for piano, piano four hands, voice and piano, chamber, choir and orchestra, as well as many didactic works. With the composer Mariona Vila they published the two volumes of piano pieces “Toquem el piano” (Clivis, Barcelona 1986), based on traditional Catalan music, a book that was awarded by the Ministry of Culture in 1988. Later, he published “Juegos de manos” commissioned by Real Musical editions, a children’s repertoire book for four-hand piano that proposes exercises characteristic of the piano duet technique (Ed. Real Musical, 1997 Madrid).  He has also published songs and chamber music with the Dinsic publishing house in Barcelona. He has recently published works for piano with Brotons & Mercadal edicions. In 2003 he conducted the premiere of his cantata “Castell cósmic”, for children’s choirs and symphony orchestra, on a text by Marina Rodríguez Brià, within the framework of the events celebrating the Millenary of Sant Cugat. In December 2007 he premiered the cantata “Betlem”, for choirs and chamber orchestra, commissioned by Camerata Sant Cugat and edited by Boileau.

On several occasions he has been a guest lecturer on the Master's Degree in Musicology and Musical Education at the Autonomous University. He has also been invited as a speaker on the course "Simetry: from the crystal to the universe" of Els Juliols de la UB (2015), on the course "Un viatge musical amb Clementi" of the Gaudir UB courses (2016), on the course "Anglaterra al volant d'un piano" of Els Juliols de la UB (2016) and on the course "The birth of the romantic piano" of the Gaudir UB courses (2019).

He was a piano teacher until 2023 at the Municipal School of Music Victòria dels Àngels/Conservatory of Sant Cugat del Vallès, where he was director for sixteen years, from 1996 to 2012. He is a founding member and vice president of the Muzio Clementi Association of Barcelona. He directs the project to search for pianos before 1850 in Catalonia. On this topic he has given several lectures and published articles in the journal of the Catalan Society of Musicology (2020 and 2023). He also writes for the digital magazine Sonograma. He is also co-author of a biography of Muzio Clementi (Arpegio, 2025)

More information: https://educacimusical.blogspot.com/