He was born in Piña de Campos (Palencia) in 1952. He studied music at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Madrid, as a student of Carmelo Bernaola, Francisco Calés and Luis de Pablo. Later he attended composition courses and seminars taught, among others, by Olivier Messiaen, Cristóbal Halffter, Helmut Lachenmann, Lejaren Hiller and Tomás Marco.Santiago Lanchares has received commissions from the Contemporary Music Diffusion Center, Spanish National Radio, Donostiarra Musical Fortnight, Guerrero Project, Alicante Festival, Jakarta Conservatory, as well as from soloists, groups and private institutions. His works have been performed in different European Cycles and Festivals: La Música de Nuestro Tiempo (Madrid), Nova Consonanza Festival (Rome), International Festival of Experimental Music of Bourges (France), International Festival of Music and Dance of Granada, Concerts of Casa Velázquez (Paris), Santander Festival, Flanders Festival (Brussels).On the other hand, with his work Remembering Ma Yuan he represented Spain at the UNESCO Grandstand in 1992 in the category of Electroacoustic Music. From 1981 to 1995 he was a collaborator of Radio 2 Clásica, where he worked as director and scriptwriter of numerous programs. He has developed activities as a musical commentator and record critic, and producer of musical recordings. Likewise, in October 2002, the XVIII Alicante Festival paid tribute to him on his 50th anniversary in the Festival's closing concert. His work Anandamanía was selected for the UNESCO International Tribune of Composers in 2003.
