Ezequiel Viñao is an Argentinian-American composer who has been described by members of the Juilliard String Quartet as having "a particularly personal and intimate musical voice" that "combines an encyclopedic musical knowledge with an eclectic compositional philosophy." The press has called his music "of great contemplative beauty" (Le Monde de la Musique); "monumental" (Stuttgarter Nachrichten); "concentrated, evocative, of austerely theatrical force" (The Times, London); "engaging the ear in a fantastic harmonic language" (The Washington Post); and "rich, beguiling" (The New York Times).
Viñao's music has been presented by leading performers and institutions worldwide, among them Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Tanglewood and Ravinia Festivals; the Musikverein in Vienna; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the American Composers Orchestra, New York City Opera, Chanticleer, the National Chamber Choir of Ireland, the Brentano and St. Lawrence Quartets, and conductors Dennis Russell Davies, Kristjan Jarvi, and Paul Hillier. Commissions include a large-scale work for the Juilliard School's centennial, premiered by the Juilliard String Quartet.
A five-time ISCM First Prize winner, Viñao has received a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, a First Prize from UNESCO's Latin-American Rostrum of Composers, an Endowed Fellowship from the Djerassi Foundation, and recognition from the Argentinean Academy of Fine Arts and New York Foundation for the Arts. In 2000, he was among fifty-four living composers selected for "A Great Day in New York," a Lincoln Center–New York Times portrait of composers "who have played a role in [the city's] musical life."
Viñao's work is marked by his interest in music technology, the rhythmic cycles of India, and medieval sources, especially Spanish chant. He attended the Juilliard School — studying with Gyorgy Sandor, Earl Wild, and Milton Babbitt — and subsequently worked with Olivier Messiaen in a series of televised master classes in Avignon.
Beyond performing and composing, Viñao has lectured widely — at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music & Audio Technologies, the University of Cambridge Center for Music & Science, the Jorge Luis Borges Cultural Center in Buenos Aires — and served twice as a Visiting Scholar at NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center. In 2017 he joined a working group of NYU's Global Institute for Advanced Study in Ghana, where he also made field recordings of traditional music. In 2022 he was invited to moderate at the Tangier Dialogue — a conclave bringing together some 80 heads of state, ministers, and international leaders in dialogue on cross-cultural coexistence, sponsored by the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UN Alliance of Civilizations.
Viñao has also worked in music production, serving as a consultant for Nonesuch's best-selling recordings of Gershwin's piano rolls, and as co-producer in the mastering sessions for Sony's release documenting the reunion of Manal, a foundational group in Latin-American rock. He is currently at work on La Crónica Andalusí, a trilogy of staged music-narrations built around the rise and fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in medieval Spain.
Professor Viñao's music is published by TLON Editions and recorded on BIS, ICMA, and Pro Piano Records.