(Mexico City, 1964)
Music as highly spiritual activity is the core of Mariana Villanueva´s music. Through her creative process, she tries to reach the very depths of her inner world in search of an ancestral knowledge of a universal nature. Such a treasure can be revealed in dreams, symbols, myths and art. The way to a transcendent world through the music is the path of this composer.
M. Villanueva has received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award (1999); The MEXICO/ USA Rockefeller, FONCA/ BANCOMER Prize (1995); and some other rewards form FONCA (1993) (1997) and Carnegie Mellon University. Since 2019 she is part of the National System for Artistic Creators in Mexico (SNCA).
She has been written works for The National Museum of Anthropology in México (2014); Ensamble Cosmopolitano Berlín (2002); Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (1996); and Carnegie Mellon Trio (1993) among others. She also has collaborated for the Carnegie Mellon Drama Department under the direction of Rina Yerushalmi (La casa de Bernarda Alba, 1990) and Yossy Israeli (Antigone, 1991), and in Mexico for The Ballet del Teatro del Espacio with Gladiola Orozco (El Gran Viaje, 1997).
Villanueva began her musical studies at National Conservatory in México City, and continued her preparation at Carnegie Mellon University, under Leonardo Balada´s trend, where she received her Bachelors (1992) and Masters (1995) degrees in Music Composition. Since 1987, her works have been performed in Mexico, and occasionally in The United States (New York, New Mexico, Indiana, and Pittsburgh). In Europe her music has been heard in Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden.
As a complement for her creative search, Mariana Villanueva completed a PH. Degree in Music History (Mexico City, UAM-I, 2004) in relation with musical archetypes. This theme being related with the Cuban- Spanish composer Julian Orbon s work, out of which she published a book about his life and music: El latido de la ausencia (2014)
She worked as an external investigator for the UNAM and was teacher for twenty years at Centro Morelense de las Artes. Currently she is a freelance composer.