Mexico on Music Theory Print

Abundio Martínez

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Abundio Martínez (February 8, 1875 – April 26, 1914) was a Mexican musician and composer. He was born on February 8, 1875, in Huichapan. His father was a carpenter and band director. He taught Abundio carpentry skills and various instruments such as trumpet, violin and drum. The whole family, seeking a better life, relocated to Mexico City. Abundio liked to listen to a band directed by Sappers Miguel Rios Toledano rehearsing on Corregidora Street. He joined a band, playing the clarinet, and became the composer of many popular pieces. However, he remained poor. Abundio became a victim of tuberculosis on April 26, 1914, in Mexico City. Compositions * “Arpa de Oro” – waltz * “En es Espacio” - waltz * “≥s” – waltz * “Morir de Amor” – danza * “Noche apacible” – waltz * “Para que sepas lo que es amar” – danza * “Sonrisas de Angel” – waltz * “Te amo, te adoro” – waltz * “Consuelo” - Schottisch. Dedicado a la srita. Consuelo C. Cadena. References

Adolfo Salazar

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Adolfo Salazar Ruiz de Palacios (6 March 1890 – 27 September 1958) was a Spanish music historian, music critic, composer, and diplomat of the first half of the twentieth century. He was the preeminent Spanish musicologist of the Silver Age. Fluent in Spanish, French, and English, he was an intellectual and expert of the artistic and cultural currents of his time, and a brilliant polemicist. He maintained a close connection with other prominent Spanish intellectuals and musicians including José Ortega y Gasset, Jesús Bal y Gay, and Ernesto Halffter. In his writings, he was a defender of the French musical aesthetic of Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. He composed over twenty works for orchestra, string quartet, solo piano, voice and piano, chorus, and guitar. While his compositions are significant in the context of the 1920s Spanish musical avant-garde, today his critical writings are deemed of greater importance. He is most known for his insightful commentary and analysis in his eighteen years as music critic (1918-1936) for the Madrid daily El Sol. Biography Salazar was born in Madrid. He attended Madrid University, first studying history but then switching to music. He was co-dir

Alberto Domínguez (composer)

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Alberto Domínguez Borrás (San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, 21 April 1913 – Mexico City, 2 September 1975) was a Mexican marimbist and composer. He began his career in a marimba ensemble, Los Hermanos Domínguez. His most famous songs, both from 1939, are “Frenesi” and “Perfidia”. Songs * “Frenesi” (1939) * “Perfidia” (1939) *“A Rendezvous In Rio” (Xavier Cugat, 1941) *“Un Momento” (Enric Madriguera, 1941) *“Ranchero Soy” / “Al Son De La Marimba” (Rafael Medina, 1942) *“Vamos A La Guerra” (Martin Y Malena, 1942) *“Mala Noche” (Carlos Ramírez, 1943) *“Juntos” (Eduardo Alexander, 1945) *“Maybe Love Is Nothing But An Illusion” (Benny de Weille, 1949) *“Bad Thoughts” (Lolita Garrido, 1949) *“I’ve Been Waiting A Lifetime” (The Four Aces, 1953) *“Amor Que Muere” (Lupita Palomera, 1957) *“Humanidad” (Fernando Rosas and the Orchestra of Pablo Beltrán Ruiz, 1958) Discography *Perfidia (‘Orquesta, canciones y arreglos de Alberto Dominguez’ RCA Victor MKL 1068, ca. 1955) References External links * Steve Huey, “Alberto Dominguez”, AllMusic.

Alexander Acha

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Raúl Alexander Acha Johnson-Alemán (born January 25, 1985) is a Mexican singer-songwriter. Life He is the son of Mexican pop singer Emmanuel and Mercedes Aleman, who taught Alexander piano and other instruments. Acha is also a pianist and a Berklee College of Music alumnus. He was raised as a Roman Catholic and still attends Mass. His debut album Voy (2008) reached gold status in his native country, with Te Amo being his first single. On November 5, 2009, he won the Latin Grammy for Best New Artist. Discography Albums * Voy (2008) * La vida es… (2011) * Claroscuro (2014) * Luz (2018) * Las Italianas (2022) References External links *Official Website

Alicia Urreta

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Alicia Urreta (12 October 1930 – 20 December 1986) was a Mexican pianist, music educator, and composer. Biography Alicia Urreta was born in Veracruz, Veracruz. In 1952, she entered the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City, studying harmony with Rodolfo Halffter, and other topics under Hernández Moncada, León Mariscal, and Sandor Roth. In 1969, she studied with Jean-Etienne Marie at Schola Cantorum of Paris, France. She also studied piano instruction from Alfred Brendel and Alicia de Larrocha. She later worked as a concert pianist for the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. She also taught at the University of Mexico and was an instructor in acoustics at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional of Mexico City. In 1984, she had begun organizing musical festivals to promote Mexican and Spanish contemporary music, collaborating with Spanish composer Cruz de Castro. She premiered her Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in 1982. She died in Mexico City in 1987. Works Urreta composed, among other works, a chamber opera, five ballets, pieces for solo instruments, a cantata, incidental music, a musique concrète composition for Noh theater and film scores. Stage *

Álvaro Carrillo

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Álvaro Carrillo Alarcón (2 December 1919 – 3 April 1969) was a Mexican popular music composer and songwriter, born in San Juan Cacahuatepec, Oaxaca. He wrote over 300 songs, mostly boleros, including the great hits Amor mío, Sabor a mí, Como se lleva un lunar, El andariego, Luz de luna, Sabrá Dios, Seguiré mi viaje and La mentira. Early life and education Álvaro Carrillo Alarcón was born in 1921 to a father of Spanish descent and a mother of Indigenous Mixtec and African descent. He came from a very humble family as they lived in extreme poverty . His father owned three cows which he believed made him a “rich” man. Since his father was a farmer who came from a long line of farmers, he was eagerly set on keeping all his sons within his family’s business. A young Alvaro was not interested in obeying his father’s wishes and would often hide instead of working. Carillo would spend his time reading poetry, as he was fascinated by Greek mythology from an early age. At the age of eight, his mother died. Into his adolescence, he had discovered an interest in the guitar. As he grew older, his musical talent developed following the many types of music while growing up in San Juan Cacahuatepe

Ana Lara

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Ana Lara (born 30 November 1959) is a Mexican composer. Life Ana Lara was born in Mexico City and studied at the National Conservatory of Music with Mario Lavista and Daniel Catán and later with . She continued her studies at the Warsaw Academy of Music with and Włodzimierz Kotoński. She also studied ethnomusicology at the University of Maryland, graduating with a Master of Arts degree. After completing her studies, Lara worked as a composer and music producer. In 1989 she began producing a Mexico City University Radio (Radio UNAM) contemporary music program, and in 2000 she was nominated as Best Classical Album Producer at the Latin Grammy Awards. She founded and served as artistic director of Mexico’s International Festival Música y Escena, and served as artistic director of the Puebla Instrumenta Verano 2004 summer courses. She also teaches music and seminars on Latin American and twentieth century music. Works Selected works include: *1996 Y la marcha de la humanidad? for stage. Choreography by Alicia Sánchez *1998 Más allá for stage *1999 Viejas Historias for stage. Choreography by Rossana Filomarino *2000 Celebraciones for stage. Choreography by Rossana Filomarino *2002 Elles

Ángel Tavira

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Ángel Tavira Maldonado (July 3, 1924 – June 30, 2008) was a Mexican composer, musician and violinist of son calentano. He was awarded the Best Actor Award on the 2006 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section for his role in the movie The Violin. Biography Ángel Tavira Maldonado was born in the town of Corral Falso in the municipality of Ajuchitlán del Progreso, Guerrero, which lies in the region known as Tierra Caliente. He was the only child of J. Isabel Maldonado Tavira and Anita Tavira López, and grandson of Juan Bartolo Tavira, a composer and performer of son, gustos, Indias, malagueñas, rhymes and coplas, who inspired and taught him the love for local traditional music. Being born in a family traditionally related with music, he was successively encouraged by his uncles and cousins Félix, José Guadalupe Lupito, and Sósimo Tavira López in learning and playing music. When he was six years old, he began to play four instruments by ear training: saxophone, bass, guitar and violin, and later he went to take courses in classical, semi-classical and romantic music. When he was 60 years old he enrolled at the Music Conservatory of Morelia to study music notation with the

