Luis Paniagua was born in Madrid in 1957. His formation has been orientated towards both Western and Eastern music, specially towards that from the North of India. When he was ten he started playing string and percussion instruments. In 1974 he started his studies of sitar as an autodidact but some years later he went on studying with his master T.N. Nagar in Benares, India.
Previously, in 1972, and up to 1982, he had become a member of the group Atrium Musicae, from Madrid, a group that was taken up with European ancient music and directed by his brother and master, Gregorio Paniagua, making then his debutat the age of fifteen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. With this group he also carried out several tours of concerts in USA, Canada, France, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Finland, Poland and the USSR. In this period the group recorded fourteen albums that were published in Europe, America and Japan.
From 1980, Luis Paniagua started his solo career, as a soloist or with several performers directed by himself. He also composed and performed music for theatre, ballet and soundtracks. In 1999 he created his own discographic company, Silentium, in which he published his last album "Nanas de Sol".
As a composer, Paniagua creates universal and contemporary music, inspired in elements from both Western and Eastern cultures. In his search for the fusion of both worlds, Paniagua has composed with several oriental instruments such as the North-Indian sitar, the Chinese lute or the ancient Mediterranean lyre, among others, combining them with Western instruments. This sonorous and, apparently, exotic language goes beyond any specific tradition to turn into a personal and universal voice.

Galo Pérez

• Oriente-Occidente. Babia (1981)
• De mágico acuerdo (1986)
• Neptuno. Siempre es mejor lo que sucede (1987)
• Planeo. Sobre el camino de Santiago (1990)
• La bolsa o la vida (1992)
• Muy frágil (1993)
• Arbol de cenizas (CD, 1994)
• Soltando amarras (CD, No-CD Rekords, 1997)
• Amaneció de golpe (CD, Pneuma, 1998)
• Nanas de sol (CD, Silentium, 1999)

Soundtracks (selection):
Cinema:

• Amaneció de golpe (1997, by Carlos Azpúrua, Venezuela)

Dance:

• Cantata de par en par (1981, Grupo Schinca)
• Canto a un árbol caído (1982, for the painter Paloma Navares)
• Oriente-Occidente (1983, for the dancer Miriam Phillips)
• Luz (1984, for the dancer Gloria Mandelik)
• Uadi (1992, for Vicente Sáez's Dance Company)
• Arbol de cenizas (1994, Paco Maciá's Ferroviaria Dance Company)
• Los nombres de Dios (1997, for the dancer Loreto San Juan)

Theatre:

• Salomé by Oscar Wilde (1985. Nuria Espert Company. Version by Terenci Moix. Directed by Mario Gas)
• Antígona Hurtado Esguerra by Sófocles (1986. Nelly Vivas-Ivanova Company. Version and direction Nelly Vivas-Ivanova)
• Comedia sin título by Federico García Lorca (1987. Sueño de una noche de verano Company. Direction by Lola Poveda and Juan Graell)
• Peer Gynt by Henry Ibsen (1988. Version and direction by Juan Pastor)
• Las cuatro niñas by Pablo Picasso (1988, Ensemble Theatral of Paris, Grup Artistic de Barcelona. Directed by Philippe Roise)
• El castillo de Lindabridis by Calderón de la Barca (1989. Version and direction by Juan Pastor)

with Atrium Musicae:

• Música Iucunda (12th - 17th Centuries) (LP, 1976)
• Músique Arabo Andalouse (LP, 1976)
• Tarantule-Tarantelle (LP, 1976)
• Diego Ortíz, Recercadas (Double LP, 1977)
• Codex Glúteo (LP, 1978)
• Las Cantigas de Hita de Alfonso X el Sabio y los instrumentos musicales en el libro del Buen Amor del Arcipreste de Hita (LP, 1978)
• Teobaldo I de Navarra (LP, 1978)
• Musique de la Grèce Antique (LP, 1978)
• Villancicos (Popular Spanish Songs, 15th and 16th Centuries) (LP, 1979)
• La Spagna (15th to 17th Centuries) (Double LP, 1980)
• Las Indias de España (Pre-Colombian music from the archives of the Old and New World) (LP, 1981)
• La Folia de la España (LP, 1982)

"Luis Paniagua is an admired visionary musician. With more than thirty years of musical experience, he has devoted two thirds of them to his own compositions. Paniagua introduces 'Nanas de Sol', his last creation, an opus for lyre, voice and percussion, the synthesis of all these years of career that, as he defines, 'is the minimum intellectual expression to the maximum fluency of tenderness for the body and the soul'. Music with higher doses of spirituality, sensibility and magic." (ROCK DE LUX)

"His music may seem New Age, but its driving force sinks the roots in the night of the times. Splendid and moderate in the use of the strings, inspired in the layers of keyboards, imaginative in the timbric ornamentations, Paniagua offers, in its entirety, a very beautiful work He is maybe an odd guy, but I prefer the ones who work in the wire. I prefer Paniagua, for instance." (Mingus B. Formentor - LA VANGUARDIA)

"It is music without a concrete epoch or a geography, that seems to slide along the mind like a dream." (Jorge Munnshe - PROXIMO MILENIO)

"So we are before one of the most attactive sonorous adventures to be sold in the European Community or wherever. Luis Paniagua's work is a completely new and a really serious work. The stress, the anguish and the intellectual obstacles that oppressed us have dissapeared now. A stimulating sensation that I recommend you not to miss." (Karles Torra - LA VANGUARDIA)

"Un genre de musique génial. L'Espagne a enfanté un génie de la musique. C'ést vrai el vous nous rejoindrez dans notre affirmation una fois que vous auriez écouté quelques partitions musicales composées par Luis Paniagua." (M. Zerrouki - ALGER)

"A lot of folks are doing what Luis Paniagua does: melding world music, early (i.e. middle ages and renaisance) music, and post modern music and instruments, but most do not succeed the way Paniagua does with real musicality and invention." (Dean Suzuki - OPTION MAGAZINE - USA)