Spanish composer, pianist, actor and director Carlos Miranda was born in Chile where he began his musical studies. He settled in Italy and worked as an apprentice in production and direction on a variety of films including “Romeo and Juliet” (Franco Zeffirelli - 1967) and “Teorema” (Pier Paolo Pasolini - 1968). In 1971 he won a British Council Scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, studying piano, composition and conducting. He joined the Rambert Dance Co. (1974-8) as assistant musical director and resident composer, writing scores for both dance and concert with the Mercury Ensemble.
In 1977 he wrote the music for the full-length dance-theatre work “CRUEL GARDEN”, choreographed by Christopher Bruce, scenario and direction by Lindsay Kemp. The piece, based on the life and death of Federico García Lorca, has since been staged by various dance companies in the UK, Germany and the USA. The BBC television adaptation, directed by Colin Nears, won the Prix Italia Musica-1984.
His association with Lindsay Kemp began with his earliest creation for Rambert Dance Co., the recently revived ballet “THE PARADES GONE BY”. He then joined the Lindsay Kemp Company writing the music and collaborating in the creation of various dance-theatre productions that toured Europe, the Americas, Israel, Singapore, Japan and Australia: “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM”, “MR. PUNCH’S PANTOMIME”, "DUENDE, POEMA FANTASTICO PER F. GARCÍA LORCA", “THE BIG PARADE” (Producciones Julio Alvarez), “NIJINSKY IL MATTO” (Teatro Alla Scala, Milano), “CINDERELLA, A GOTHIC OPERETTA” (Cenicienta S.L), and “VARIÉTÉ” (Susumu Matahira-Tate Corporation).
Miranda has produced scores for movies directed by independent Spanish film-makers, among which: Celestino Coronado’s “HAMLET” (1977) and “A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM” (1984), Manuel Huerga’s “GAUDÍ” (1988), Félix Rotaeta’s “EL PLACER DE MATAR” (1988) and “CHATARRA” (1991).
In 1992 Carlos composed the music and conducted the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra at the Athletes Parade during the BARCELONA OLYMPIC GAMES CEREMONIES, and also created the soundtrack for the official video of the SEVILLE EXPO-92.
In 1993 he conducted the Orquesta de Cambra Teatre Lliure in performances of his score for the full-length ballet “EL JARDINER” for Compañía Gelabert-Azzopardi, and has since written music for a variety of public events in Spain, including the 1997 Barcelona celebrations for the royal wedding of Infanta Cristina de Borbón.
In 1998, coinciding with García Lorca’s centenary, he played his own piano pieces for dancers Marco Berriel and Lola Greco in Joaquín Cortés’ “PASIÓN GITANA”, at New York City Center.
Miranda played and sung his compositions in Lindsay Kemp’s “DREAMDANCES” (Italian tour 2000); he devised and played with accordionist Richard Galliano the music for the Lindsay Kemp show “CAFÉ SAUDADE” (Chianti Festival 2001); also performed as musician/actor with Lindsay Kemp in their own “LE FOLLIE DI MR. PUNCH” (Fondazione Teatro Nuovo, Torino - 2002).
In 2004 he composed and recorded the music for multimedia dance spectacle “GLIMPSE” (Barcelona FORUM) collaborating with choreographer/dancer Cesc Gelabert and American media-dance filmaker Charles Atlas. That year he also wrote the instrumental piece “DEL AMOR INSOMNE NOCHE” (City of London Festival) later recorded for BBC Radio3 by the Galliard Ensemble, Lucy Wakeford (harp) and Colin Currie (marimba).
For the Lindsay Kemp Company, he recently wrote the music for the full-length show “ELIZABETH I, THE LAST DANCE” (2005, currently on tour).
Among the films he has acted in: “VELVET GOLDMINE” (Todd Haynes - 1998), "MAUVAIS ESPRIT” (Patrick Alessandrin - 2003), “THE FEAST OF THE GOAT” (Luis Llosa - 2005), “GOYA´S GHOSTS (Milos Forman - 2006), “KAROL, UN PAPA RIMASTO UOMO” (Giacomo Battiato - 2006) and “MANOLETE” (Menno Meyjes - currently in production).
