Composer Marisa Manchado dies, at age 70, in the Urda accident

The composer Marisa Manchado, National Music Prize winner in 2024, has died at the age of 70 as a result of the tragic train accident in Urda (Toledo), which left at least 69 dead due to the collision of two trains.

In a statement, the Madrid Association of Composers (AMCC), of which Manchado was a founding member, has conveyed its condolences and explained that the composer was heading to Seville on the day of the train accident to participate in a meeting organized by the Faculty of Education Sciences of the University of the Andalusian capital.

"Marisa was, above all, a woman deeply committed to the visibility of female creators and to the need to review a history of music that had systematically relegated women," states the AMCC statement, which has conveyed its "most sincere hug" to her family, friends and all the people who shared her life and work with her.

The Teatro Real has also shown its dismay at the death of Marisa Manchado, recalling that the composer worked with the institution's artistic team to prepare the premiere of her third opera, La regenta, based on the novel of the same name by Leopoldo Alas, 'Clarín', with a libretto by Amelia Valcárcel. The work was nominated for the International Opera Awards as the best international premiere of 2023 and received the National Music Award in 2024 in the opera composition category.

From the Teatro Real they have highlighted that Manchado was "a reference in Spain also for her constant work to vindicate and make visible the role of women in the world of musical creation, where she paved the way for later generations."

On the other hand, the General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE) have also regretted her death: "Today we sadly say goodbye to a creator whose music, work and commitment leave a deep mark on our culture," the SGAE said on social networks.

More than 150 works

The composer developed an extensive career in the field of contemporary Spanish music, with a catalog of more than 150 works that included pedagogical, chamber, vocal, symphonic, operatic and electroacoustic compositions. To her creative work she added outstanding teaching, research and cultural management activity, as well as a commitment to the visibility of women in music.

Among the main milestones of his career were the operas Cristal de Agua Frida, with a libretto by Rosa Montero and premiered in the 1993-1994 season, in addition to La Regenta, which hit the stage in 2023 in a co-production of the Teatro Real and the Teatro Español. He also premiered Notes for Peace in 2012, a concert for bassoon and orchestra commissioned by the National Orchestra of Spain, and composed music for the film The Passion of Joan of Arc, by Carl Theodor Dreyer. His catalog received recognitions such as the 2007 Comuarte Ibero-American Music Award and the 1995 Daniel Montorio National Award.

In his last years he presented works such as Silencio 4, at the 2019 COMA Festival; In turbulent times, together with the Quiroga Quartet; and The Pink Tree, with texts by Emilia Pardo Bazán, premiered at the National Auditorium in 2021. In 2022 she presented In No Man's Land, based on a poem by Carmen Conde, and premiered The Footprint by Clara Schumann. In 2024 he completed the publication of Mayrít-Magerit-Matrí-Matric: Suite for two guitars.