Born in 1973 in Santurce, Puerto Rico to Cuban parents, composer Armando Bayolo began musical studies at the age of twelve. At sixteen he went on to study at the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Michigan, where he first began the serious study of composition. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Yale University and the University of Michigan.
Mr. Bayolo's music, which has been called “fresh, upbeat and well structured” by McArthur Grant-winning composer Bright Sheng, encompasses a variety of genres including works for solo instruments, voices, chamber and orchestral music. His works have been performed around the world, most notably by the Opera in the Ozarks Festival, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra, the Rose City Chamber Orchestra, the Prime Directive Ensemble, New Music New Haven, the Lee University Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble Courage and the Rosseels and Euclid String Quartets. The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal calls Mr. Bayolo a “promising young talent” and composer Evan Chambers says “his works often exude a searching quality that makes each piece (even the lighthearted ones) a pathway reaching toward a kind of understanding or discovery. Achieving this effect is one of the most difficult and important projects for an artist to undertake, and he does it with a sincere heart and great technical accomplishment!”
Upcoming performances include the East coast premiere of his string octet, Ludi--which W. Gerald Cochran of the Charlotte (North Carolina) Observer says “is a work that deserves to be heard many more times, and in many more places. It is new, it is fresh and it gets its message across—“ by the Euclid and Degas Quartets at the Library of Congress; the oratorio Towards Golgotha with the National Gallery of Art Vocal Arts Ensemble and the Great Noise Ensemble, and the premiere of Ritornello by the Great Noise Ensemble. Recent commissions include a work for piano and percussion for the Percussion Plus Project and a large work based on the Harvard Murals of Mark Rothko commissioned by the National Gallery of Art at the Smithsonian Institution for the National Gallery Vocal Arts Ensemble and the Great Noise Ensemble.
Also active as a conductor, Mr. Bayolo has served as founder and director of the Prime Directive ensemble and new music series in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as music director of the University of Michigan Gilbert and Sullivan Society, visiting director of the Reed College Chamber Orchestra as well as guest conductor of the Lee University Chamber Orchestra. He is currently the Music Director of The Great Noise Ensemble, a group specializing in contemporary music which he founded in Washington, D.C. in 2005. With Great Noise he will lead several world and regional premieres in 2006-07 and will conduct the only concert celebrating the 70th birthday of American composer Steve Reich to be held in the Washington, D.C. region.
Mr. Bayolo was recently featured in the Public Radio program Studio 360, broadcast nationally from WNYC in New York City. He joined the faculty of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in the fall of 2006. He lives in New Hartford, New York with his wife, Sharon, and their daughter, Olivia.