Angelica Morales von Sauer

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Angelica Morales von Sauer (1911–1996) was a Mexican composer, pianist and professor of piano. Life von Sauer was born on January 11, 1911, in Gurabo, Puerto Rico, the daughter of Puerto Rican violinist Angel Celestino Morales and her Mexican mother Dolores Arellano who was a pianist. In 1955, she was invited to join the faculty of the University of Kansas. She retired in 1973, at 62 years of age. After the death of her husband, she returned to Mexico where her endurance in her performances was noted. In March 1962, she recorded numerous works by her late husband Emil von Sauer for the Saarländischer Rundfunk. Angélica Morales von Sauer’s comparatively small discography includes recorded the entire Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach Awards and honors In 1958 she was named an honorary member of the Sigma Alpha Iota Fraternity, of the University School of Music in Ann Arbor. Michigan. In 1972, she received the Cross of Honor for Arts and Sciences from the Austrian Government. In 1995, the National Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico initiated the “Angélica Morales” National Piano Competition (Concurso Nacional de Piano “Angélica Morales”), which is held every three years in recognition of he

Aniceto Ortega

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Aniceto de los Dolores Luis Gonzaga Ortega del Villar (17 April 1825 – 17 November 1875) was a Mexican physician, composer, and pianist. Although he had a distinguished career as a physician and surgeon, he is also remembered today for his 1871 opera Guatimotzin, one of the earliest Mexican operas to use a native subject. He is related to the Colonial Administrator and Archbishop of Nueva Espana, who became the Viceroy of Nueva Espana twice over. He became Conde del Peñasco by way of marriage, and was a Conde del Oploca by way of birth, amongst other titles. Biography Aniceto Ortega was born in Tulancingo, Hidalgo, on 17 April 1825, the second of three sons born to Senator Sr. D. Francisco de Ortega-Montañés y Martínez y Navarro, and Countess Sra. Dña. María Josefa del Villar. His father was a statesman active in the Mexican independence movement and a prominent literary figure, who wrote the patriotic verse drama México libre (Free Mexico). Both Ancieto and his older brother, Francisco, studied medicine at the Escuela Nacional de Medicina in Mexico City. There he specialised in obstetrics and gynaecology and received his degree in 1845. After further medical studies in Paris, he w

Antonio de Salazar (composer)

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Antonio de Salazar (or Zalazar) (c.1650–1715) was a Novohispano composer of the Baroque period. Life Salazar was born in Puebla de los Angeles, current Mexico. He was first given the role of maestro de capilla at Puebla Cathedral in July of 1679. This position included skills regarding composition, teaching, and performing. Salazar would give lessons in polyphonic music to the cathedral staff while providing copies of his compositions to the archive. During this time, Salazar was being paid for his composed villancicos and chanzonetas. Salazar composed Latin motes, hymns, and villancicos for special feasts. He also composed lighter pieces including Christmas villancicos, including several in the negrillo genre imitating the dialects and dances of African slaves. Salazar wrote sets for the Assumption (1676, 1679, 1685), Conception (1676), and St. Peter (1683). Motets Salazar’s use of counterpoint within his Latin works is thoroughly developed. For example, his piece O sacrum convivium uses imitation, antiphonal writing, and animated rhythm to create a desirable musical effect. In Quis Deus magnus, the use of contrasting major and minor modes along with initial upbeats form a distinc

Armando Manzanero

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Armando Manzanero Canché (7 December 1934 – 28 December 2020) was a Mexican musician, singer, composer, and music producer, widely considered the premier Mexican romantic composer of the postwar era and one of the most successful composers of Latin America. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in the United States in 2014. He was the president of the Mexican Society of Authors and Composers (Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México). Early life Manzanero was born in Mérida, Yucatán on 7 December 1934. His father was singer and composer Santiago Manzanero and his mother Juanita Canché Baqueiro played the jarana jarocha. At the age of eight he was introduced to the world of music at the Escuela de Bellas Artes (School of Fine Arts), later furthering his musical studies in Mexico City. The following year he began his professional career as a pianist. In 1957 he was signed as musical director by the Mexican branch of CBS International and as Musical Promoter for EMI, becoming the next year the pianist of Latin American artists such as Pedro Vargas, Lucho Gatica and Raphael. In 1970, his song “Somos Novios” was reissued with new lyrics by Sid Wayne, composer for Elvis Pre

Arturo Márquez

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Arturo Márquez Navarro (born 20 December 1950) is a Mexican composer of orchestral music who uses musical forms and styles of his native Mexico and incorporates them into his compositions. His best known work is Danzón No. 2. Life Márquez was born in Álamos, Sonora, in 1950 where his interest in music began. Márquez is the firstborn of nine children of Arturo Márquez and Aurora Navarro. Márquez was the only one of the nine siblings to become a musician. Márquez’s father was a mariachi musician in Mexico and later in Los Angeles. His paternal grandfather was a Mexican folk musician in the northern states of Sonora and Chihuahua. Márquez’s father and grandfather exposed him to several musical styles in his childhood, particularly Mexican “salon music” which would be the impetus for his later musical repertoire. His education began in La Puente, California where he spent his middle school and high school years. After returning to Mexico, Márquez studied at the Conservatory of Music and the Institute of Fine Arts in Mexico. He also studied privately in Paris with Jacques Castérède after receiving a scholarship from the French government. Márquez began composing at the age of 16 and att

Bebu Silvetti

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Juan Fernando Silvetti Adorno (March 27, 1944 – July 5, 2003), professionally known as Bebu Silvetti or simply Silvetti, was an Argentine-Mexican pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and record producer. In the 1970s he moved to Mexico and became a citizen. Popularly known for the 1975 instrumental disco hit, “Lluvia De Primavera” (“Spring Rain)” in English), the album was produced in Spain and for the 1980 modern instrumental mariachi album. Silvetti was also a successful, Grammy-winning producer for a wide variety of Latin and international music performers. He was the father of six children, including the actress . Silvetti also worked in the music of successful films and telenovelas in Mexico. Biography Early life Silvetti was born in the city of Quilmes, Argentina, located in the province of Buenos Aires, approximately 17 kilometers from the capital city of Buenos Aires. He started his piano education at the age of six. During his teenage years he formed his own jazz quartet and a few other musical groups. At 19, Silvetti left Argentina to go to Spain where he stayed a few years working as a pianist at some of the most popular jazz clubs of the time. Career In the early 197

Blas Galindo

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Blas Galindo Dimas (February 3, 1910 – April 19, 1993) was a Mexican composer. Biography Born in San Gabriel, Jalisco, Galindo studied intermittently from 1931 to 1944 at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, studying with Carlos Chávez (composition), Candelario Huízar, José Rolón, and Manuel Rodríguez Vizcarra (piano). In 1934, he formed the Grupo de los cuatro with fellow composers Daniel Ayala, Salvador Contreras, and José Pablo Moncayo, seeking to use indigenous Mexican musical materials in art-music compositions . In 1941, he was an assistant at the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood, and studied under Aaron Copland at the Berkshire Music Center in 1941 and again in 1942, when his orchestral suite Arroyos was performed there (Stevenson 2001). Returning to Mexico in 1942, he became a professor of composition at the National Conservatory and in 1947 was named Director of the conservatory (a position which he held until 1961) as well as director of the music department of the National Institute of Fine Arts . From 1960 to 1965, he was music director for the Symphony of the Mexican Institute of Social Security . In 1947, Galindo was named Chief of the Department for the Na

Candelario Huízar

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Candelario Huízar García de la Cadena (2 February 1883 – 3 May 1970, Mexico City) was a Mexican composer, musician and music teacher. He completed four symphonies, leaving a fifth unfinished, and a string quartet, but is remembered most for his tone poems. He also left celebrated arrangements of works by Vivaldi and Bach, among others. Early life Huízar was born in Jerez, Zacatecas into a working-class family, and he became a goldsmith apprentice at a very early age. Huízar taught himself to play the guitar as a child. Career Huízar studied saxophone under Narciso Arriaga, and in 1892 he became a member of the Municipal Marching Band of Jerez. He later played the viola in the string quartet of Enrique Herrera, and studied harmony with Aurelio Elías. He became a member of Banda de Música del Primer Cuadro del Batallón de Zacatecas. He also participated in the Mexican Revolution as a member of a brass band. In 1917 moved to Mexico City, and became a member of the Marching Band of the North Division there. In the following year he joined the Presidential Guard Marching Band led by Melquíades Campos. Huízar enrolled in the National Conservatory of music, where he studied horn under the

