Igor Urruchi is a restless artist who aims to publicise the bass clarinet by means of existing works and the urge to create new pieces that use the resources of this amazing instrument so little known to most of the public.

 

Igor is intensely active as a soloist in Spain, Europe and Latin America, with a repertoire centred in the 20th and 21st centuries. In November he premiered in Cuba the work by Óscar Navarro, “Concerto” for clarinet and band, with the National Concert Band of Cuba, a group that had already taken him to the Caribbean country with another singular work in early 2019, “The Castle of Dr Bassclar” by Ferrer Ferrán.

 

In 2015 he premiered the concert for bass clarinet and orchestra by the galician composer Federico Mosquera, a work recently released by the iTinerant label under the title “En Continuo Desacorde”.

 

Two exceptional works in the current bass clarinet repertoire were written for him: “Flor de Otoño” by the Dutch composer Jo Sporck, international master of the bass clarinet, and “Siete Formas de Pedir Perdón” by the outstanding Spanish composer Sebastián Mariné, both included in his album “A Long Wave in Common”.

Groups

Igor has been a member of the Netherlands Youth Orchestra (NJO), the Youth Orchestra of Euskadi (EGO), Orquesta Intercentros, the National Youth Orchestra of Spain (JONDE) and the Municipal Band of Vitoria-Gasteiz, working often with the latter in recent seasons.

 

He is a founder of Horák Conexion, a chamber group specialising in contemporary music, and works with the dutch group Schreck Ensemble, with which he has premiered works by the renowned international composer Richard Barrett, with whom he has also shared the stage.

Collaboration

IIgor Urruchi has worked with major jazz groups, driven by his interest in exploring different languages, genres and aesthetics. In 2019 he gave a much-praised performance at the Jazz Festival of Vitoria-Gasteiz with M.A.P., a group comprising the pianist Marco Mezquida, the saxophonist Ernesto Aurignac and the drummer Ramón Prats. That same year, he performed various concerts with the Cuban trumpet player Yasek Manzano and his group.

Maestros

Since he began his clarinet training with Florian Popa, Igor has been enriched by the teachings of numerous masters. Patxi Divar in Vitoria, Justo Sanz in Madrid and Henri Bok in Rotterdam were essential for his development as a musician. He has also learned from Guy Deplus, José Luis Estellés, Miguel Espejo, Mathias Müller and Jan Guns in various master classes.

 

Igor later had the opportunity to share some of those teachings and his own experience as an instrumentalist when he gave masterclasses at centres such as the ISA, Instituto Superior de las Artes, in Havana.

Contests

Igor Urruchi was awarded first prize in the 1st Julián Menéndez International Bass Clarinet Contest in 2012, and received an honourable mention in the Fermín Gurbindo National Wind Instruments Contest in 2000.

Recordings

Brands

He is currently an artist for the renowned and prestigious brands Henri SELMER Paris and VANDOREN Paris.

In 2015 he joined the classical music label iTinerant, with which he released two albums: A Long Wave in Common (2016) and Concerto for Bass Clarinet and String Orchestra (2019). He has also collaborated in different CDs such as “Inland” by the composer Bart Spaan, and recordings of the Dutch composers Xander Hunfeld, Hans van Eck and Norbert Wissing.

 bio

IGOR URRUCHI

Clarinetist

ES / EN

Igor Urruchi © 2023

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