Composer - Clarinetist
The dynamic and vivid music of Mexican-American composer and clarinetist Victor Rangel (b.1996) seeks to represent the emotional essence of stories, processes, sentences, and sometimes just words. Rangel’s approach is to depict pure impressions of a subject after one abstracts its content. This is influenced by the study of formal logic, which assesses arguments by stripping away the content–thus getting rid of any ambiguity and vagueness naturally created by language–in order to fully and solely assess the form.
Commissions for Rangel’s music have come from distinguished groups and individuals such as the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera Co., AURA Contemporary Ensemble, Apollo Chamber Players, and Chester Rowell (clarinet). Rangel’s music has also been performed by University of Georgia Rote Hund Muzik, Kaitlyn Stavinoha (soprano), Erika Lawson (viola), Richard Nunemaker (clarinet), Andres Gonzalez (violin), among others. Rangel has appeared on Houston Public Media (KUHF) and has collaborated with the Houston Ballet Academy, Houston Grand Opera High School Voice Studio, and the Aurora Picture Show. Awards for his compositions include two University of Houston Sarofim Composition Awards (2015 and 2017) (undergraduate division) and the American Festival for the Arts Composition Departmental Award.
As a clarinetist, Rangel has performed with orchestras, wind bands, chamber orchestras, pit orchestras, jazz ensembles, and several chamber groups. Rangel frequently plays clarinet and bass clarinet for the Houston Sinfonietta, Clear Lake Symphony Orchestra, and the Pasadena Philharmonic Orchestra.
Rangel has studied composition with Rob Smith, David Ashley White, and Michael Remson, and clarinet with Chester Rowell and Bernadetta Nguyen. Rangel holds a bachelor's degree in Music Composition, with additional studies in clarinet performance, and a minor in Philosophy from the University of Houston.
BIOGRAPHY
