Manuel Torralba Quevedo is a Barcelona-based conductor and composer whose work spans symphonic, choral, operatic and contemporary repertoire across Europe, Russia and the United States. He works in six languages (Spanish, Catalan, English, French, Italian and Russian), which has shaped an international career.
Torralba began his musical training in Barcelona, studying piano at the Conservatori Municipal de Música de Barcelona (2020-2021). He then studied orchestral conducting at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC, 2021-2022) and completed a Bachelor's degree in Composition at the Fundació Conservatori del Liceu (2022-2025). He then studied for a Master's degree in composition and conducting at Florida State University (2025-2026), with a teaching assistantship. In 2026 he has also held weekly mentorship sessions with maestro Antoni Ros-Marbà.
He has complemented his studies with courses and competitions in Europe. These include choral conducting and vocal courses in Cambridge with Dr. Jeremy Rowe (2020), an orchestral conducting course and competition in Estoril, where he reached the semifinals (2021), and composition and choral conducting with Ivo Antognini in Aosta (2022). He also studied orchestral conducting with maestro Borja Quintas in Tenerife (2023) and took part in the Cantemus festival's conducting courses in Barcelona and Nyíregyháza (2023-2024). In 2025 he attended the Girton Conducting Course in Chichester. In 2026 he joined an orchestral masterclass on Bach and Mendelssohn with Prof. Fabian Enders, Prof. Wolfgang Kupke and Dr. Felix Caffer in Baruth, and a conducting course with the University of Santo Tomas Singers at ESMUC.
As a conductor, Torralba began in Catalonia. He was assistant conductor for the zarzuela Cançó d'Amor i de Guerra in Badalona, Barcelona and Gavà (2022), assistant conductor of the Banda Simfònica de Barcelona (2022-2023) and conductor of the Coral Mareny in Vilassar de Dalt (2022-2025). He also served as choir director of the Institut del Teatre in Barcelona and as repetiteur for singers at the Conservatory of Music of Badalona (2023). He has conducted premieres with the Conservatori del Liceu Orchestra, Cor Vivaldi at the Palau de la Música Catalana, and ensembles in Menorca. He has also conducted a concert of Bob Chilcott's A Little Jazz Mass and performances with the Sinfónica de la Tekhné at the Jardins de Can Fargues in Barcelona.
At Florida State University, he has been music director of the Festival of New Music, conducted at the Ernő Dohnányi Competition, led the Polymorphia ensemble, and prepared the soloists and chorus for the opera Cinderella. He also conducted a concert tour of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker with the FSU Dance Company, with performances at Ruby Diamond Hall in Tallahassee and the Moody Music Building in Tuscaloosa.
His 2026 season has included concerts in Moscow with the Yaroslavia Philharmonic Choral Capella and the choir of the State Symphony Capella of Russia, and with the Saxon Chamber Choir Leipzig in Baruth (Germany). He has also recorded with the European Sounds Orchestra at Igor Studio in Barcelona, and gave a masterclass at the Conservatori del Liceu on Beethoven's Eroica and Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. His competition record includes the second round of the Democratic Conducting Competition in Oradea, Romania (2024), a place at the II International Competition of Choral Conductors named after Alexander Vasilyevich Sveshnikov in Moscow (2026), and a semifinal place at the Atanasov Prize in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria (2026).
As a composer, Torralba writes for orchestra, choir, chamber ensembles and voice, and his music has been performed in Spain, the United States, Russia, Finland, Italy and Korea. His orchestral works include Primitive Ceremony for symphonic orchestra, premiered by Salvador Brotons and the Orquestra Simfònica Sant Cugat, and At the Mountains of Madness for string orchestra, premiered by the Camerata Eduard Toldrà. He also wrote two orchestrations of Holst's Hymns from the Rig Veda for the Conservatori del Liceu Orchestra, and wrote The Wizard in Space! for symphonic band (Chungnam Wind Orchestra, Korea).
His choral catalogue includes Introitus – Kyrie – Gloria and Gloria for female voices, performed in Catalonia and at the Moscow Conservatory. His De Profundis Clamavi ad te for mixed choir was premiered by the Choir of the Academic Music School of the Moscow Conservatory. A Crime Scene won a special prize in the Tapiola Kuoro composition competition and was premiered at the Sibelius Conservatory in Finland.
His chamber and vocal works include two string quartets (No. 1 premiered by Cuarteto Potenza, No. 2 by the FSU Student Quartet), Recuerdos for string trio at the Museu Picasso, and Plongée en mer for viola and piano. He has also written I Hate Contemporary Music! for soprano and piano and a Concertino for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra. His works are published by Brotons & Mercadal and Choralworks.