Carlos Chávez

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Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by native Mexican cultures. Of his six symphonies, the second, or Sinfonía india, which uses native Yaqui percussion instruments, is probably the most popular. Biography The seventh child of a criollo family, Chávez was born on Tacuba Avenue in Mexico City, near the suburb of Popotla. His paternal grandfather, José María Chávez Alonso, a former governor of the state of Aguascalientes, had been executed by the French Army in April 1864 during its second invasion of Mexico. His father, Augustín Chávez, who died when Carlos was barely three years old, invented a plough that was produced and used in the United States. Carlos had his first piano lessons from his brother Manuel, and later on he was taught piano by Asunción Parra, Manuel Ponce, and Pedro Luis Ozagón, and harmony by Juan Fuentes. His family often holidayed in Tlaxcala, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Oaxaca, and other places where the cultural influence of the Mexican indigenous peoples was still very strong. In

Carlos Jiménez Mabarak

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Carlos Jiménez Mabarak (January 31, 1916 in Tacuba, Mexico – June 21, 1994 in Mexico City) was one of the most prolific Mexican composers of the 20th century. His music belongs to the transition from the Mexican Nationalism to the Avant garde and uses all musical genres. He composed in a period of almost 60 years. Life He studied in Guatemala, Chile and Belgium. His mother was a writer from Veracruz of Lebanese descent. Mabarak practically spent his childhood outside Mexico. His father died when he was 4. During his youth, he lived in many countries because his mother worked in the diplomatic service. The family moved to Guatemala when Carlos was 6. They lived near Quetzaltenango and almost three years in the capital. He began his piano lessons in Quetzaltenango with Jesús Castillo. Later they lived for almost 5 years in Santiago de Chile where Carlos studied humanism and continued his music education. In 1932 the family moved to Belgium. While the rest of the family went to Cuba, Carlos stayed in Brussels for almost five years where he studied radio telephone engineering. In 1933, Carlos entered the Institute of high studies in music in Ixelles, a part of Brussels. There he studie

Cenobio Paniagua

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Cenobio Paniagua y Vásques (September 30, 1821, Tlalpujahua, Michoacán – November 2, 1882, Córdoba, Veracruz) was a Mexican musician and composer, who is known for both his romantic operas and his religious music. Biography Paniagua’s first music teacher was his uncle, Eusebio Vázquez. He studied various instruments in his youth in the city of Toluca, State of Mexico. He created some of his first salon pieces during this time, which were received well. Encouraged by this success, he set his sights on Mexico City. After several failed attempts to secure instruction from José Antonio Gómez, he decided to study at his own direction using foreign methods before completing his studies in violin and becoming the Second Conductor of the Cathedral Orchestra of Mexico City. In 1852, he received and, for six years, hosted his compatriot Miguel Meneses, to whom he taught musical composition and who subsequently worked for him at the Metropolitan Cathedral Orchestra. Paniagua took the initiative to create his first opera; and, finding no available librettos or librettists, he selected one by Felice Romani — Vincenzo Bellini’s librettist — and brought to life his first work, titled Catalina de

Chava Flores

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Salvador Flores Rivera (14 January 1920 – 5 August 1987), known as Chava Flores, was a Mexican composer and singer of popular and folkloric music. His songs often described the lives of Mexico City’s ordinary people. Biography Flores was born in the old La Merced neighborhood, in Mexico City’s historical center, on calle de La Soledad. It is presumed he grew up in Tacuba, in Colonia Roma and in Santa Maria la Ribera, although he is also located in Azcapotzalco and Unidad Cuitláhuac, where he lived until 1933, when he moved to Morelia, Michoacán. His father died in 1933, so he had to start working to contribute to the support of his family. El Álbum de Oro de la Canción Chava Flores had many jobs since his childhood; he worked as a tailor, warehouse manager, collector, door-to-door salesman, a hardware store administrator, owner of a shirt and sausage store and a printer, among other things. Tribute On 14 January 2017, Google celebrated his 97th birthday with a Google Doodle. Some of his songs Flores’s songs featured a popular language, with double entendres and wordplays. Some of his compositions are: Interpreters of his songs Filmography Actor * La esquina de mi barrio, 1957, dir.

Conlon Nancarrow

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Samuel Conlon Nancarrow (; October 27, 1912 – August 10, 1997) was a US-born Mexican composer. Nancarrow is best remembered for his Studies for Player Piano, being one of the first composers to use auto-playing musical instruments, realizing their potential to play far beyond human performance ability. He lived most of his life in relative isolation and did not become widely known until the 1980s. Biography Early years Nancarrow was born in Texarkana, Arkansas, United States. He played trumpet in a jazz band in his youth before studying music, first in Cincinnati and later in Boston, with Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Nicolas Slonimsky. He attended the National Music Camp and later met Arnold Schoenberg during that composer’s brief stay in Boston in 1933. At the age of 15, Nancarrow enrolled at Vanderbilt University School of Engineering at the insistence of his father. In Boston, Nancarrow joined the Communist Party USA. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he traveled to Spain to join the XV International Brigade, which fought on the Republican side. He was interned at the Gurs internment camp in France in 1939. Upon his return to the United States in 1939, he learned that h

Daniel Ayala Pérez

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Daniel Ayala Pérez (21 July 1906 – 20 June 1975) was a Mexican violinist, conductor, and composer. Biography Ayala was born in Abalá, Yucatán, and studied violin with Revueltas and composition with Chávez, Manuel M. Ponce, Vicente T. Mendoza, Candelario Huízar and Julián Carrillo at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música, Mexico City from 1927 to 1932. For a time he earned his living playing in the night club Salón México, a locale later celebrated in a well-known composition by Aaron Copland. In 1934 he formed, together with fellow composers Salvador Contreras, Blas Galindo and José Pablo Moncayo, the “Group of Four” – “Grupo de los cuatro.” From 1931 he was a second violinist in the Orquesta Sinfónica de México under Chávez, and directed a choir in Morelia for two years, but in 1940 returned to his native Yucatán to accept an appointment as conductor of the Police Band in Mérida. In 1942 he founded the , which performs compositions by Yucatecan composers of the past and present. In 1944 he became conductor of the newly reorganized Mérida Symphony Orchestra and director of the Yucatán Conservatory. In 1955 he moved to Veracruz to take up the directorship of the school of music ther

Eduardo Diazmuñoz

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Eduardo Diazmuñoz is a highly prolific Mexican-Spanish-American conductor, composer and arranger, performer and educator. He studied piano, cello, percussion, and conducting at the National Conservatory of Music (Mexico). In 1978, 1979 he became associate conductor of the newly founded the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra. Bernstein invited him to Tanglewood in 1979. He assisted in preparation for concertos of Leonard Bernstein and Eduardo Mata. In 1980-1982 assisted Léon Barzin in Paris. Diazmuñoz made his debut at Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City at 22. Diazmuñoz considers Barzin, Bernstein, and Francisco Savín were his principal mentors in conducting, in Paris, Tanglewood and Mexico City respectively. Diazmuñoz has conducted orchestras worldwide. He has received numerous awards and prizes. While still a student he was awarded the Youth Value 1975 Award given by the President of Mexico. He was awarded the Mexican Union of Theatre and Music Chronicles Award an unprecedented four times, (1978, 1987, 1997, and 2002). In 2003 he was also presented with the 2003 International Musician of the Year, awarded by the International Biographical Centre based in Cambridge, England. He

