Juan Parra Cancino

Juan Parra Cancino (b. Chile, 1979) studied Composition at the Catholic University of Chile and Sonology at The Royal Conservatoire The Hague (NL), where he obtained his Masters degree with focus on composition and performance of electronic music. In 2014, Juan obtained his PhD degree from Leiden University with his thesis “Multiple Paths: Towards a Performance practice in Computer Music”.

His compositions have been performed in Europe, Japan, North and South America in festivals such as ICMC, “Sonorities”, “Synthese”, and “November Music”, among many others.


His acousmatic piece Serenata a Bruno obtained a special mention at the Bourges electroacoustic music competition of 2003 and in 2004, his piece Tellura was awarded with the residence prize of the same competition.

Founder of The Electronic Hammer, a Computer and Percussion trio and Wiregriot, (voice & electronics), he collaborates regularly with Ensemble KLANG (NL) and Hermes (BE), among many others.

His work in the field of live electronic music has made him recipient of numerous grants such as NFPK, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds and the International Music Council.

Since 2009 Parra is a fellow researcher at the Orpheus Institute (Ghent, BE), focused on performance practice in Computer Music.

orpheusinstituut.be/en/orpheus-research-centre/researchers/juan-parra-cancino