Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, the American composer Miguel del Aguila moved to the US in 1978 and after graduating from The San Francisco Conservatory of Music he traveled to Vienna to further music studies. After ten years there, during which time he was active as composer, pianist, conductor and music teacher, he returned in 1992 to live in Southern California. Numerous premieres of his works followed, and in 1994 Los Angeles Times critics chose him “resident music man of the year” and later “One of the West Coast’s most promising and enterprising young composers”. He was honored with a Kennedy Center Friedheim Award in 1995 and several California Arts Council Fellowships and Residencies from 1996 to 2000.