Eduardo Hernández Moncada

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Eduardo Hernández Moncada (September 24, 1899 – December 31, 1995) was a Mexican composer, pianist, and conductor. He is one of the essential musicians representative of the Nationalist Movement of the Post-Revolutionary years in Mexico. His music strives for a balance between modern influence and folk roots. His compositions include orchestral music, opera, ballet and film scores. Biography Born in Xalapa, Veracruz, son of a clarinetist. Hernández Moncada started piano lessons at an early age and at 19 moved to Mexico City to enter the National Conservatory. While still in school, he was hired to provide piano accompaniment to silent films playing at a local movie theater. In 1925 he married Teresa de Anda, an opera singer. While working in the movie theater, he met Carlos Chávez, and they began a long friendship. In 1929, Chávez invited Hernández to join the Mexican Symphony Orchestra as pianist, at the same time Silvestre Revueltas became assistant conductor. When Revueltas left the orchestra to form his own National Symphony Orchestra in 1936, Hernández succeeded him as assistant to Chávez. He served as a Director to the Conservatory Choir and Director and Founder of the Opera

Ema Elena Valdelamar

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Ema Elena Valdelamar Casarín (May 27, 1925 – December 23, 2012) was a Mexican composer who specialized in love songs and boleros. Early life and education Ema Elena was born in Mexico City to Victoria Casarín, a housewife, and Darío Valdelamar, who worked for the National Railway. She began to write short stories and compose melodies at the young age of seven years old, and wrote her first song at twelve. Her mother, however, did not support Valdelamar’s musical interests, and attempted to forbid her from engaging in artistic pursuits. Darío, on the other hand, was much more encouraging and even gave Ema Elena advice on how to copyright and register her songs, as well as instruction in accounting and business matters. Career Over time, Valdelamar began composing boleros and, in the 1950s, won radio contests for her songs. * Mucho Corazón (1997) * 15 Éxitos (1997) Selected songs and compositions * “Mucho Corazón” * “Mil Besos” * “Cheque en Blanco” * “Por Que no Fuiste Tu” References External links * “Mucho Corazón,” recorded by Luis Miguel (1991) on YouTube * “Cheque en Blanco,” recorded by Yuri and Paquita del Barrio on YouTube

Enrico Chapela

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Enrico Chapela (born January 29, 1974) is a Mexican contemporary classical composer, whose works have been played by multiple major orchestras and has been commissioned to compose for institutions such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Center for the Performing Arts (Beijing) and the Festival Internacional Cervantino. His work is influenced by modern popular musical styles such as rock and electronic, as well as Mexican popular culture. Background Chapela was born in Mexico City where he still lives. Chapela received his bachelor’s degree in composition from the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Musicales (CIEM) and studied classical guitar at the Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music in England. In addition to his career as a composer, Chapela has also played guitar in a heavy metal band. Career The composer has been commissioned to create works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic (where he was an invited guest in 2008), Dresdner Sinfoniker, Carnegie Hall, Britten Sinfonia, Wigmore Hall, Berkeley Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo, City of Birmingham Symphony, University of Cincinnati’s CCM Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica Carlo

Enrique Gimeno

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Enrique Gimeno Teixidó (July 28, 1929 - November 3, 2007) was a Spanish-Mexican conductor, music professor, composer, pianist, manager of festivals and cultural activities and Equestrian athlete- who developed his musical work mainly in Mexico. Early life He born in Barcelona in 1929, son of Luis Gimeno V. and grandson of conductor M. Teixidó. He studied music from an early age. Assisted by the musician Luis G. Jorda, he entered the Liceu Conservatory of Music where he studied for a degree in music education, graduating cum laude in 1949. He studied the specialties of concert pianist Guillermo Garganta and conducting an orchestra with violinist and conductor Eduardo Toldrá. Among many other exalted teachers; debuting at fifteen years as director at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in front of the opera Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi. He also studied in Germany and France where he was received with honors. In Mexico, he studied dodecafonismo with Carlos Jiménez Mabarak. Career In 1949, he arrived in Mexico, as master of music and choral director. He was also accompanying pianist of the nascent TV as well as director and arranger on radio and television. He was for some time, a film and televi

Espinoza Paz

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Isidro Chávez Espinoza (born 29 October 1981), better known as Espinoza Paz, is a Latin Grammy nominated Mexican musician and songwriter of regional Mexican music. Early career Espinoza Paz (Isidro Chávez Espinoza) was born on 29 October 1981 in La Angostura, a small town in the north of the state of Sinaloa, Mexico. He was 11 years old when he wrote his first song, which was dedicated to a girl on whom he had a crush. By the time he was 13, he had already written 20 songs; however, it was not until his father sent him money from the United States that he decided to buy his first guitar and teach himself to play it. Success His big break came when he showed some of his creations to El Coyote—a popular Sinaloan banda singer—who recorded his songs “Besitos En El Cuello” (“Little Kisses On The Neck”); “Prohibido” (“Forbidden”); and “Para Impresionarte” (“To Impress You”). In December 2006, Paz met Martín Fabian, a well-known personality within the radio and music industry, who immediately foresaw the extraordinary talent within the young singer-songwriter. They soon began collaborating on his debut album “Paz En Tu Corazón” (literally, “Peace In Your Heart”—the title being a wordplay

Francisco López Capillas

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Francisco López Capillas (1608–1674), known also as “López of the Chapels,” was a Mexican composer and theologian born in Mexico City. He is considered one of the most prolific composers of sacred music in Mexico during the Baroque era. Biography He was born Francisco López, the son of Bartolome López, potentially a royal notary, and María de la Trinidad. He was admitted into the Mexico City Cathedral choir in 1625, where he studied early European Gregorian chant and organum under organist and choirmaster Antonio Rodriguez Mata. During this time, it is likely that he enrolled at the University of Mexico and received a bachelor’s degree in theology in 1626. The period of his life between 1626 through 1641 is not well understood, however by 1641 he had found employment as an organist, dulcianist, and cantor at La Catedral de la Puebla de los Angeles, under the directorship of Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla. Puebla at this time was overseen by the Archbishop Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, who greatly supported the city’s emergence as a cultural and intellectual haven through various development and infrastructure projects, including the construction of new chapels and cathedrals in the village

Gabriel Pareyon

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Gabriel Pareyon (born October 23, 1974, Zapopan, Jalisco) is a polymathic Mexican composer and musicologist, who has published literature on topics of philosophy and semiotics. He has a PhD in musicology from the University of Helsinki, where he studied with Solomon Marcus and Eero Tarasti (2006–2011). He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in composition at the Royal Conservatoire, The Hague (2000–2004), where he studied with Clarence Barlow. He previously studied at the Composers’ Workshop of the National Conservatoire of Music, Mexico City (1995–1998), led by Mario Lavista. Composer Pareyon’s output is specially known by Xochicuicatl cuecuechtli (2011), the first modern opera in the Americas that exclusively uses a Native American language (Nahuatl in this case) as well as music instruments native to Mexico. This work was awarded by the UNESCO and the International Theatre Institute, in 2015. More recently, his Eight Songs in Nahuatl (Chicueyicuicatl), for solo voice and percussion quartet, made themselves known simultaneously on an international live tour (awarded at the Classical:NEXT Festival Schauspiel Hannover, 2022) and a series of viewings in film version (best music

Gabriela Ortiz

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Gabriela Ortiz Torres (born 20 December 1964) is a Mexican music educator and composer. She was Carnegie Hall’s composer in residence for the 2024-2025 season, and her music is being performed by ensembles in Berlin, Vienna, London, Los Angeles and New York. Her 2024 album “Revolución diamantina” featuring the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel, and María Dueñas was nominated for four awards at the 2025 Grammys, receiving three, including best contemporary classical composition. For her works ‘Yanga’ and ‘Dzonot’ she won 3 awards at the 2026 Grammys. Biography Gabriela Ortiz Torres was born in Mexico City. Her parents were founding members of the Mexican folk music ensemble . She learned folk music at home, and then studied in Paris at the École normale de musique. She returned to Mexico City due to the illness of her mother, and studied composition there with Mario Lavista at the National Conservatory of Music. She continued her studies at the Guildhall School with Robert Saxton, and with Simon Emmerson at the University of London where she received a PhD in 1996. After completing her studies, she took a position at the National School of Music at the National Autonomous Un

