Obituary: Spanish Composer Marisa Manchado Dies at 70
By Francisco Salazar(Foto © David Marcos)
On Oct. 28, 2026, composer, teacher, pianist and writer Marisa Manchado died at the age of 70.
The news was confirmed by her brother who said that Manchado died in the tragic train crash in Spain that killed 69 people. She was on her way to Seville to participate in a university symposium at the Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación.
Born on July 7, 1956, Manchado was educated at the Colegio Estilo y Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and obtained a degree in Psychology at the University and Comillas Pontifical University, in Madrid as well as Maîtrise and DEA in Music Sciences-Computer Assisted Composition at the Université Paris VIII-Saint Denis.
Manchado was the Deputy Principal of the Teresa Berganza Conservatory of Madrid until 2017, where she was a teacher since 1994. She was also an Associate professor at the Faculty of Education of the Autonomous University of Madrid from 2001 to 2004 as well as the General Deputy Director of Music and Dance of the INAEM-Ministry of Culture from 2007 to 2008).
As a composer she was commissioned by the Spanish National Orchestra and Choir, Teatro Campoamor-Oviedo, Teatro Real de Madrid, Teatro de la Zarzuela, Guanajuato Festival-Mexico, and the Chard Festival UK.
She composed more than 150 works including pedagogical music, chamber music, vocal music, symphonic music, opera and electroacoustics. Among her works were “The Pink Tree,” a work for choir, symphony orchestra and soprano, “La Cité des dames,” for female choir and piano, “La Regenta,” produced by the Teatro Real in Madrid, and “Un mar de hielo (A sea of ice),” an orchestral suite from her third opera “La Regenta.” She was currently working on his fourth opera, “Medea.”
As a composer she won numerous awards including the Premio Nacional de Música 2024 for her work “La Regenta.” At the time the jury said that Manchado’s opera is “an updated reading of a classic of universal literature, through which she gives voice to an iconic female character, which underlines the composer’s long commitment to equality.”
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