Mauricio Sotelo (1961) is today one of Spain's most prominent and internationally recognized composers. The premiere of his opera El Público at the Teatro Real in 2015 was met with critical acclaim by the international press and an enthusiastic reception by the audience. Sotelo studied composition with Francis Burt at the Vienna University of Music, graduating with distinction as winner of the "extraordinary prize" in 1987. He was further coached by Luigi Nono, a composer whose thinking continues to be an important source of inspiration for his work. He was composer in residence at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin from 2011 to 2012 and has received numerous awards for his music including the Spanish National Music Prize in 2001, the Reina Sofía International Prize for Composition in 2000, the Ernst von Siemens Foundation's Composers Prinze in 1997 and composition awards from the cities of Hamburg, Cologne and Vienna. Sotelo's works have been performed by many different orchestras and ensembles including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna RSO Symphony Orchestra, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Klangforum Wien, Artemis Quartett, Cuarteto Casals or Quatuor Diotima, as well as soloists including Tabea Zimmermann, Patricia Kopatschinskaja, Benjamin Schmid, or Nicolas Hodges, to name but a few. His music has been published since 1991 in the Universal Edition together with works by Bartók, Mahler, Berg or Boulez.