José Luis
Miralles Bono
Pianist · Researcher · Music educator
In short
I teach piano and lead studies at a Spanish conservatoire, I research where music education meets technology, and I make music that leaves the concert hall more often than not.
Based in Castelló, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. I have taught piano at the same conservatoire where I first enrolled as a twelve-year-old, and for the last ten years I have been training the teachers of other conservatoires across the Valencian region — in artificial intelligence, in assessment, and in the unglamorous craft of writing a curriculum somebody can actually teach from.
The research has followed the same double life. It began with how young musicians start to teach, and now runs through artificial intelligence in the practice room, the sonification of gravitational waves alongside a team of astrophysicists, graphic scores made of ceramics and glass, and workshops that put a theremin in the hands of teenagers who have never read a note.
Qualifications
PhD in Education
Universitat Jaume I · 2023
MA in Sound Art
Universitat de Barcelona · 2025
MA in Psychology for Musicians
UNED · 2022
MA in School Leadership and Management
Universidad CEU Cardenal Herrera · 2015
MA in Music — Contemporary Music
Universitat Politècnica de València · 2007
Higher Degree in Composition
Conservatorio Superior de Música “Salvador Seguí”, Castelló · 2008
Higher Degree in Piano
Conservatorio Superior de Música “Salvador Seguí”, Castelló · 2006
Research
Machines that listen, and people who learn
2023
PhD in Education
Universitat Jaume I
37
publications
2007–2026
32
conference papers
at national and international meetings
My doctoral thesis follows how young Valencian musicians begin to teach: the move from sitting in the classroom as a student to standing in it as a teacher, in the network of local music schools that trains most musicians in this region.
Recent work centres on artificial intelligence applied to music teaching — an “artificial Cortot” that assists in studying Chopin’s nocturnes, live coding with Strudel, and what intelligent planning looks like when the results are meant to be anything but artificial.
A second line, developed with the Sound Art Master’s programme at the Universitat de Barcelona and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB), sonifies gravitational waves: the music of the spheres, finally audible.
Published in English
The eight papers I have written in English
Of my thirty-seven publications, these eight were written and presented in English, at international meetings in Glasgow, Vilnius, Sapporo and Madrid. The remaining twenty-nine are in Spanish.
Another AI-generated Chopin nocturne? Better an Artificial Cortot to assist in studying the real ones
2024 · Universitat de València
Revealing the secrets of teaching piano sight-reading
2016 · 32nd ISME World Conference, Glasgow
GuidoBlogsUNI: the birth of an informal network of music teacher education
2016 · 24th EAS Conference, Vilnius
Factors influencing spatial patterns recognition in a musical context
2008 · 10th ICMPC, Sapporo — with B. Payri
Experiments on the utilization of space as a musical language resource
2007 · 19th International Congress on Acoustics, Madrid
Auditory scene analysis and sound source coherence as a frame for the perceptual study of electroacoustic music language
2007 · EMS Electronic Music Studies Network — with B. Payri
Significativity of answers in perception experiments with no previous training, as a predictor of academic ratings
2007 · XI International Congress on Project Engineering — with B. Payri and others
Preproduction design criteria for web projects based on performance measures for production web content
2007 · XI International Congress on Project Engineering — with B. Payri and others
The complete list, with links to the university repository and ResearchGate, is on the publications page.
Teaching and educational leadership
The same building since I was twelve
12
the age I first walked into the building
where I still teach today
3,500+
hours of continuing
education completed
10+
years training the teachers
of other conservatoires
I first enrolled at the Mestre Tárrega Conservatoire in Castelló as a twelve-year-old pupil. I stayed on at the higher conservatoire that shares the same premises, and in 2008 I came back through the front door as a tenured teacher of piano, a post won by national public examination. I am now its Head of Studies.
I also teach Music Computing and Introduction to Music Pedagogy, an elective I designed and have led since 2017; and I have taught at the Universitat Jaume I, in the Early Childhood and Primary Teaching degrees with a music specialism and in the Master’s in Secondary Teaching, supervising 19 bachelor’s and master’s theses.
Beyond my own school, I train conservatoire staff in artificial intelligence applied to teaching, educational assessment and curriculum planning — most recently in Sassari, Sardinia, for Italian conservatoire teachers.
Projects with young people
A theremin in the hands of someone who has never read a note
Alongside the conservatoire I run workshops and longer projects with young people, mostly outside the formal classroom, and mostly with people who do not consider themselves musicians.
Vibraccions explores the properties of sound through hearing, gesture and sight, using a theremin and a system of LEDs and spotlights — music you can watch. Held at the EACC contemporary art space and the Universitat Jaume I.
Extended piano techniques and live electronics, on amplifying and processing the instrument in real time, at the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències in Valencia and the Real Casino Antiguo in Castelló.
Graphic scores, for musicians and non-musicians alike, at the School of Art and Design in Castelló, at the Museum of Fine Arts as part of the PopInto workshop series, and in several conservatoires.
Artistic work
The piano, and what happens when you leave it open
44
symphonic and lyric productions
as pianist, repetiteur or director
63
experimental and
sound-art works
In Beyond The Piano the instrument meets extended techniques, electronics and real-time visuals; the project has appeared at the Ultrasons Festival. Sonotrazos makes graphic scores out of ceramics, glass and photographic sequences, shown at the MARTE art fair.
Much of my recent work turns around the Valencian composer Carles Santos: a retrospective programme, a virtual piano built from his phonemes, and a rereading of his work for the stage.
I was principal pianist of the Orquestra Lírica de Castelló, assistant conductor and repetiteur, and co-artistic director of most of its productions.
Get in touch
Write to me
joseluismirallesbono@gmail.com
I read everything, and I answer in English, Spanish or Valencian.
