Lucas Vidal composes the tune of ESPN's coverage in Rio 2016

The young Spanish composer, who is triumphing in Hollywood and has just won two Goya awards, has been chosen to compose the theme song that the American channel will use in its coverage of the Olympic Games.

He has two Goyas to his credit and his music is surprising Hollywood. Now, the young Spanish composer, Lucas Vidal, has been chosen by the American channel ESPN to compose the tune that will be used in the coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Inspired by stories of athletes, their challenges and triumphs, Vidal composed the song together with De la Parra who directed the recording of the musical composition, by the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, of which the Mexican is principal conductor.

ESPN, with one of the largest audiences in the country, is one of the official networks of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and will broadcast more than 600 hours of coverage across its various platforms starting August 5.

This musical suite, whose entire duration is five minutes, will be used in the coverage and production of the Games for Latin America and the Caribbean and will be a fundamental part of the marketing and promotion efforts of the event. Soon, the American channel will present and broadcast, through its programs and social networks, a series of pieces focused on the preparation of the musical piece and, on August 5, ESPN will premiere a music video with the participation of both musicians explaining the process of composing and recording the song.

The fashionable composer

Despite his youth, Lucas Vidal (Madrid, 1984) has a solid cinematographic career with more than 20 films behind him between Hollywood and Europe. He always had an exceptional talent for composition, soon developing his own style of musical writing. He studied at Berklee College of Music, where he made history by becoming the youngest student to compose and record the music for a feature film with an 80-piece orchestra. After graduation, he moved to New York to complete his musical training at the Juilliard School of Music. He currently lives between Madrid and Los Angeles where he has founded two companies, Mumo and Chroma, together with his partner and colleague in
Berklee, Steve Dzialowsly.

In 2012 he composed the soundtrack for The enigma of the crow with John Cusack and The cold light of day with Bruce Willis and Sigourney Weaver, which earned him a nomination for 'Discovery of the Year' at the World Soundtrack Awards. Right after he made the OST for the film Fast and Furious 6, an extraordinary global box office success. His latest works in Spain have been the soundtrack of Isabel Coixet's latest film, Nobody wants the night (with Juliette Binoche and Gabriel Byrne) and Fernando González Molina, Palm trees in the snow Thanks to which he won two Goya Awards (for best song with Pablo Alborán for Palmeras en la Nieve and for best music for Nobody wants the night) in the latest edition of these awards.

For her part, Alondra de la Parra was born in New York in 1980, moving to Mexico City when she was two years old, where she began her piano studies. After piano and cello, he studied composition at the Center for Musical Research and Studies (CIEM) in Mexico. He entered the Manhattan School of Music in New York with a Presser scholarship, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Piano and later a Master's degree in Orchestral Conducting.

In 2003 he founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in New York City, with the aim of promoting and disseminating the works of young composers and soloists from the continent.

Alondra de la Parra has conducted the most important orchestras in the world and was the first Mexican woman to conduct an orchestra in New York and the first woman to conduct the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, one of the three largest in Australia and of which she has been chief conductor since the end of 2015.