Gaspar Fernandes

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Gaspar Fernandes (sometimes written Gaspar Fernández, the Spanish version of his name) (1566–1629) was a Portuguese-Mexican composer and organist active in the cathedrals of Santiago de Guatemala (present-day Antigua Guatemala) and Puebla de los Ángeles, New Spain (present-day Mexico). Life Most scholars agree that the Gaspar Fernandes listed as a singer in the cathedral of Évora, Portugal, is the same person as the Gaspar Fernández who was hired on 16 July 1599 as organist and organ tuner of the cathedral of Santiago de Guatemala. In 1606, Fernandes was approached by the dignitaries of the cathedral of Puebla, inviting him to become the successor of his recently deceased friend Pedro Bermúdez as chapel master. He left Santiago de Guatemala on 12 July 1606, and began his tenure in Puebla on 15 September. He remained there until his death in 1629. Work One of his most important achievements for posterity was the compilation and binding in 1602 of various choir books containing Roman Catholic liturgical polyphony, several of which are extant in Guatemala. These manuscripts contain music by Spanish composers Francisco Guerrero, Cristóbal de Morales, and Pedro Bermúdez; the latter was

Graciela Agudelo

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Graciela Agudelo (December 7, 1945 – April 19, 2018) was a Mexican pianist and composer. Life and career Graciela Agudelo studied piano at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and composition at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música with Héctor Quintanar and Mario Lavista. She received a scholarship from the Internationales Musikinstitu Darmstadt in Germany. Agudelo is the founder of the chamber ensemble group Onix Ensamble and was a founding member of the Mexican Society of New Music. Agudelo has published a number of articles and essays and headed the official journal of the National School of Music of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. She is the author of the Musical Initiation GAM Method for Children (ENM / UNAM, 1998) and Man and Music (Patria, 1998). In 2002 she received the Xochipilli award for outstanding creativity in the field of music in Mexico. Though some of her music is didactic in nature (she wrote instructional books and music for students), she is best known for her “solo, chamber and orchestral works in an avant-garde style enlivened by an individualistic approach to national identity that avoids folkloristic clichés”. Works and discography Agudel

Graciela Olmos

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Marina Aedo (December 10, 1895 - May 31, 1962) was a singer-songwriter, soldier, alcohol trafficker, prostitute, pimp, and businesswomen, born in Casas Grandes, Mexico. While her birth name was Marina Aedo, she is better known by the name Graciela Olmos, or the nickname “La Bandida”. Early life Graciela Olmos was born on December 10, 1895 in the Hacienda de San Diego in Casas Grandes, Chihuahua. In her youth, she was tasked with various duties such as cleaning the hacienda and caring for the animals. The hacienda was attacked during the Mexican Revolution, leaving 12-year-old Olmos and her younger brother Benjamín orphaned. Involvement in the Mexican Revolution During the Revolution, Pancho Villa’s troops arrived in Irapuato, where Marina met José Hernández, known as “El Bandido”, and the two were married. Olmos the joined Pancho Villa’s army as a soldadera and served alongside Hernández until the Battle of Celaya, where he was killed, leaving her a widow at 20 years old. It was around this time that she was given the nickname “La Bandida”, the feminine equivalent to her late husband’s title, “El Bandido.” During her time with the troops she learned guitar and began composing songs

Ignacio Fernández Esperón

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aka (Oaxaca 14 February 1894 – 1968) was a Mexican composer. He grew up in Oaxaca in a middle-class home. His alias was a childhood nickname. In 1937, he debuted his music on XEW, Mexico City’s best known radio station. In 1947, he was given his own radio program . He composed over two hundred songs. Songs * “Íntima”. Text: Ricardo López Méndez (1903–1989) References

Javier Álvarez (composer)

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Javier Álvarez Fuentes (8 May 1956 – 23 May 2023) was a Mexican composer known for compositions that combined a variety of international musical styles and traditions, and that often utilized unusual instruments and new music technologies. Many of his works combine music technology with diverse instruments and influences from around the world. He moved to the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee where he achieved a master’s degree in music theory and composition in 1981. He composed the music for Guillermo del Toro’s 1993 horror film Cronos. Compositions The first electroacoustic music by Álvarez dates from his time as a student in London, such as Temazcal (1984). In this contemporary classic, Álvarez unexpectedly pitted a pair of maracas against a complex electroacoustic backdrop. Mannam (1992) takes its inspiration from an ancient Korean zither called a kayagum. Winner of a Prix Ars Electronica distinction, the piece blends and juxtaposes elements of Korean music with materials and performance techniques drawn from the Mexican folk harp. The work Offrande (2001) offers a mix of Caribbean steel pans and electronically processed rhythmic patterns. Alejandra Frausto, the federal Sec

Javier Ruiz Rueda

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Javier Ruiz Rueda (March 18, 1909 – September 8, 1993) was a Mexican composer and writer. He was born in Mexico City. Achievements Javier Ruiz Rueda was part of the great composers alongside Agustín Lara. His major musical works include Cosas del Amor and Dulce Aventura, for which he composed the music and José Antonio Zorrilla wrote the lyrics. Javier Ruiz Rueda also wrote jingles for radio; probably the most popular jingle is “Estaban los tomatitos …” for which he composed the music and Ramiro Gamboa wrote the lyrics. In the 1940s Soledad Orozco, wife of President Manuel Ávila Camacho, became active in the “League of Decency” (), a censorious conservative group that campaigned against indecency. The popular bolero was one of its targets, because of lyrics the League considered scandalous. Javier Ruiz Rueda was one of their targets and they succeeded in having one of his songs banned. He co-wrote, with José Antonio Zorrilla, the song “¿Qué pasa mi cuate?” recorded by Pedro Infante in 1946. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1950 film El amor no es negocio. Literary achievements Javier Ruiz Rueda worked with many composers and was friend to many of them. His passion for hist

Javier Torres Maldonado

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Javier Torres Maldonado (born 1968) is a Mexican composer internationally recognized for, mostly, his orchestral, chamber, vocal and electro-acoustic works. Biography Born in Chetumal (Mexico), José Javier Torres Maldonado studied violin and composition at the Mexico City Conservatory and later, invited by Franco Donatoni, composition at the “G. Verdi” Milan Conservatory, under the supervision of Sandro Gorli and Alessandro Solbiati; he completed his postgraduate studies under Franco Donatoni, Azio Corghi (Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Accademia Musicale Chigiana) and Ivan Fedele (Conservatoire de Strasbourg). In 2003, he earned a diploma from the G. Verdi Conservatory for his work in electronic music, and in 2004 he was one of ten composers asked to participate in the Stage de Composition et Informatique Musicale at the Parisian center IRCAM. In most of his works, Torres Maldonado explores innovative ways of organizing time, timbre and space. For example, in his piece for ensemble and electro-acoustic support, De Ignoto Cantu (2004), the composer presents several melody lines which, despite their complexity, actually derive from a single simple source consisting in a few n

Joaquín Pardavé

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Joaquín Pardavé Arce (30 September 1900 – 20 July 1955) was a Mexican film actor, director, songwriter and screenwriter of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. He was best known for starring and directing various comedy films during the 1940s. In some of them, Pardavé paired with one of Mexico’s most famous actresses, Sara García. The films in which they starred are El baisano Jalil, El barchante Neguib, El ropavejero, and La familia Pérez. These actors had on-screen chemistry together, and are both noted for playing a wide variety of comic characters from Lebanese foreigners to middle-class Mexicans. Early life Pardavé was born to Spanish immigrants Joaquín Pardavé Bernal and Delfina Arce Contreras, theater actors, in Pénjamo, Guanajuato. Later he joined the company of Jose Campillo, where he met and teamed for 12 years, Roberto “Panzón” Soto. Later in the 1940 decade, Pardavé worked in ¡Ay, qué tiempos señor don Simón! (1941) and Yo bailé con don Porfirio (1942). In 1942 he debuts as a film director with El baisano Jalil starring himself and Sara García as “Jalil and Suad Farad”, Lebanese entrepreneurs settled in Mexico. Film and theater actress Sara García would soon become Pardavé

