Cuban born composer Ileana Perez Velazquez lives in upstate NY and is a Professor of Music Composition at Williams College, MA. The New York Times has praised the “imaginative strength and musical consistency” and the “otherworldly quality”of her compositions. Her music has been heard in concerts and international festivals in Cuba, the United States, and throughout South and Central America, Europe, China, and the Middle East.

Perez Velázquez was awarded a 2015 Commission from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. During the 2024 season the LA Philharmonic included one of her composition as part of their Green concert series,  and her composition “Vuelo” was performed at the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Ozawa Hall. She has written works for numerous performers and ensembles, including Continuum  (New York City), Momenta String quartet (NYC), Cassatt Quartet (NYC), Ensemble Dal Niente from Chicago, Flux Quartet (NYC), Seraphic Fire (choir) Amernet string quartet (Miami, FL), Miranda Cuckson and NUNC (NYC), ICE (NYC), Counter)induction, Talujon Ensemble (NYC), Sonor Ensemble (Madrid, Spain) Quartet Eco (Madrid, Spain), Insomnio ensemble (the Netherlands), Orchestra 2001 (Philadelphia), Ensemble Intersection (Nashville, TN), New World Symphony, American Composers Orchestra Chamber Players, Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, The Minneapolis Guitar Quartet ,  Aguava New Music (IN), Eureka Ensemble (Boston), the instrumental ensemble Nuestro Tiempo from the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, Nodus Ensemble from FIU (Miami), the Hammond piano duo (IN), the Williams Chamber Players, and by performers such as Joan La Barbara, Sally Pinkas, Joanna Kurkowicz, Tom Chiu, Adrian Morejon, Matt Gold, Doris Stevenson, Pola Baytelman, Thierry Mirogglio, and Ancuza Aprodu, among others.

Her music has been featured regularly in numerous international festivals and concerts around the world including the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival, Sonidos de las Americas Cuba Festival at Carnegie Hall, American Composers Orchestra Chamber Players; Composers Now Festival in New York City, Latino Music Festival in Chicago, International Double Reed Society Conference: New York City, at the Here and Now Series of the Bargemusic Concert Hall, NYC; at The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra “Liquid Music Concert Series”; at the Sonic Circuits XII International Electronic Music Festivals at Berklee College, Boston (American Composers Forum); Boston Cyber Arts Festival, Bowling Green State University New Music Festival; New Music Miami Festival; Festival of Women Composers International, Pittsburgh; “Music From Almost Yesterday” concert series, Milwaukee; Third Practice Electronic Music Festival in VA; Indiana University’s “Crossroads of Traditions: a Latin American music festival” at Indiana University; and the Dartmouth College New Music Festival, and by the ensemble Sequitur at Merkin Hall, NYC. The list of international festivals that have also featured Ileana’s music is equally impressive, including the Q-ba Festival in Amsterdam, the Netherlands at the Muziekcentrum De Ijsbreker; New Music International Festival of the Tres Cantos Auditorium , and Festival COMA (Madrid, Spain); International Festival of Contemporary Music in Bogotá, Colombia; VIII Forum of Caribbean Composers in Venezuela; 4th International Festival of Electroacoustic Music, Santiago de Chile; III International Festival of Asuncion, Paraguay, II Festival Iberoamericano de Guitarra in Beirut, Lebanon; at the Vendsyssel Festival, Denmark; at the Music Festival Counterpoint Italy in Lucca, Tuscany; at a concert of the International Musical Academy “Masters of Pontlevoy,” Ivry-sur-Seine, France, Festival Kuraia (Bilbao, Spain), at a concert in the Auditorium St. German in Paris, France; at the Auditorium di Vittorio in Milan, Italy; at the Foro Internacional de Musica Nueva Manuel Enriquez of Mexico City, and at the MusicArte Festival of New Music in Panama, at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, and at the West Australian Academy of Performing Arts. Her music has also been performed in National Conferences of the Society of Composers Inc. and the College Music Society, by the Chamber Music of the League of Composers New York City, ISCM, ICEM in Beijing, China, and at the IAWM Congress, Miami.

Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba,  Perez Velázquez received her B.A. in piano and composition from the Higher Institute of Arts (ISA), Havana, Cuba. When she moved to the United States in 1993, she was already recognized as one of the up-and-coming talents in Cuban composition, winning several national composition awards in Cuba, including the first prize of composition for chamber music in the contest of the National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), and the first music composition prize from the first national competition of the Youth Music of Cuba (Juventudes Musicales).

After obtaining her Master’s in 1995 in electroacoustic music from Dartmouth College—where her teachers included Charles Dodge, Larry Polansky, Kathryn Alexander, and Jon Appleton —Perez Velázquez began her doctoral studies at Indiana University, studying with Claude Baker, Eugene O’Brien, and Marta Ptaszynska, receiving her DMA in 2000. Perez Velázquez was  a recipient of a 1999 Cintas Fellowship in Composition. She was on the faculty of Portland State University for two years (1998-2000), and since 2000 she has been a Professor of Music Composition and Electronic Music at Williams College.

Albany Records released two CD portraits of her music: on January 2008, and September 2017. Recordings of her music have also been released by Innova Recordings, and Urlicht Audiovisual.