“I always intend to tell a story with my music”, Efraín Oscher describes his motivation as composer.
“I want to move the listener – and I can achieve that by telling them a story infused with emotions”.
Composer
Efraín Oscher is a composer based in Germany whose music brings the classical concert tradition into dialogue with the rhythms, colours and musical forms of Latin America. Many of his works grow out of close collaborations with soloists and are conceived around the musical personality and expressive possibilities of a particular performer.
His long collaboration with trumpeter Pacho Flores has resulted in numerous compositions and arrangements, including the trumpet concerto Mestizo, which has been performed more than 30 times internationally and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. Oscher has also developed an extensive body of music for double bassist Edicson Ruiz, including his Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra.
Other works have been written for or developed in collaboration with musicians including Lucienne Renaudin Vary, Matthias Rácz, Hans Agreda, Matvey Demin, Sergio Sánchez, Ricardo Carvalhoso and Alejandro Carrillo. His music has been performed by orchestras and ensembles across Europe, Latin America, Asia and Australia.
Recordings of his works include Mestizo with Pacho Flores on Deutsche Grammophon and Rapsodia Latina with Lucienne Renaudin Vary and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris on Warner Classics.
Arranger
Alongside his work as a composer, Oscher has built an extensive career as an arranger for chamber ensembles and symphony orchestras, creating programmes that bring Latin American and popular repertoire into the classical concert hall.
His orchestral work includes arrangements for The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, as well as projects with leading singers, instrumentalists and conductors. For Rolando Villazón, he has created numerous arrangements over the course of a long collaboration, including work for the Deutsche Grammophon album ¡México! and new arrangements of Cielito Lindo and Granada for Villazón’s 50th-birthday gala in Salzburg.
He has also arranged El Manisero and Guantanamera for conductor Manuel Hernández-Silva, among many other orchestral and chamber projects.
Oscher’s arrangements have been recorded and performed by artists including Rolando Villazón, Avi Avital, Ksenija Sidorova and Pacho Flores, and have featured in productions for Deutsche Grammophon and other international projects.
For many years he was the musical director and principal arranger of the Bolívar Soloists, developing much of the ensemble’s repertoire and collaborating with internationally established singers and instrumentalists.