José Mariano Elízaga

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Elízaga Prado, José Damián (27 September 1786 – 2 October 1842) was a Mexican composer, music theorist, pianist, organist and teacher. He was the Kapellmeister of emperor Agustín I of Mexico and was the first great Mexican composer of the beginning of the 19th century. Life Elízaga was born in Valladolid (Morelia), and was a child prodigy. He played before the viceroy Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo when he was 6. The viceroy became his main protector and sent him to the Colegio de Infantes de la Catedral. Elízaga later returned to Valladolid and in 1799 to Morelia where he worked as an organist. He acquired the best pianoforte of Mexico City to teach the local aristocracy. One of his pupils was Ana María de Huarte y Muñiz who later became the wife of Agustín de Iturbide, the emperor of the First Mexican Empire. In 1822, Elízaga was appointed ¨maestro de capilla¨ (Kapellmeister) of the Capilla Imperial. In 1823 he published his Elementos de música in Mexico City, a copy can be found in the Biblioteca Nacional in Mexico. The end of the First Mexican Empire damaged Elizaga’s reputation but the Mexican government continued to support him. Elizaga settled the bases f

José Pablo Moncayo

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José Pablo Moncayo García (June 29, 1912 – June 16, 1958) was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. “As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationalism in art music, after Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez.” He produced some of the masterworks that best symbolize the essence of the national aspirations and contradictions of Mexico in the 20th century. Biography Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, José Pablo Moncayo was introduced to music by his elder brother Francisco. Eduardo Hernández Moncada is reported as the first teacher of José Pablo Moncayo in 1926, when the teenager was fourteen years old. According to , Hernández Moncada suggested his pupil Moncayo study at the National Conservatory. Tello reports that Moncayo was admitted to the conservatory in 1929; meanwhile, in order to finance his studies, he worked as a jazz pianist. Chávez was highly concerned with the general education and culture of the conservatory students and established literature courses taught by the contemporary poets Salvador Novo and Carlos Pellicer, world history by Jesús C. Romero, and history of Mexican culture by

Juan de Lienas

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Juan de Lienas ( ) was a composer active in Latin America during the early to mid-17th century. He also served as a chapel master and conductor in the Catholic Church. Much of his life is still a mystery, but what is known comes from accounts in the only two manuscripts that include his compositions: El Codice del Convento del Carmen and the Newberry Choirbooks. Some of these comments are unflattering to the composer, insulting his appearance and personality. He is identified as a cacique (a native of noble birth), an Indian, and a married man, all of which may have kept him from higher standing within the church. One scholar indicates that he may have been born in Spain. Most scholars place him in Mexico in the employ of the convent connected to the cathedral of Mexico City, but one asserts that he also worked in Havana. His music is indicative of the early Renaissance, following the Polyphonic styles of composers such as Francisco Guerrero and Cristóbal de Morales. He is often associated with Juan Hernandez, Fernando Franco, and Francisco López. The latter two also had compositions in the Carmen Codex. His known compositions include: two masses (one of which is a Requiem), eleven

Juan García Esquivel

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Juan García Esquivel (January 20, 1918 – January 3, 2002), often known mononymously as Esquivel!, was a Mexican band leader, pianist, and composer for television and films. He is recognized today as one of the foremost exponents of a sophisticated style of largely instrumental music that combines elements of lounge music and jazz with Latin flavors. Esquivel is sometimes called “The King of Space Age Pop” and “The Busby Berkeley of Cocktail Music”, and is considered one of the foremost exponents of a style of late 1950s-early 1960s quirky instrumental pop that became known (in retrospect) as “Space Age Bachelor Pad Music”. Early life He was born in 1918, in Tampico, Tamaulipas, and his family moved to Mexico City in 1928 where he became a self-taught musician from an early age. In interviews, Esquivel’s family members have stated that the young boy started playing piano when he was around six years old, to the amazement of older musicians who would gather around him in disbelief and to his own delight exhibiting his musical gifts. They have also stated that Esquivel continued to eschew formal musical training as he grew older, preferring to learn from books and by listening to and

Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla

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Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla (ca. 15901664) was a Renaissance-style Spanish composer and cantor, most of whose career took place in Mexico. Life and career Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla was born in Málaga, Spain. He received his musical education from Francisco Vásquez, who was the maestro de capilla of Málaga Cathedral. Padilla took up the position of maestro at the collegiate church in Jerez de la Frontera in 1612. While at Jerez, he unsuccessfully contended for the office of maestro at Málaga Cathedral in 1613, losing out to Estêvão de Brito. Padilla remained at Jerez until 1616, when he was appointed Maestro at Cádiz Cathedral. After Fernandes’ death, he was appointed maestro of the cathedral in 1629. By 1645, Padilla was overseeing 14 choir boys and 28 cantors. Some of the musicians under Padilla would themselves go on to become important figures in the music of New Spain, such as Francisco López Capillas. Works The majority of his vast output (over 700 pieces survive) include sacred motets, often for double choir, in the Renaissance style or stile antico as well as sacred villancicos. It often includes accompaniments for organ or various stringed instruments. Bibliography Padilla’s

Juan Trigos

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Juan Trigos (born 1965) is a Mexican-American composer and conductor. He is currently a Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Kentucky College of Fine Arts. Biography Trigos was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1965. He started his studies in music with his father Juan Trigos S., composer and dramaturgist. After he started to study formally at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico City, 1977 – 1983) with main teachers Guillermo Noriega, harmony and analysis, José Suárez, counterpoint, Miguel Agustín López, piano. In 1983 he continued his studies at Instituto de Liturgia, Música y Arte Cardenal Miranda in Mexico City where he studied Gregorian Chant, Chorus and Orchestra Conducting, Composition and Piano. After completing these studies moved to Italy in 1986 to deepen his studies on Gregorian Chant, Music Composition, Ancient Polyphony Conducting, Basso Continuo and piano at the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra di Roma where he had the opportunity to work in particular with Domenico Bartolucci (conducting and Bass Continuo), Giovanni Bucci (composition) and Enzo Stanzani (piano). In 1987 he was admitted to the Conservatorio G.Verdi di Milano for two

Julián Carrillo

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Julián Carrillo Trujillo (January 28, 1875 – September 9, 1965) was a Mexican composer, conductor, violinist and music theorist, famous for developing a theory of microtonal music which he dubbed “The Thirteenth Sound” (Sonido 13). Biography Carrillo was born on January 28, 1875, in Ahualulco, a village in the state of San Luis Potosí. He was the last of the 19 children of Nabor Carrillo and Antonia Trujillo. Early education Carrillo sang in the children’s choir of Ahualulco’s church. The choir’s conductor, Flavio F. Carlos, encouraged him to study music in the state capital, San Luis Potosí. He planned to study for two years, then return to Ahualulco as the church’s singer, but problems prevented this plan. He arrived to San Luis Potosí City in 1885 and began to study with Flavio F. Carlos, teacher to several generations of San Luis Potosí’s composers. Carrillo also began to work in his teacher’s orchestra where he was a percussionist and later, violinist. He composed his first small works for this group. Because of his family’s financial situation, Carrillo left his primary school studies early, but continued working in the orchestra and studying music with Carlos. In 1894, Carri

Juventino Rosas

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José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January 18689 July 1894) was a Mexican composer and violinist, known worldwide for the waltz “Sobre las olas” (“Over the Waves”). Life and career Rosas was born in Santa Cruz, Guanajuato, later renamed Santa Cruz de Galeana, Guanajuato, and still later into Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas. Rosas began his musical career as a street musician, playing with dance music bands in Mexico City. In 1884-85 and 1888 he enrolled into the conservatory, both times leaving it without taking any examination. Most of Rosas’s compositions—among them “Sobre las Olas” (“Over the Waves”)—were issued by Wagner y Levien and Nagel Sucesores in Mexico City. In the late 1880s, Rosas is reported to have been a member of a military band, and in 1891 he worked in Michoacán. In 1892–93 Rosas lived near Monterrey before joining an orchestra in 1893 for a tour through the USA. During this tour, the group performed at the World Columbian Exposition World’s Fair in Chicago, Illinois. In 1894, Rosas went for a several-month tour to Cuba with an Italian-Mexican ensemble, where he came down with major health problems, having to stay behind in Surgidero de Batabanó. As a resul

