Postcard from composer Nicolás Lell Benavides
In SFGC’s Postcard series, our guest artists, collaborators, and faculty take us behind the scenes and share an intimate look into their thoughts about music, life, and art-making.
This postcard features composer Nicolás Lell Benavides, the 2025-26 the San Francisco Girls Chorus Composer in Residence.
Nicolás Lell Benavides
Photo by Samantha Godoy
Nicolás Lell Benavides has been praised for being “dramatically tight and musically transporting” (SF Chronicle) as well as “resourceful and wonderfully eclectic” (Joshua Kosman). In 2024 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship, and has also received commissions from The New York Philharmonic/The Juilliard School, Eighth Blackbird, New Century Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Hope, Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music, West Edge Opera, Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Music of Remembrance, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Fry Street Quartet, Friction Quartet, and Khemia Ensemble. His music has received support from the American Composers Forum, The Barlow Endowment, New Music USA, Opera America, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Leading the 2025–26 season is the world premiere of his opera Dolores, about civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, with libretto by Marella Martin Koch, presented by West Edge Opera, San Diego Opera, The Broad Stage, and Opera Southwest. In the same season, Benavides serves as Composer-in-Residence with the San Francisco Girls Chorus; receives the premiere of a new orchestral work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel as part of Dudamel’s The Great Wall of Los Angeles Project, alongside a film by Alejandro G. Iñárritu; writes a new work for Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor and SOLI Chamber Ensemble; serves as artist in residence at Santa Clara University with support from the Sinatra Chair of the Performing Arts; and releases his album Canto Caló on Aerocade Records, available on all major streaming platforms. Nicolás has studied at Santa Clara University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music.
When did you first feel drawn to composing music, and what was one of your earliest memories of writing something original? Like most kids I was always making up songs, and as I grew older I was drawn to the jazz bands where I could play by ear and improvise. I wrote music with my friends in our rock bands, and we had elaborate shows with original tunes! It wasn’t until I went to my first classical concert senior year of high school, though, that I heard an orchestra and realized that I really wanted to know more about that world and registered for classes in college at Santa Clara University.
What inspired you to accept the Composer-in-Residence position with the San Francisco Girls Chorus? The SFGC performed one of my earliest compositions, A Bird Came Down the Walk, as part of the California Festival two years ago. Hearing them sing it, from memory, and with unparalleled artistry and expertise, made the piece brand new for me. I knew then that if they ever asked me to work with them I would say yes without hesitation!
Can you share something about your process — from first sketch to performance — of bringing a piece to life? Writing music is all about improvisation for me. I have to spend a lot of time playing with the words, memorizing them, reciting them, and wondering what music can add that the words haven’t already. Once I get a toe hold on what my musical idea is, things come very fast, and I know I’m on the right track when I wake up in the morning humming and rewriting the project I am currently working on. I love the feeling of being fully enveloped by a piece.
How does hearing new work in rehearsal change or influence your composing? No matter how experienced I get, hearing it for the first time is always a revelation. A single imagination can never be as profound as dozens or hundreds of creative minds! I always want to tweak things to help the piece fit like a glove for the ensemble.
What do you hope the singers will gain from this experience, beyond performing the final work? I hope they consider learning more about Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and the meaning of the poem from their own points of view. Art shouldn’t have a singular right way to interpret it, and all of us, as writers, performers, and listeners, have something valuable to add to the conversation.
How do you hope this new piece will resonate with audiences? What impact do you hope it has? The poem implores the reader to be bold if you want to change the world. If one considered only the dangers, and never the benefits, one would never take a risky but potentially rewarding path.
Writing for 250 treble voices is different from writing for an orchestra which has many possibilities of distinct colors. How do you approach this difference? These singers are so well prepared they really sing like one voice, and so I wrote for them almost as though they were two massive instruments, like two pipe organs. Each choir has a different skill level in mind, so all the singers could participate no matter what stage of their musical journey they are on. I also wanted to write something energetic and youthful that posed just enough of a rhythmic and harmonic challenge to be fun.
How do you engage with the community — through your music, rehearsals, or performances — to make the new work meaningful for listeners? Every piece is different. In this case my 4 year old son and I joined the SFGC for their weeklong summer residency. Having met them, I could imagine their voices and ensemble culture when writing the work. I liked to visualize their warm ups and sound whenever I worked on the score and I can say without a doubt that the song would have been wildly different (and worse!) without getting to know them.
What do you hope your legacy will be through this residency, both for yourself and for SFGC’s repertoire? I am just proud to be part of this incredible choir’s story. We don’t always know what our impact will be going in or leaving a project, but the journey is the most important part. One thing I know for sure is they have left an indelible mark on my music and artistry, and I am forever changed as a composer from having worked with them. I hope they know how much the experience has meant to me.