Who am I?
Composer and cultural manager, Nino Díaz builds his personal and intellectual universe from a deep sensitivity, with the still intact gaze of a child who has never ceased to be amazed. That same gaze allows him to see what many overlook: the almost invisible nuances, the smallest gestures, the beauty hidden in what is broken, worn out, in what time has touched mercilessly.
A perfectionist to the point of restlessness, Nino has not known happiness as a destination, but rather as a constant pursuit, a horizon that moves every time he approaches it. For him, creation is a search, a struggle, a way of inhabiting the world through detail.
His fascination with decay—the cracks in a wall, the wear and tear on a surface, the echo of the past in objects—is also reflected in his music: a deeply eclectic language, in which traditional music, baroque, jazz, and other forms of expression converge, always filtered through his own sense of aesthetics and time.
Although his life is devoted to music, Nino finds in drawing and photography two natural extensions of his sensitivity. Everything in his work, whether auditory or visual, points in the same direction: capturing what fades away, leaving a record of what is fragile, translating into art what others do not stop to look at.
More than a creator, Nino Díaz is an archaeologist of emotions, an observer of the invisible, a builder of sonic ruins in which, paradoxically, truth takes refuge.
Biography
Nino Díaz was born in Tías, Lanzarote, on May 28, 1963. His father, Benigno Díaz Mesa, a great lover of music, instilled a passion for it in the whole family. From his beginnings with the timple at the age of 7, he showed great interest not only in music, but also in the visual arts and photography, his other great passions.
He holds a degree from the Barcelona Conservatory of Music, specializing in clarinet, composition and instrumentation, and orchestral conducting, as well as an official master's degree in cultural management from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Barcelona.
He is undoubtedly one of the most prolific living composers from the Canary Islands and one with the greatest international renown. His more than 100 published works have been performed in almost every country in the world by musicians such as Valeri Gergiev, Carlos Karlmar, Harry Sparnaay, Kai Gleusteen, Jean Pierre Dupui, Natalia Nikolaeva, Salvador Brotons, Pablo González, and others. in venues such as the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Grand Auditorium of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Barcelona Auditorium, the Gran Teatro del Liceo, the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, the Guimerá Theater, the Adán Martín Auditorium in Tenerife, and the Jameos del Agua Auditorium.
Notable achievements
2007
In 2007, he was appointed Academician of the Royal Canarian Academy of Fine Arts of San Miguel Arcangel, “for his international career as a performer and creator, and for his contribution to the generation and dissemination of new contemporary heritage.”
2008
In 2008, he won the “15th Radio Creation Contest,” organized by RNE-Radio Clásica and the Ministry of Culture, with his work “El Muro” (The Wall).
He is the owner of the Belgium-based publishing house Periferia Music, which has more than 700 works in its catalog by authors from 56 countries.
2016
In 2016, he was appointed director of the Canary Islands International Music Festival.
2017
In 2017, he created the Nino Díaz Foundation in Lanzarote, through which he is carrying out a wide range of transformative activities through music.
2022
In 2022, the Spanish Association of Bassoonists and Oboists (AFOES) selected his work “Belial” (oboe and piano) for publication through a competition.
2012
Since 2012, he has divided his time between Berlin and Lanzarote, where he continues to work in his various roles as a creator and entrepreneur.