Hailed by the press as “...a burning torch for the next century ..stunning ..superb” (The New Music Connoisseur, New York), “…melodicism and rhythmic buoyancy" (The New York Times), “…astonishingly virtuosic” (Soundboard Magazine), the music of Octavio Vazquez has been performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the National Auditorium of Spain, Cologne's Philharmonie, and the Russian State Institute of Art. Notable performers of his works include conductors Rossen Milanov, Dima Slobodeniouk, Carlos Kalmar, Paul Daniel, Andrew Grams, and Victor Pablo Perez, and soloists such as Hilary Hahn, Cristina Pato, Dmitri Berlinsky, Jonathan Gandelsman, Adam Levin, and Eldar Nebolsin.
His works have been recorded for labels including Naxos and Delos and by national radio and TV networks in the U.S., Spain, Russia, and China. A winner of numerous national and international prizes, he has received grants and commissions from the New York State Council on the Arts, New Music USA, Michigan State University, Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra, Royal Galician Philharmonic, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Galician Cultural Council, Meet the Composer, Fulbright Commission, and Chi-Mei Foundation, among others. He is currently assistant professor of music and composition program director at Nazareth College of Rochester, NY.
In residence in 2018, he worked on a cello sonata and a piece for the Akropolis Reed Quintet that premiered in August 2018 at I-Park Foundation, CT, and New York City. He was a guest composer at the Winnipeg New Music Festival and the Ludwig van Beethoven Easter Festival (Poland). Performances in 2018 included the Civic Orchestra New Music Workshop and the U.S. premiere of his bagpipe concerto at Chautauqua Institution with Silkroad Ensemble soloist Cristina Pato.
