PRESS REVIEWS

ARTS ATLANTA
”Jimmy López has established himself as one of the hottest contemporary musical forces around.”
-Mark Thomas Ketterson

"'Perú Negro'...is a work that deserves to find its way into the standard orchestral repertoire of the 21st century."
-Mark Gresham

EAR RELEVANT
”Rarely does a 10-minute symphonic work request such rhythmic precision, concentration and energy.”
-Giorgio Koukl

OPERA TODAY
“[Perú Negro] is a work to be heard (and seen) again if only to absorb more fully the sheer quantity of orchestral detail, its ever-changing vistas and rhythmic frenzy. It was given an atmospheric and clamorous outing by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and is richly deserving of further performances.
-David Truslove

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
”The expressive, keenly crafted “Aino” has all the hallmarks of great storytelling: foreshadowing, high-stakes drama, emotional appeals so plangent that the listener, too, aches. It was one of the most effective CSO commissions in recent seasons…”
-Hannah Edgar

CLASSICAL VOICE NORTH AMERICA
“…there are pages of striking beauty attesting to López Bellido’s discernment as an orchestrator. His expressive canvas here is large, building dramatic intensity through pages alive with gnashing brass utterances to shimmering woodwinds that evoke the lake waters in which Aino perishes.”
-John von Rhein

CHICAGO ON THE AISLE
”[Sibelius’] last works suggest a direction, a new stylistic arc, that seems to be projected into the present by Peruvian-born composer Jimmy López Bellido’s masterful and indeed gorgeous tone poem ‘Aino’…”

”López Bellido, who lived for a time in Finland, has constructed a tone picture of shimmering lyricism that reaches a crest of towering strength. Distinct echoes of late Sibelius give way to piquant harmonies and vibrant orchestral colors […} López Bellido was on hand to share in a boisterous ovation.”
-Lawrence B. Johnson

WTTV
”…’Aino’ was more pure magic, with its high drama and a wonderful use of the full orchestra […} Although just 13 minutes long, “Aino” had a mesmerizing impact with its exquisite mix of the subtle use of the violins, flute, low strings and a nervous build involving brass and percussion that conjured eerie walls of sound that gradually burst open with great energy.”
-Hedy Weiss

BACHTRACK
”The first of the two premieres of the evening, Aino concluded masterfully the first part of the concert and led Jimmy López Bellido, under the frank applause of the audience, to the triumph he deserved.”
-Erwan Gentric

OBERON’S GROVE
”The effortless ebb and flow reveal a masterly composer…I would not only love to hear Perú Negro again, but I hope the [New York] Philharmonic explores Mr. López Bellido’s other works as well. His is a voice worth hearing.”
-Ben Weaver

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
”López Bellido’s “Rise,” a buoyant 11-minute festival of brisk rhythms and melodic fireworks, made a perfectly apt opening.”
-Joshua Kosman

MUSICAL AMERICA
”His [López Bellido’s] stylish music is colorful, imaginative, and harmonically tonal. So too is Ephemerae, a three-movement piano concerto that attempts to capture in music the ethereal sensations stimulated by fragrances. Driven on by fluttering exchanges between soloist and orchestra, the music ran the gamut from exotic, often chromatic harmonies to Wagnerian gestures on low brass. The response of the notably young crowd was ecstatic and López, who leapt down the aisle and vaulted onto the stage, couldn’t have been more delighted.”
-Clive Paget

SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL
”The major work here – and what a work it is – was López Bellido’s Ephemerae. This concerto is nothing less than high octane, driven by powerful, often mighty, writing…The final movement – ‘Spice Bazaar’ – […] is monumental in scale, not least in a magnificent cadenza which begins from the smallest of cut diamonds and morphs into something that eventually borders on the symphonic. There was nothing in this astonishing performance of a brilliantly written concerto that disappointed.”
-Marc Bridle

FINANCIAL TIMES
”Ephemerae...is a piano concerto on a big scale: ambitious, colourful, and not bashful about storming the heights. López Bellido’s orchestral writing has dazzling sounds to spare.”
-Richard Fairman

"Bel Canto [is] an absorbing, vibrant and entertaining first opera by Jimmy López. López…has supplied a staggeringly eclectic, texturally rich score."
-George Loomis

HOUSTON CHRONICLE
“…Lopez closed out the symphony by creating an atmosphere of reverence and awe — both at the heavens above, and mankind’s aspirations and achievement in getting there.”

