CARVAJAL, Ailem

Ailem Carvajal Gómez is a Cuban-Italian composer, pianist and music educator, born in Havana. She studied piano and music education in Cuba, followed by composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte with Carlos Fariñas and Harold Gramatges. She later completed further composition studies at the Arrigo Boito Conservatory in Parma. She has lived in Italy since 1997.
Carvajal writes contemporary classical music for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra and electronic media. Her musical language combines Cuban and Latin American elements with European modernism, improvisation and electroacoustic sound. Her works include En Tres for solo flute, Resonancias Lutum for bass clarinet and electronics, Gotas, Okan and Suite Caribeana. She also writes educational music for children and directs children’s choirs and orchestras through Musicalia Children, the organisation she founded in 1999.
Her works have been commissioned by institutions and ensembles including La Scala in Milan, the Reina Sofía Centre in Madrid, New Music Miami and Ensemble Insomnio. She received the 2004 International Women Composers Competition prize for En Tres and the Cintas Fellowship in 2012.