David Moliner is a composer and percussion soloist whose work seeks the integration of expressive gesture as a structural principle of music, conceived as a continuation of the lineage that runs from Bach, Beethoven, Bruckner, and Xenakis to the present day. His artistic vision understands gesture as the inner motor of musical form, articulation, and temporal architecture.

A central focus of Moliner’s practice is his effort to expand the expressive and structural possibilities of the marimba, capable of sustaining polyphony, large-scale form, and expressive depth traditionally associated with strings and keyboard instruments. Through new works, radical transcriptions, and hybrid chamber formats, he explores how gesture, counterpoint, and physical energy converge within a single musical discourse.

In 2025, Moliner’s international profile was highlighted by a collaboration with the Boulanger Trio at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, where he appeared as composer and marimba soloist. The program placed Beethoven in dialogue with contemporary works and featured Moliner’s transcription of J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 for piano trio and marimba, reimagining Baroque counterpoint through the marimba’s rhythmic clarity, polyphonic capacity, and timbral breadth. The collaboration was subsequently presented in Berlin.

That same season saw the release of his solo marimba album, reinterpreting works by Bach and Moliner himself, further asserting the marimba’s expressive and structural potential within the classical tradition.

Moliner’s oeuvre, published by Universal Edition, encompasses orchestral, chamber, and solo works and is marked by a strong dramaturgical consciousness in which musical form emerges from motion, tension, and transformation. His catalogue includes a series of genre-defying cycles — Eglogas, Masquerades, Mystiques, Estructuras, Entes, and Esoterics — developed within a compositional aesthetic he calls “dynamism,” grounded in the continuity between gesture and musical structure.

His music has been performed by orchestras including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra, Valencia Symphony Orchestra, ADDA Sinfònica, OSPA, or the Spanish Youth National Orchestra, as well as by leading ensembles such as the SWR Vokalensemble, Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche, or Plural Ensemble. He has collaborated with soloists including Jörg Widmann, Carolin Widmann, and Éric-Maria Couturier, and with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Peter Eötvös, Matthias Pintscher, Nuno Coelho, Marcus Creed, Alexander Liebreich, or Fabián Panisello.

As a marimbist, Moliner has appeared at major international venues including the Konzerthaus Berlin, Philharmonie Berlin, Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Stadtcasino Basel, KKL Luzern, and Philharmonie de Paris, as well as festivals such as the Harzburger Musiktage, Weissenhorn Klassik Festival, and Bachtage Rostock, and institutions including the Guggenheim Bilbao, which invited him to perform in celebration of its 25th anniversary. He has recorded solo albums with labels such as Accentus Music and NEOS, and is Adams Artist.

Beyond his compositions and concerts, Moliner is regularly invited to give workshops on composition and percussion at institutions such as the Centro Superior Katarina Gurska, Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock, Royal Academy of Music London, Codarts, Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, USC Thornton University Los Angeles, Conservatoire Supérieur de Lyon, or Hochschule für Musik Luzern. He also develops mentorship programs and awards to support emerging composers and soloists.

Among his distinctions are first prize at the Vibraphone Competition of the Italian Percussion Arts Society, the Universität der Künste Berlin Composition Prize commission, or the Roche Young Commissions Award presented by the Lucerne Festival.

Moliner studied composition with Pascal Dusapin at the Haute École de Musique de Genève and with Jörg Widmann at the Universität der Künste Berlin and the Barenboim-Said Akademie.

"Two things stand out from this musician: the extremes of dynamics, which are a delight (his quiet passages in particular are outstanding) and the actual tone which he produces."

September 2025 / BBC Music Magazine

"Der spanische Komponist und Percussionist David Moliner bildet mit seiner Marimba eine regelrechte Einheit. Das Finalkonzert am Sonntagabend war dann zweigeteilt: Zunächst musizierte der spanische Komponist und Percussionist David Moliner. Ein hoch talentierter Schlagzeuger, der mit seinem Instrument, einer Marimba, eine regelrechte Einheit bildete. Moliner bediente vier Schlägel gleichzeitig, spielte auf diese Weise Werke von Bach, Schubert und Debussy. Eine sichtbar schweißtreibende Angelegenheit. Das Publikum lauschte andächtig und fasziniert."

Christoph Exner / goslarsche.de

"David Moliner is convinced that if Bach had known the marimba, he would have been enthusiastic about its properties and would have composed for this instrument. As we know, he didn't, so the Spanish percussionist himself set about transcribing works by the famous Baroque composer for marimba."

Philipp Plum / Tagesspiegel

"Seven premieres and a sanctuary: The composer and percussionist knows where feeling becomes sound."

Christoph Fortshoff / Rondo Magazine

"'Dämonischer Iris' made a very strong impression [...] Moliner is a gripping storyteller, creating a sense of suspense at the beginning and then moving in several unexpected directions, swerving from Ligeti-like whimsy (musicians doubling on harmonicas feature among the sound world, along with whistles and birdcalls) to dead-serious intensity as if in a stream of consciousness. After hearing Klaus Mäkelä conduct the Oslo Philharmonic in Scriabin’s 'Poème de l’extase' the previous day, I couldn’t help but think of 'Dämonischer Iris' as a kind of 21st-century counterpart depicting the intensely contradictory character of human nature."

Thomas May / Roche Young Commissions 2023

"David Moliner effectively structures his mythologically charged “Demonic Iris” with archaic percussion."

Urs Mattenberger / Luzerner Zeitung

"Moliner is remarkable in two respects: [...] not only blurs the boundaries, but this apparently corresponds fundamentally to his approach, no matter what instrument he writes for."

Neue Zeitschrift für Musik / Dietrich Heißenbüttel

His ability to play all by heart and his musical corporality in percussion are unique and exceptional.

UdK Berlin I-d Magazin

"(...) it is not surprising that his compositional aesthetic is considered a pioneer of new genres and new forms."

Codalario.com / Alba María Yago Mora

"his ... Mein Logos, is a work of energetic nature that arises from that percussive principle and shows off its soloist, with an orchestra, somewhat smaller than in the other scores in the program, collaborating for this purpose, except for contrasting fragments like that suggestive solo interspersed from the concertmaster. A kind of tight correlation of the concept, as of electronic music, of the "attack-resonance", together with "transversal" techniques of soloist and music stands"

Revista Ritmo / Luis Mazorra Incera

"[...] Having the composer himself as the main soloist and indicating some entries by himself to the rest of the percussionists, the discourse became really powerful"

Platea Magazine / Gonzalo Lahoz

"The naturalness with which Moliner combines sensuality and form is impressive."

El Español / Álvaro Guibert

"Bells, whistles, whispers, body blows. All this in a timbral amalgam of undoubted musical cohesion, where we glimpse influences that go from Igor Stravinsky, in those impulsive rhythmic ostinatos, through Franco Donatoni, with that heterodox use of brass."

Heraldo de Aragón / Francisco Javier Aguirre
David's Moliner Partner Adams Percusion
Universal Edition is David Moliner's publishing company