Hello. I’m a composer.

Composer and cinematographer J.E. Hernández (b.1993) is a Mexican-born, Houston-based composer focusing on elevating personal and cultural narrative through his work. J.E.’s music has been featured by distinguished ensembles and organizations such as the Kennedy Center for the Arts, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Houston Grand Opera, American Opera Project, Performing Arts Houston, Apollo Chamber Players, Foundation for Modern Music, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, American Composers Forum, the Brazil National Orchestra, and in a wide variety of films. He holds a degree from the University of Houston. Past teachers include Marcus Maroney, Gregory Spears, and Gabriel Pareyón. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Composition at the University of California, San Diego.

J.E.’s work focuses on both traditional and multi-disciplinary mediums, and he has collaborated with directors, choreographers, and playwrights. His process cultivates creativity through stewarding tangible life experiences through an intensive, multi-narrative process that is mathematical, philosophical, and historical; these include environmental displacement, anthropologic self-assessments, and non-artistic life narratives. His interest in incorporating his cultural heritage from both his native Tabasco, Mexico, and Houston, Texas led J.E. to create ConcertiaHTX (concertiahtx.org), a non-profit arts organization for social causes. Its mission statement reads: “To empower social causes through the prism of new music and multi-media art,” resonating with his goal as a composer to engage communities at large.

Recent and upcoming projects include helah, a chamber work focusing on the transformative aspect of generational historicity and trauma, commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera; Voces Fantasmas, a multi-disciplinary work dedicated to people in immigrant facilities, excerpts of which were featured by the Kennedy Center for the Arts; Desert Shelter, commissioned by Performing Arts Houston, a work for string sextet and dance which deals with the bodily decay that migrants experience when crossing the Sonoran desert, premiering at the Wortham Theater in 2023; a McKnight Visiting Composer Residency with American Composers Forum; and a commission from Opera Theater of St. Louis as part of the New Works Collective.

Photo Credit: Claire McAdams (https://www.clairemcadamsphotography.com)