Sixto María Durán Cárdenas

Sixto María Durán Cárdenas (August 6, 1875 – January 13, 1947) was an Ecuadorian pianist, composer, and lawyer. He served as a judge, composed more than one hundred musical works, and was director of the National Conservatory of Music on three occasions. He also composed hymns for various institutions and military marches. Personal life and death Durán Cárdenas was born in Quito on August 6, 1875, the same day when the President Gabriel García Moreno was murdered. His parents were Domingo Durán, aide-de-camp of President Gabriel García Moreno, and Emperatriz Cárdenas, his first music teacher, a singer and notable harpist. After completing his elementary education and having lost his father, he entered the San Luis Minor Seminary in Quito. Julio Troncoso, director of the publication El año ecuatoriano, indicates that at the Seminary, Durán had a great music teacher in the priest Ditte, a Dutch Lazarist; however, another brief biography, unpublished and without a signature of responsibility, indicates that it was with the German priest Jausen, with whom he carried out his musical studies. At this time, the young artist had to teach mathematics privately to finance his studies. He ear