Rafael Hernandez was born in Bethesda, Maryland in 1975, though he considers himself a native of Virginia Beach, Virginia, where he grew up. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1998 and his Master of Music degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 2001. Currently he is a Chancellor's Fellow at Indiana University, where he working towards a DM in music composition. Studies have included Sven-David Sandström, Don Freund, P.Q. Phan, Sydney Hodkinson, Keith Fitch, Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, Russell Pinkston, Peter Knell, and Allan Blank.
Some of Rafael’s accomplishments include a BMI Student Composer Award for PASTICHE (1997) in 1998, participating in the Oregon Bach Festival's Composer Symposium in 2000, and having his orchestra piece, MAN EXPANDING (1999), read by the American Composers Orchestra during the 2000 Whitaker New Music Reading Sessions and premiered by the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kevin Noe in 2001. In addition, Rafael has been an artist associate at the Atlantic Center for the Arts and, in 2003, will be a composition fellow at the 2003 Ernst Bloch Festival in Newport. Oregon. In 2001, he was awarded the Margaret Lee Crofts Fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center to study composition. Most recently, Rafael was commissioned by the Boston University Tanglewood Institute to write a work for wind ensemble. This work, INCONURVANNA (2001), was premiered by the Boston University Young Artists Wind Ensemble under the direction of Frank Battisti on August 2nd, 2001 in Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Center. Recent commissions and happenings include a commission from guitarist Bret Hoag for a set of solo guitar pieces, a commission from the Noné Trio, a recording of PASTICHE by the Cramped Spaces piano/percussion ensemble of Terre Haute, IN to be released in the summer of 2003.
Rafael cites his major influences as Maurice Ravel, Samuel Barber, and Béla Bartók. In addition to these great composers, Rafael is greatly inspired by the music of Stevie Wonder, progressive rock greats like King Crimson and Dream Theater, and the multiple genres of hip-hop and electronica. His music is primarily focused on sonority and color projected with forceful grace.
Rafael's passion for compositional pedagogy is evidenced in his activities as a teacher of composition and general musicianship. A staunch advocate of incorporating technology in the music classroom, Rafael has been active in studying and implementing different forms of electronic media that allow the student greater access to musical resources. This has included the implementation of a “paperless” course in Free Counterpoint for undergraduates at Indiana University. The materials for this course were digitally composed and/or gathered and distributed to the students in the form of PDF files, Power Point lectures, and MP3 audio examples via a web interface.
Rafael currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife, Rachel, and his daughter, Novlyne. (October 2004)
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