"…that feeling of primal turmoil was all but impossible to ignore. Indeed, it would have come as no surprise if Moreno’s violin had suddenly burst into flame."
-Chris Gray

TEXAS CLASSICAL REVIEW
“…unleashing the orchestra’s colors and searching for new ones is one of the Peru native’s calling cards. His quest continues in Ad Astra. Thanks to the sheer vividness of its timbres and textures, the work’s 45 minutes never drag…”
-Steven Brown

CLASSICAL VOICE NORTH AMERICA
"The grand finale, Jimmy López’s Bel Canto: A Symphonic Canvas…is heavily laden with brass and percussion, yet the strings and winds have more than ample opportunity to shine. The three-part score out-Mahlers Mahler in terms of volume and intensity…Even from considerably far back in the Concert Hall, one was tempted – more than once – to look up to make sure the ceiling was still intact; no dust seemed to fall at any point. The music is at once dramatic and intense, certainly conveying with brilliance and stunning color the story contained in the Ann Patchett novel on which it is based. All that said, the score stands well on its own…those who remained cheered the performance, its conductor, and the composer with great zeal."
-John W. Lambert

DALLAS MORNING NEWS
"Jimmy López...was represented by his 3-year-old First Symphony, loosely based on Cervantes' late picaresque novel The Travails of Persiles and Sigismunda. FWSO music director Miguel Harth-Bedoya seemed in sure command of what might be called musical maximalism..."
-Scott Cantrell

"López, 39, has a brilliant command of orchestral timbres and textures, and his suite cycles through hushed and thunderous threats, busy dithers, quirky dancelike episodes and passing melodies…Whetting the curiosity to experience the opera, the suite got a powerful performance from Harth-Bedoya and company…"
- Scott Cantrell

NEW YORK CONCERT REVIEW
"Especially noteworthy on the program was the New York Premiere of Guardian of the Horizon…Its three movements reflect the composer’s deeply personal feelings about life and death, intertwined with sphinx mythology in ingenious evocations of riddles (through cryptic musical question-and-answer phrases) and suggestions of shimmering light through tremolo string textures in its exquisite third movement."
-Rorianne Schrade

CONCERTONET
"López is without doubt one of the most innovative and symphonically dynamic composers in the world today."
-Lewis Whittington 

CODALARIO
"Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda: Symphony in Four Movements, was forty-five minutes of well-constructed music, with a sweeping rhythmic force that manifested itself especially in the third movement…the whole work is a demonstration, free of eccentricities, of the resources of the symphony orchestra...The composer took to the stage amidst intense applause and cries of "bravo"…it can be said, without fear, that the premiere was a success."
-Álvaro Menéndez Granda 

NEW YORK TIMES
"The [Bel Canto] score by Mr. López, 37, is fairly tough stuff…the music is fraught, gnashing and blazingly orchestrated."
-Anthony Tommasini

"Mr. López proves himself expert in orchestration..."
-James R. Oestreich

WALL STREET JOURNAL
"The strength of Mr. López’s music is its bright, brass-tinged propulsiveness, a riot of orchestral color…"
-Heidi Waleson

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
"'Bel Canto' may be only Lopez's first opera, but it is an accomplished piece of work, and it marks the 37-year-old…composer as a talent to watch."

"…Jimmy Lopez's music grabs and holds your attention without ever stooping to the feel-good clichés of today's classical accessibility. It's at once serious, engaging, imaginative, beautifully made."

"Lopez (is) one of the most admired among the younger generation of South American composers..."
-John von Rhein

DENVER POST
"Lopez doesn't sound like the other composers currently at work. His influences are broad, but he has a distinct voice and it is adventurous and winning. He's making opera that sounds like him, rather than trying to emulate others. That's how you push an art form forward."
-Ray Mark Rinaldi

OPERA NEWS
"López is an undeniably exciting composer. Lyric’s Bel Canto…was an exhilarating event and a compelling reaffirmation of the transcendent power of music."
-Mark Thomas Ketterson

HYDE PARK HERALD
"The astonishing score of 37-year-old Peruvian-born composer Jimmy Lopez stole the show and revealed his vision, imagination, and immense dramatic skills."
-M. L. Rantala

THE NEW YORKER
"What animates the story is López’s score, which begins in full fury…[López] studied in Lima, Helsinki, and Berkeley, acquiring a virtuoso mastery of the modern orchestra. He isn’t afraid of hard edges, grinding dissonances, spells of near-anarchy. He’s also deft at musical character sketches…"
-Alex Ross

THE ABSOLUTE SOUND
"The disc of four works by Peruvian composer Jimmy López is the most compelling program of contemporary symphonic music I’ve heard this year."
-Andrew Quint

BUFFALO NEWS
"…a fascinating figure, Lopez’s music is full of drama, broad musical strokes and craggy energy that never falls victim to the purely rhetorical."
-Jeff Simon

GRAMOPHONE
"…Jimmy López (b1978) seems sure to make his mark on the contemporary scene. Neither the sound quality or booklet-notes leave anything to be desired, resulting in a disc which seems sure to raise López’s profile – and deservedly so."
-Richard Whitehouse

CLASSICAL EAR
"López can...write ethereal music that seems to survey from the heights as well as conjuring beauties to ravish our senses."
-Colin Anderson

THE CLASSICAL REVIEWER
"Jimmy López is a fine composer who brings the influences of his native Peru to his own unique style producing music of imagination and brilliance."
-Bruce Reader

THE BAY AREA REPORTER
"The facts are: it's music you can get on the first hearing…it's overall unmistakably upbeat and leavened with a non-jokey good humor; it's evocative of Lopez's South American roots without being mysteriously so, or glibly playing the multicultural card…And it's smart in a way that doesn't make you feel less so."
-Tim Pfaff

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
"López, 32, is one of the most interesting young composers anywhere today."
-Andrew Patner

WESER KURIER
"What a good choice to end the concert with a powerful final chord presenting "Peru Negro"...Lopez has improvised on motifs, taken them apart and put them together again in a monumental picture made of sound. Like a tropical storm, the music swept over the heads of the completely flabbergasted audience in Die Glocke. Huge ovation with bravos for orchestra, conductor and composer."
-Iris Hetscher 

D MAGAZINE
"(Perú Negro) López’s five-section [sic] fantasy on folksongs drawn from the slave-descended African Peruvian community featured a barrage of percussion instruments including donkey’s jawbone, wooden boxes, and thunder sheets, and proved to be a melodic, noisy, and colorful orchestral showpiece in the tradition of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite, well worthy of a spot in the orchestral repertoire."
-Wayne Lee Gay 

THEATER JONES
”López’s most impressive extended symphonic work to date, his Symphony No. 1…definitely deserves repeated hearings and has potential for durability in the repertoire.”
-Wayne Lee Gay

"The concert opened with the world premiere of Jimmy López’s Perú Negro…the Fort Worth Symphony shows its dedication to adding new works to the orchestral canon with the piece; engaging a quality composer such as López to write for the orchestra adds an additional relevance to the occasion and doubles down on the commitment to keep the oeuvre of symphonic music alive."
-John Norine Jr.

HELSINGIN SANOMAT
"Peruvian Jimmy López's ‘Fiesta!’ is fierce and fun rhythmic rumbling... The ensemble began blooming in an extraordinary, original and authentic Peruvian Fiesta-joy, where its slightly cool sound got suddenly transformed into blazing sensuality."
-Hannu-Ilari Lampila

"....Jimmy Lopez's 'K'asa', a multifaceted piece for violin and piano. The piece's character and expressive world were pleasingly extensive; the demands on the players considerable. There was boldness in the music and the composition's power of communication and quality always remained high. Fine piece!".
-Veijo Murtomäki

DARMSTÄDTER ECHO
"'15 etudes for sting octet'... Jimmy Lopez, 2008 Kranichsteiner Music Prize winner. Here, American Jack Quartet joined the Arditti Quartet to create a sequence of aphoristic short pieces, each one dedicated to a playing technique or sound topic. Pizzicati, tremolo, harmonics, glissandi, rhythmic pulses, harmonic diversification; all were explored with much fantasy. This was entertaining music in the best sense. In addition, almost orchestral sonorities were cleverly utilized. In a fully packed Orangerie, Lopez received the biggest applause from all four composers present, and justifiably so."
-Klaus Trapp

STAR TELEGRAM
"Peru Negro is a salute to the black musical heritage of Peru. It’s a very outgoing composition, boundless in energy, with much brass and percussion, fierce rhythms and a smashing ending."
-Olin Chism

"The concert ended with the world premiere of Lago de Lagrimas by young Peruvian Jimmy Lopez. The flute concerto starred Jessica Warren-Acosta playing a flute with a sliding head joint. She bent notes like a trombone. The first movement, Suplicio, was Baroque in its depth and emotion, the same low, sad flute melody cycling against exquisite, golden orchestrations. Staccato walls of rhythm propelled Transmutacion, blunt-force declarations that tried to maintain momentum...a quiet, beautiful glow remained."
-Chris Shull

"Rhythmic riffs were repeated and passed around; syncopated snippets suggested salsa beats; strings pounded out a pulse and whirred in blurry glissandi. Fiesta! was frenetic, mirroring the club life that inspired it."
-Chris Shull

"By turns brash and coolly luxurious, Fiesta! is vital, vigorous music, exciting and engaging across its four movements."
-Chris Shull

KANSAN UUTISET MAGAZINE
"...the interpretation of Jimmy Lopez's Incubus was a performance that will stay on the mind. It was unpredictable in every sense... Lopéz says this work has taken him to technical and emotional realms that are foreign to him. In the performance this translated into the players whispering, grumbling, yelling and stabbing their shoes audibly against the ground."
-Jouku Huru