Meet Manuel
It would be ideal for Manuel himself to tell us about his life, his musical career, his creative processes, his productions, the stories and anecdotes gathered along the journey—only life surprised him with other plans, and he departed for other realms in January 2022. In this space, we are bringing together his music, as well as information collected over many years of work, which we continue to enrich. This will allow us to get to know him and engage with his personal and musical story.
For much of his life as a musician, Manuel devoted himself to researching the history, structure, and sound of pre-Hispanic instruments, especially wind instruments. By making them sound, he brought their ancestral voices into the present. They were his inspiration; through them, he traveled back to the myths and legends of pre-Hispanic cultures—stories that he expressed in many of his compositions in his desire to share what had always been his passion: the history of our origins and their marvelous symbols.
"Perhaps memory is the echo of the secret melody of origin."
Beatriz Cañas
In addition to playing the flute, piccolo, recorders, soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones; quenas, zampoñas, sikus, and other Andean aerophones; the Armenian duduk, banzouri, shenai, Chinese flute, Japanese flute, Irish whistle, and percussion, Manuel Miranda incorporates pre-Hispanic wind instruments into his compositions. He has studied these instruments with passion, unearthing their sounds to tell us astonishing stories.
He has independently released four albums: Asociación Libre, Tinku (“Encounter”), Brujos Voladores (reviewed by Nobel Prize laureate Mario Vargas Llosa), and Horizontes, as well as a compilation: The Best of Manuel Miranda.
His original musical work and outstanding live performances have led him to share the stage with major international jazz musicians and groups, such as the Dave Valentin Group, Trío Fattoruso, Stanley Jordan, Hermeto Pascoal, Arthur Moreira Lima, Armandinho, Spok Frevo Orquestra, Frank Gambale Trio, Ramiro Musotto, and Lito Vitale, among others. With his band, he has performed in festivals and theaters across Peru, Costa Rica, Panama, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, China, and Japan.
At the age of 16, Manuel began his artistic journey by founding and performing in bands that played popular music, folklore, jazz, rock, and world music. He has also performed as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra and served as principal flutist with the orchestra of the National Conservatory. Manuel has accompanied or performed with Tania Libertad, Los Hijos del Sol, Patricia Elena Vlieg, Japanese conductor Missa Jonouchi, Armandinho, Andrés Soto, Elsa María Elejalde, Juan Castro Nalli, Félix Casaverde, Roxana Valdivieso, among others. He composes music for theater, film, and dance.
In 1997, Manuel took his instruments and moved to Buenos Aires, where he lived for ten years and became part of the acclaimed Lito Vitale Cuarteto, with whom he recorded albums and toured throughout Latin America and Europe. At the same time, he worked with artists and groups such as David Lebón, La Portuaria, Silvina Garré, Juan Carlos Baglietto, La Banda Latina, Marcelo Torres Group, among others, and with his own fusion project Asociación Libre.
As a composer and musical director, his notable works include:
The theatrical productions King Lear and Othello at the Municipal Theater of Lima, La Verdad de las Mentiras by and with Mario Vargas Llosa in Lima and Santiago de Chile; The show Naupaq Pacha (China),
The opening show of the ITB in Berlin; Peru’s National Day celebration at the 2005 Universal Expo in Nagoya, and at the Toyokawa Theater in Japan. The closing ceremony of the 2nd ALC–EU Business Summit,
The light and sound show commemorating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu, among many others.
The career of the “Lord of the Winds” is extensive, and also highlights his work as a researcher of pre-Hispanic wind instruments, studying his own collection as well as others and how he embodies them in his compositions creating extraordinary music. This dedication has led to collaborations with several institutions. He was the musician selected and invited to play and test for the first time the 5,000-year-old bone flutes discovered in the ancient city of Caral. Manuel Miranda is the chosen musician who composed and performed for the unveiling of the archaeological cities of Caral and Cahuachi to the world. His collaboration with the Larco Museum is among his most notable projects. He recorded the sounds of a significant number of instruments and sound artifacts, and also composed music for their documentaries.
Manuel was passionate about wind instruments and its sounds as a source of inspiration for his creations. Seductive rhythms from the coast, highlands, and Amazon regions of his homeland—interwoven with Afro-Peruvian percussion—merge seamlessly with jazz, rock, bossa nova, Eastern tonalities, and electronic textures. His ongoing innovations have played a significant role in shaping the contemporary musical landscape of his country.
Besides playing the flute, piccolo, recorders, saxophones: soprano, alto and tenor; quenas, zampoñas, panpipes, sicus and other andean aerophones, Armenian duduk, banzouri, shenai, Chinese flute, Japanese flute, Irish whistle and percussion, MANUEL MIRANDA incorporates pre-Hispanic winds into his compositions, those that he studied with passion, unearthing their sounds to sing us amazing stories.
La entrevista completa en la sección Prensa. (*)
Manuel Miranda, a multifaceted artist. As a composer, his music spans a wide range of genres—rock, jazz, Latin American popular music, folklore, Afro-Peruvian, Oriental, Baroque, and more. His work as a musical director and producer is both extensive and diverse, as is his role as a wind instrument performer.
His passion for diversity drives him to explore sounds and wind instruments, which he plays with mastery—earning him the nickname El Señor de los Vientos, “The Lord of the Winds” by the press in his country. Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa wrote, “Manuel Miranda is a musician who, at the same time as being a virtuoso instrumentalist, possesses an extraordinary creative talent.”
Manuel was born on January 4 in Lima, Peru; his connection to music began at an early age. In 1985, he graduated with top honors as a flutist from the National Conservatory of Music in Lima.
In parallel with his studies at the National Conservatory of Music, he began playing quenas, panpipes (zampoñas), and other traditional wind instruments. He also started performing in and forming bands that played popular music, jazz, and rock.
“...I remember I started out playing the guitar..."
And how did you switch to wind instruments?
" It was because of the influence of the music from Jethro Tull, a band that fused rock with flute and British music, which I really liked. Also the Beatles, especially their later albums, where they incorporated a wide variety of styles that really opened my mind—and eventually led me down to this path of musical fusion."
Was your training at the National Conservatory of Music primarily in flute?
“ When I was twelve, I started to play quena by my own and when I started to study flute at the Conservatory, I discovered Charlie Parker and the saxophone. I remember my teacher, César Vivanco, struggling to wrap his head around over the idea that playing the sax would ruin my tone—but I didn’t listen, because I’ve always believed you should follow your instinct, and I’ve always loved diversity. Around that time, I also discovered classical music, Latin American, and Andean music. I couldn’t be just a flutist, so I refer to myself as a musical polygamist, since I play a wide variety of instruments from different countries and cultures.”
"I’m a musical polygamist. Fusion is my thing—I mix instruments from different cultures to achievethe diversity that defines my work."