Eddie Mora

Chief conductor of Costa Rica's Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia, Eddie Mora is also a composer, and as a conductor, he has championed contemporary Latin American music. Mora is active in the U.S. and Europe as well as in his home country. Eddie Mora Bermúdez was born in San José, Costa Rica, on January 23, 1965. He studied at the Conservatorio Castella in Heredia and the University of Costa Rica, where he studied composition with William Porras in 1980 and 1981. In 1982, he went on to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he earned a bachelor's degree as a violinist in 1988, studying with Maya Glezarova and Olga Voitova, and continued on for a master's degree in 1992. That year, he joined the faculty of the University of Costa Rica, teaching chamber music, violin, and composition; he remained there as of the early 2020s in the position of associate professor. In 1995, he founded the string ensemble Camerata Latinoamericana. He continued to study composition with Yuri Vorontsov in Moscow and in San José, Costa Rica. Mora has remained active as a violinist, performing since 1994 as part of the duo Mora/Duarte. He made his recording debut on Jorge Castro's rock album Journey in 2006. In Costa Rica, Mora's compositions have been widely performed by such groups as the National Symphony Orchestra, the University of Costa Rica Symphony Orchestra, and the Cartago Wind Ensemble. They include orchestral and chamber works, and another champion has been the country's Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia, of which Mora has served as chief conductor since 2003. With that group, Mora has released various albums under his own name, including Caminos (2011) and Solosh (2019). His three string quartets were released in 2012 on an album on the Quartz label by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano. In 2014 and 2015, Mora served as resident conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, where he issued two volumes of Música de compositores costarricenses; one of these won the Latin Grammy award for Best Classical Album, and Mora has been nominated for that award on three other occasions. His works have also been performed in Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Russia, and the U.S., where Mora served as visiting artist in 2018. Mora's album El Ruido del Agua appeared in 2022.
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