Lolita de la Colina

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Dolores de la Colina Flores (born 26 December 1948, Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico ), better known as Lolita de la Colina, is a Mexican singer and songwriter. She has written songs for Manoella Torres, Lupita D’Alessio, Sophy, José José, José Luis Rodríguez “El Puma”, Daniela Romo, Arianna, Stephanie Salas, Raphael, Moncho, Manolo Muñoz, Vikki Carr, Trigo Limpio, Ana Gabriel, Raquel Olmedo, María Dolores Pradera, Olga Guillott, Gloria Lasso, Bebo y Cigala, Emmanuel, Estela Núñez, María Jiménez, Pedro Fernández, David Lee Garza, Verónica Castro, Manuel Mijares, Lucero, Yuri, Kika Edgar, Roberto Blades, Pepe Aguilar, Chavela Vargas, La Lupe, Marco Antonio Muñiz, Ernesto D’alessio and many other singers in different music styles. In 1974, she was discovered while in Puerto Rico by Tico/Alegre’s Joe Cain and signed to the label. In 1978, she won the Mexican national selection for the OTI Festival as a composer with the song “”, performed by Lupita D’Alessio, and which represented Mexico in the OTI Festival 1978 placing third. She has also received numerous awards throughout her successful career. It also highlights that she has received on television and the Heraldos of Mexico, as well as

Lucía Álvarez

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Lucía Álvarez Vázquez (born November 28, 1948) is a Mexican composer and pianist widely known throughout Latin America. Born in Mexico City, Álvarez received her degree in piano and composition from the School of Music at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She studied under Carlos Vázquez, Pablo Castellanos, Jorge Suárez, Américo Caramuta and Pierre van Hawe. Her music reflects aspects of Neo-romantic traditions rather than avant-garde styles that popularized throughout the late 20th century. Since the 1970s, Álvarez has composed music for films, television, and more than 100 concert works, including duets and quartets for strings, chamber music, and symphonic orchestras. Her work includes Midaq Alley (1995), for which she won the Ariel Award for Best Original Score in 1995, The Beginning and the End (1993), and Bedtime Fairy Tales for Crocodiles (2002). She is considered one of the best composers in the history of Mexican cinema. References Sources * * * External links *Lucía Álvarez - IMDb *Nuestro socios y su obra - Lucía Álvarez *SensaCine - Biografia *Ariel de Oro para Lucía Álvarez - UNAM *The Sphinx Catalog for Latin-American Cello Works - Lucia Álvarez *Sociedad

Luis Sandi

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Luis Sandi Meneses (22 February 1905, Mexico City – 1996), was a musician, teacher and composer. Biography The complete name is Luis Sandi Meneses. Born February 22, 1905 in Mexico City, the only child of Genaro Sandi and María Meneses. Sandi did not attend public primary school, but was privately tutored by his mother’s sister, Manuela Meneses, who was a public school teacher. Between the ages of six and fourteen Sandi lived in Tacubaya, a suburb of Mexico city. As his interest in music increased, at the age of fifteen Sandi entered the National Conservatory of music where he studied violin with José Rocabruna, an eminent Spanish violinist. Sandi studied voice with Elvira González, and composition with Estanislao Mejía (b. 1882) a nationalist. Sandi also had a composition workshop with Carlos Chávez with whom he studied instrumental conducting. Luis Sandi conducted in various instances Orquesta Sinfónica de México and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. At one time, he focused on composition. From his production, opera Carlota (libretto by Francisco Zendejas) and Bonampak ballet stand out. His continuous contact with Coro de Madrigalistas (which he founded in 1938) made him compose and a

Manuel de Sumaya

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Manuel de Sumaya (1680 – December 21, 1755) was the most notable composer of New Spain (present-day Mexico). With this support he was able to begin keyboard study with cathedral organist José de Ydiáquez, whose assistant he became in 1708. He continued composition and counterpoint studies with maestro de capilla Antonio de Salazar. In 1710, due to his failing eyesight, Salazar requested of the cathedral chapter that Sumaya be named as his assistant. In 1714, Sumaya was promoted to the position of principal organist. In 1715, Salazar died and Sumaya competed for and was appointed to the post of maestro de capilla, prevailing over his long-time rival Francisco de Atienza. During Sumaya’s tenure as maestro, he produced many dictámenes (administrative reports) that reveal him as a composer who placed great value on traditional Spanish counterpoint and harmony, and a maestro de capilla who enforced high standards for the cathedral’s music. Sumaya’s play Rodrigo, intended to honor the birth of Crown Prince Luis was performed on August 25, 1707, possibly with his own music. He was also hired by the viceroy, Fernando de Alencastre, 1st Duke of Linares, as a composer and translator. The vic

Manuel Enríquez

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Manuel Enríquez Salazar (17 June 1926 – 26 April 1994) was a Mexican composer, violinist and pedagogue. He was a fellow member of the Academy of Arts of Mexico, of the National Seminary of Mexican Culture and the music director of the National Institute of Fine Arts. Life Enríquez was born in Ocotlán, Jalisco, and studied composition with Miguel Bernal Jiménez in Mexico. A scholarship from the Instituto Mexico-Norteamericano of Guadalajara enabled him to continue his education at the Juilliard School in New York, where he studied violin with Ivan Galamian, chamber music with Louis Persinger, and composition with Peter Mennin and Stefan Wolpe, from whom he learned about serial techniques. From the 1960s through the 1980s he had a meteoric career as a violinist, composer, and music administrator. Starting in the 1960s he was most prominent representative of the avant-garde in Mexico (; ). In 1954 Enríquez debuted as a soloist in his own Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra, performed in Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara under the direction of Eisenberg. Continuing his studies at the Mexican-American Institute of Guadalajara, he received a scholarship to transfer to New York (1955).

Manuel Esperón

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Manuel Esperón González (August 3, 1911 – February 13, 2011 ) was a Mexican songwriter and composer. Along with the famous Mexican author Ernesto Cortazar, Esperón cowrote many songs for Mexican films, including “¡Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes!” for the 1941 film of the same name, “Cocula” for El Peñón de las Ánimas (The Rock of Souls) (1943), and “Amor con amor se paga” for Hay un niño en su futuro (1952). In 2001, he was given a tribute at the Palace of Fine Arts in the historical center of Mexico City. Until his death in 2011, he was the honorary President for life of the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico. Selected filmography * Come on Ponciano (1937) * While Mexico Sleeps (1938) * Father’s Entanglements (1939) * The League of Songs (1941) * When the Stars Travel (1942) * I Danced with Don Porfirio (1942) * The Rock of Souls (1942) * Alejandra (1942) * María Eugenia (1943) * The Rebel (1943) * Land of Passions (1943) * The Escape (1944) * The Three Caballeros (1945) * The Mulatta of Cordoba (1945) * Adam, Eve and the Devil (1945) * Love Makes Them Crazy (1946) * Ramona (1946) * Caribbean Rose (1946) * Tragic Wedding (1946) * It’s Not Enough to Be a Charro (1946) * The Assoc

Manuel José de Quirós

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Manuel José de Quirós (died 1765) was an 18th-century Guatemalan composer. Life Born in Santiago de Guatemala, present day Antigua Guatemala, towards the end of the 17th century, Quirós had a religious education while pursuing his musical apprenticeship and reaching the level of a journeyman. Having taken Franciscan orders, he was put in charge of the Franciscan press, where he served until 1738, when he was appointed chapel master of the cathedral choir and orchestra. He served in this capacity for 27 years, until his death in 1765. As chapel master, he was in charge of the education of choir boys and apprentices, besides conducting the cathedral liturgical music. Among his pupils, the most outstanding was Rafael Antonio Castellanos. Quirós is the first musician in the New World to receive a critical review. On the occasion of the ceremonies that elevated the Bishopric of Guatemala to the rank of an Archbishopric, Quirós provided liturgical music during the nine days of celebration in November, 1745. Writer Antonio de Paz y Salgado, a high official in the Spanish colonial government, published his enthusiastic review of these musical performances two years later in Mexico City. A

Manuel Ponce

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Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar (8 December 1882 – 24 April 1948), known in Mexico as Manuel M. Ponce, was a 20th-century Mexican composer, music educator, and scholar whose work connected the concert scene with a mostly forgotten tradition of popular song and Mexican folklore. Many of his compositions are strongly influenced by the harmonies and form of traditional songs. Biography Early years Born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Manuel Maria Ponce moved with his family to the city of Aguascalientes only a few weeks after his birth and lived there until he was 15 years old. He was famous for being a musical prodigy; according to his biographers, he was barely four years of age when, after having listened to the piano classes received by his sister, Josefina, he sat in front of the instrument and interpreted one of the pieces that he had heard. Immediately, his parents had him receive classes in piano and musical notation. Traveling years In 1901 Ponce entered the National Conservatory of Music, already with a certain prestige as a pianist and composer. There he remained until 1903, the year in which he returned to the city of Aguascalientes. This was only the beginning of his travels. In 1904

