Javier Torres Maldonado was born in Chetumal, Mexico, in 1968 and studied at the National Conservatory of Music there and the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. Between 1996 and 2003 he furthered his composition skills under Franco Donatoni (the Accademia Chigiana of Sienna, the Accademia Superiore di Musica L. Perosi) and Azio Corghi (the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Accademia Chigiana), as well as under Ivan Fedele at the Conservatoire National of Strasbourg. In addition to this, he graduated in Electronic Music from the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan in 2003.

A recipient of numerous composition prizes, he has won the Reine Marie José of Geneva, the Alfredo Casella of Sienna, the Ad Referendum II of Montreal and has been awarded the second prize twice at the Mozart Competition of Salzburg. In 1998, he was invited by the University of Montreal and by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne as the composer representing Latin America at the Forum 98, where he was awarded the Musicians Prize. In 2002, he gave a conference on his cycle of works entitled Figuralmusik for the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. In 2003 he was invited by Syntono and Citéculture to take part in the premières ‘Rencontres entre Compositeurs et Interprètes de Paris’. The same year, he was selected among the participants of the ‘Forum International de Jeunes Compositeurs de l’Ensemble Aleph’ for his work De Ignoto Cantu, for ensemble and electronic device. In 2004, he was also selected by the IRCAM’s Editorial Committee to partake in the composition and music computing internship.

He has received numerous commissions for large ensembles, symphonic, chamber, solo and vocal music, with or without electronics, as well as electro-acoustic music alone from many internationally renowned festivals, institutions and performers around the world, like the Biennale of Venice, Klangspuren of Austria, Festival Internacional Cervantino (Mexico), “Musica” of Strasbourg, Milano Musica, Musiques en Scène of Lyons. His compositions are performed, among others, by Irvine Arditti, Armand Angster, Mario Caroli, Carlo Chiarappa, Pablo Marquez, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble 2e2m, Ensemble Aleph, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Ensemble Orchestral Contemporain, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Divertimento Ensemble, National Orchestra of Belgium, La Fenice Opera Theater Symphony Orchestra of Venice, Symphony Orchestra of Bilbao.

Since 2010 he is professor in Electroacoustic Composition, Composition and New Technologies and Computer Assisted Composition at the Conservatory A. Vivaldi of Alessandria (Italy). He held the same post at the Conservatory of Milan (2007 to 2010) and at the Conservatory A. Vivaldi of Alessandria (2003 to 2007). Additionally, he has taught master courses in Computer Assisted Composition at the Conservatory of Trento - Riva del Garda from 2006 to 2007.

For the second time, Javer Torres Maldonado is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (National Council for Culture and Arts of Mexico), 2009-2012. Among his recent projects are a new piece for a multidisciplinary stage work New rituals for a disperate era in collaboration with the Navarrete x Kajiyama Dance Company that has been premiered at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts of San Francisco, a new piece for percussions, piano and electronics that has been premiered at the Opéra National of Lyons, France, during the Journées GRAME 2011 and Festival Manca 2011 in Nice, the premiere in Germany of his String Quartet No. 1 by the Arditti Quartet, during the Witten Tage für Neue Musik (WDR in Cologne), and a monographic concert during the Festival Extension 2011 in Paris by the Ensemble 2e2m.