“One of the most important voices to follow in Latin American music today.” – Scherzo Magazine
Born in Lima, Juan Arroyo grew up deeply immersed in the oral traditions and rich culture of his homeland, Peru. From an early age, he was introduced to music through the pan flute, his very first instrument, as well as the popular songs and stories that shaped his environment. His insatiable curiosity for sound manifested early on, driven by a visceral need to explore its nuances, textures, and push its boundaries. This passionate quest led him to pursue studies in composition at the National University of Music of Peru, where he began laying the foundation of his musical language. In 2001, he co-founded the Peruvian Composition Circle, an essential initiative for energizing and promoting contemporary music creation in Peru.
In 2004, he moved to France, joining the Conservatoire of Bordeaux before enrolling in 2008 at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he earned a First Prize in composition. His journey was enriched by programs such as Voix Nouvelles and IRCAM, and he was mentored by major figures of contemporary music including Allain Gaussin, Brian Ferneyhough, Heinz Holliger, Jean-Yves Bosseur, José Sosaya, Henri Pousseur, Mauricio Kagel, Michael Levinas, Luis Naón, and Stefano Gervasoni.
In residence at institutions such as IRCAM (2014), the Henri Pousseur Center (2014), the Cité Internationale des Arts (2015), Casa de Velázquez (2016), Villa Médicis (2017), and Art Zoyd Center (2017), he delved into uncharted sonic territories. In 2014, he composed Smaqra, the first hybrid string quartet, and, in collaboration with acoustician Adrien Mamou-Mani, the Quatuor Tana, and luthier Lucas Balay, he developed the ‘TanaInstruments,’ innovative devices that transform the conventional sounds of string quartet instruments.
Juan Arroyo’s work has been internationally recognized with prestigious awards, including the Salabert Foundation Prize for Selva (2013), the French Academy of Fine Arts Prize, and the Ibermúsicas Prize for Phani Song (2022). He offers a rich and diverse body of work across a broad spectrum of formats—solo pieces, orchestral music, instrumental, vocal, mixed, and electroacoustic music. His creations have been performed by world-renowned ensembles such as Ensemble Intercontemporain, 2e2m, L’Itinéraire, Linea, LAPS, L’Arsenale, Proxima Centauri, Sonido Extremo, Vertixe Sonora, Quatuor Tana, and the National Orchestra of Peru. Commissioned by prestigious institutions, he takes on creative challenges inspired by festivals like Donaueschingen, Ars Musica, Les Musicales d’Assy, Présences, MAD Festival, Festival aux Chandelles, Ensemble(s), and Nouveaux Horizons. Each piece reflects his ability to transcend traditional genres and explore new soundscapes. He enhances his work with a visual dimension where transcendence and multidimensionality come together. His creations resonate particularly well in varied exhibition contexts. Notable works include Paysage Sonore, presented at the Baelo Claudia Archaeological Museum (2017) and Casa de Velázquez (2018), as well as Listen to Me, exhibited at Villa Médicis as part of the “Take me, I’m yours” project (2018). His collaboration with visual artist Vincent Ciciliato led to interdisciplinary works like SABIA VR, showcased at MAD Festival (2023), Festival Pléiades (2024), and UNESCO’s Week of Sound in Pau (2025).
Today, Juan Arroyo serves as composer-in-residence with the National Orchestra of Peru, artistic and musical director of Ensemble Regards and the Sonomundo Festival in Paris, as well as artistic director of the Experimenta Festival in Lima. Alongside his composition activities, he has excelled in teaching and international collaborations: professor at the Conservatoire of Argenteuil (2019–2023), professor at the Mixte Academy in Bordeaux (2022), and has been an invited composer at prestigious conservatories such as the Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia (Italy, 2017), the Conservatory of Valencia (Spain, 2016), and the Conservatory of Bordeaux (France, 2014). He currently teaches at the Jean-Baptiste Lully Conservatory and the National University of Music of Peru.
“Juan Arroyo has synthesized his work on hybridization around three fundamental areas concerning perceptual indices: gesture, space and timbre. Hybridization is at the heart of the scrambling of these indices. The expression “causal listening” encompasses different listening situations.
On the subject of his hybrid string quartet, SMAQRA, although the original musical object is part of a percussive timbre, the listening codes refer us to stringed instruments. The singularity and the interest of this work are these games of displacement, of movement between a causal listening and a reduced listening passing by many intermediate states of perception. Juan Arroyo explores different degrees by gradually blurring sound sources like a photographer or a cameraman making us travel from the concrete to the abstract, from materiality to immateriality by the game of the development of its objective.
Thus, the search for the development of reduced listening, favored in a general way by the electronics, constitutes a trajectory towards the unheard-of which the border between sound reality and unrealism is in total correlation with the literary inclinations of Juan Arroyo on the realism Magic.”
FABIEN HOULÈS
Profesor Agregado de la Universidad Jean Monnet de Saint Étienne. Le premier quatuor à cordes hybride, l’exemple de Smaqra de Juan Arroyo, publicado en la primavera de 2017 por la editorial L’Harmattan.