Marcela Rodríguez

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Marcela Rodríguez (born 18 April 1951) is a Mexican composer. Biography Marcela Rodríguez was born in Mexico City. She studied the guitar and composition with Leo Brouwer of Cuba. She studied for a while in London, and then returned to Mexico City to study with Julio Estrada and Ma. Antonieta Lozano, Rodríguez works have been performed internationally, including the United States, Venezuela, Spain, her opera “Las Cartas de Frida” in Heidelberg, Germany, Moldavia and Greece. She has taught classes of composition for opera, dance and theater in Mexico and Spain, and at the Catholic University of Colombia and the Catholic University of Washington. Her music composition is usually associated with natural landscapes, human nature and different cultures. Although she has received most of her music education in Mexico with Mexican composers, she claims that her music is not associated with Latin American music. By combining different cultures, her music presents a unique style that contains many music elements from different countries. European culture influences her music the most, once she said “Spain is part of my life”. Marcela Rodríguez’s work Asilah combines Arabian and Spanish cult

María Grever

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María Grever (14 September 1885 – 15 December 1951) was the first female Mexican composer to achieve international acclaim. She is best known for the song “What A Difference A Day Makes” (originally “Cuando vuelva a tu lado”), which was popularized by Dinah Washington and has been covered by numerous artists. Early life María Joaquina de la Portilla Torres was born to a Spanish father (Francisco de la Portilla) and Mexican mother (Julia Torres) in León, Guanajuato. For the first six years of her life she lived in Mexico City, moving to her father’s natal city, Sevilla, in 1891. She studied music in France, with Claude Debussy and Franz Lenhard among her teachers. In 1900, she moved back to Mexico and continued her musical studies at her aunt’s solfège school. In 1907, the then 22-year-old de la Portilla married Leo A. Grever, an American oil company executive, and in 1916 became a U.S. citizen and moved to New York City, where she lived for the rest of her life. Career Grever wrote more than 1000 songs — the majority of them boleros — and her popularity reached audiences in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. She was said to have possessed perfect pitch and wrote most of

María Teresa Lara

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María Teresa Lara Aguirre del Pino (Tlatlauquitepec, 1904 – May 23, 1984) was a Mexican lyricist and composer. Family Lara was a daughter of Joaquín M. Lara and his wife, María Aguirre del Pino. Her aunt was Refugio Aguirre del Pino. Her elder brother was Agustín Lara, who was a songwriter and composer, singer and actor. Her sister-in-law was María Félix, mother of actor Enrique Álvarez Félix, who appeared in many telenovelas. She worked with Agustín on several songs and married Nicanor Guzmán Guerrero (1909 – 1992). Some of Agustín’s songs were copyrighted in her name. Works, editions and recordings * Me dejaste * Valencia * Toledo – recorded on recital ¡Ay, ay, ay! References

Mariana Villanueva

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Mariana Villanueva (born Mexico City, 1964) is a Mexican music educator and composer. Biography She began her musical studies at National Conservatory in México City, studying under Mario Lavista, Federico Ibarra, Julio Estrada and Daniel Catán and continued her preparation at Carnegie Mellon University, under Leonardo Balada and Lucas Foss, where she received her Bachelors (1992) and Masters (1995) degrees in Music Composition. Since 1987, her works have been performed in Mexico, and occasionally in The United States (New York, New Mexico Indiana, and Pittsburgh) by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Carnegie Mellon Trio and The New Mexico String Quartet. In Europe her music has heard in Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Sweden. Mariana Villanueva has received the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Award (1999); The MEXICO/USA Rockefeller, FONCA/BANCOMER Prize (1995, 1996); and some other rewards from FONCA (1993, 1997) and Carnegie Mellon University. She has been written works for the Carnegie Mellon Trio (1993), The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (1996); and The Ensamble Cosmopolitano of Berlín (2002). She also has collaborated for the Carnegie Mellon Drama Department under

Mario Lavista

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Mario Lavista (April 3, 1943 – November 4, 2021) was a Mexican composer, writer and intellectual. Life and career Lavista was born in Mexico City. He enrolled the Composition Workshop (Taller de Composición) at the National Conservatory in 1963, under the guidance of Carlos Chávez, Héctor Quintanar, and Rodolfo Halffter. In 1967 he received a scholarship from the French government to study at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he studied with Jean-Étienne Marie. During his time in Europe, he attended courses by Henri Pousseur, Nadia Boulanger, Christoph Caskel, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1970 he founded Quanta, a collective improvisation group. He also worked at the electronic music studios of Tokyo radio and television in 1972. At the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s he closely collaborated with renowned performers in solo and chamber works where he explored unusual timbre possibilities by the use of extended techniques. In 1982, he founded Pauta, one of the most important music journals in Latin America, and continued to serve as its chief editor. In 1987, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his first (and only) opera Aura, based on the short story by Carlos Fu

Mario Ruiz Armengol

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Mario Ruiz Armengol (known as “Mayito” or “Mister Harmony”) (March 14, 1914 in Veracruz, Mexico – December 22, 2002 in Cancun, Mexico), was a Mexican pianist, composer, arranger, conductor and music teacher. He was the son of pianist and conductor Ismael Ruiz Suárez and Rosa Armengol. Early life and career Ruiz Armengol started to play piano at eight years old and debuted as a conductor at fifteen, along with Leopoldo Beristaín. At sixteen years old Ruiz Armengol was one of the founding members of the XEW-AM (a legendary Mexican radio broadcaster) music band. He studied with José Rolón, Rodolfo Halffter and Joaquín Amparán, and in 1942 met Mexican composer Manuel M. Ponce with whom he started a close friendship. By 1954 he was nicknamed “Mr. Harmony” by American musicians such as Duke Ellington, Billy May and Clare Fischer. Ruiz Armengol became very famous for his boleros. He also wrote more than 31 children’s songs, 19 Cuban dances, 16 studies, 16 reflections, 32 miniatures, 5 waltzes, scherzos, minuets, sonatas, fantasies, preludes and piano works for four hands, chamber music for piano and violin, violoncello, harp and flute. He was a highly reputed Mexican musician, a master of

Mario Talavera

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Mario Talavera Andrade (December 13, 1885 – March 27, 1960) was a Mexican musician, tenor, songwriter and conductor. Born and raised in Xalapa, Mario Talavera was the son of Francisco and Sebastiana (née Andrade) Talavera. The young Mario grew up with an intense love for music, especially opera and art songs. He also showed an early interest for composition, writing his first piece of music at the age of nine. As a teenager, he moved with his parents to Córdoba, Veracruz, where he completed his basic education. In 1945 Talavera became a founding member of the SACM (Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México, for its acronym in Spanish) along with Alberto Domínguez, Alfonso Esparza Oteo, Manuel Esperón, Ignacio Fernández Esperón, Agustín Lara and Consuelo Velázquez, among others. Talavera died in 1960 in Mexico City from advanced arteriosclerosis at the age of 74. References

Mark Aanderud

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Mark Aanderud (born 1976) is a Mexican pianist, composer, arranger, producer and conductor. Aanderud started piano studies at 8 years old at the Escuela Nacional de Musica in Mexico City. He started to perform professionally when he was 18 years old. Aanderud is known as a jazz pianist and composer, but through the years he has also performed, composed and recorded in several genres from Jazz and classical music to progressive rock and Latin music. His first CD as a leader, Mark Aanderud Trio 02, was awarded best jazz album of the year 2003 by the Czech Music Awards. In recent years, Aanderud has toured with international artists including the Mexican singer-songwriter and actress Ximena Sariñana and the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group. Aanderud has also recorded additional piano parts with The Mars Volta for their 2009 release Octahedron. Discography ;With The Mars Volta * Octahedron (2009) ;With Stomu Takeishi, Hernán Hecht * RGB (RareNoise Records, 2014) ;With the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group *Los Sueños de un Higado (2009) * