Oriol Saña

Department of Jazz, Flamenco, Popular and Traditional Catalan Music

osana@esmuc.cat

Viola
Violí Jazz
Violoncel

Oriol Saña

Education

Originally from Granollers, he began his violin studies at the Josep Maria Ruera Conservatory in Granollers with Professor Emilio Moreno. He continued his education in Barcelona under the guidance of Professor Sergio Prieto and at the Professional Conservatory of Terrassa, where he obtained a Middle Grade Degree.

He received scholarships from various entities, including the Rotary Club and Berklee College of Music, which allowed him to pursue further studies in the United States at Berklee College of Music (Boston). There, he graduated Cum Laude with a specialisation in Jazz Performance and improvisation techniques for string instruments. He studied with renowned musicians such as Matt Glaser, Mimi Robson, Jhon Blake, Darol Anger, and Mark O'Connor.

He also pursued additional studies in orchestra conducting (The Boston Conservatory) and film score composition, arrangements, and production at Warner Brothers Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. Later, he studied in Paris at "Le Centre des Musiques Didier Lockwood" with violinists Didier Lockwood and Johan Renard.

He later obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz and Popular Music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, an Official Master's degree in Musicology and Music Teaching at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona under the guidance of Dr. Jaume Ayats, and a Doctorate in Art History and Musicology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, receiving an Excellent Cum Laude qualification. His doctoral thesis titled "I si el jazz et solucionés els problemes?" was directed by Dr. Joaquim Rabaseda and Dr. Jaume Ayats.

Recordings

He has recorded for record labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Filmax Music, and Warner Brothers. In the film industry, he has recorded several movies with music composed by Xavier Capellas, including "La vida que t’espera" (2004), "la Ciudad en Celo" (2006), “el Pallaso i el Fürer” (2006), and “Bruc la llegenda” (2010). He also participated in the documentary film "B-SIDE: la cara B de la música en Barcelona," directed by Eva Vila, which was presented at the 6th International Film and Music Documentary Festival of Barcelona In-Edit 2008. He recorded the albums "Experiment 1.0" (2014) in Barcelona and "Boston Bridges" (2015) in Boston with Albert Bello, alongside musicians like Darol Anger, Mike Block, Casey Driessen, Jason Anick, or Marta Roma. He also recorded an album with The Django Orchestra in 2019, which was mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London.

Research

He is a researcher at the Research Group in Musical Creation and Performance (2014, SGR 1382) at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya. He has participated in research projects such as Project Harmos (European Community-2004), gestural synthesis of the violin based on samples by Yamaha (UPF-2007), and presented research on his doctoral thesis at the Seminari de Musicologia (ESMUC-2010) and the Seminari de Sonologia ESMUC (2011). He also worked on the Online Multimodal Recordings' Repository & Visualizer project (UPF-2012).

Publications

In 2019, he co-authored the books "The Chop Notation" with violinist Casey Driessen and "The Bluegrass Violin" with Lluís Gómez, published by MELBAY.

He has published articles such as "Valorizzare le pratiche musicale: un esperienza spagnola" (Musica Domani 137, 2005), "L'ensenyament del violí entre dos mons" (2009), and "El violí avui dia" (2010) in the Revista Musical Catalana. He also presented a publication at the "SMC Sound and Music Computing 2013" congress held at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, on August 2, 2013. Furthermore, he presented his thesis titled "Fiddling solves your problems" at the 7th International Workshop on Folk Music Analysis in Málaga (2017). He conducted research with the Phonos Foundation and the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in 2019, focusing on the Eye-Harp instrument. Additionally, he also participated in the symposium "La innovació musical Republicana (1931-1934)" organized by MUHBA and ESMUC in 2021, where he contributed to the recovery and interpretation of the works of Maestro Demon (Llorenç Torres Nin).

Awards

He has been nominated for the Max Awards for Performing Arts (2008) as Best Musical Director for "Turn me on" with the Virus String Quartet and the David Campos ballet company. He recorded and arranged the strings for the Grammy Latino-nominated album "Balmoral" with Loquillo in 2008. He received the Caja Madrid Award at the "V Fira de Música al carrer de Vila-Seca" with the group "Virus String Quartet", and the "Sol Mayor 2011" award from the "Unión Musical Virgen de los Pueyos" in Alcañiz. He produced and directed "Del Rock al Heavy Metal" (2004) with the Granollers Chamber Orchestra.

Career

He has developed his musical career by combining classical and modern music work. He has been part of various orchestras, such as the Boston Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, Brookline Symphony Orchestra, Jove Orquestra Simfònica Nacional de Catalunya, Orquestra de Cambra de Granollers, and duets with Albert Guinovart and Marco Mezquida. He has also been involved in modern music groups, including the Virus String Quartet, Folkincats, Los Sencillos, Albert Bello, Casey Driessen, and has collaborated on over fifty albums with artists like Loquillo, Fangoria, Carlos Segarra, and Miqui Puig. He has participated in numerous music festivals in the USA, Singapore, Italy, Germany, England, Ireland, Finland, Greece, France, Hungary, Namibia, Estonia, Iceland, Portugal, Switzerland, and Spain.

Teaching

He has contributed as a teacher at various institutions, including the Conservatori Professional de Terrassa, Escuela Superior de Música del País Vasco (MUSIKENE), Conservatori de Sabadell, Conservatori de Música de Tarragona, Conservatorio Profesional de Haro, Conservatori Professional Vilaseca, Conservatorio Profesional Jaén, Conservatorio Profesional Soria, Conservatorio Profesional Zaragoza, Unión Musical Virgen de Pueyos de Alcañiz, Curs Internacional Isaac Albéniz de Camprodon, Seminario Internacional de Jazz de Zarautz, Conservatori Bellaterra el Musical, Artez Conservatorium (Arnhem, Netherlands), University of Vienna, Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Kuopio, Finland), and several conservatories in Spain like Sevilla, Burgos, Irún, Jerez de la Frontera, and Cádiz. He has also taught at Berklee College of Music (Boston), Orquestra Jove d’Andorra, and Suzuki National Workshops for violin in Iceland, England, Estonia, Belgium, Spain, and Switzerland. He was involved in Music in Progress UK from 2015 to 2019.

He has held various teaching positions, including Department Head Berklee International, head of Networking at the Aula-Conservatori del Liceu (2014), violin jazz professor at the Conservatori Superior de Música del Liceu and Conservatori Professional del Liceu-L'AULA (since 2013). He was a violin jazz and combo teacher and a member of the research group at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (2002-2018, since 2020), Jazz Manouche professor at EMCA (since 2016), director of the Bellaterra Fiddle Camp, artistic director of the Barcelona Fiddle Congress (2013-2016, 2018-2021), and artistic director of the Fundación Grupo Sifu (since 2018).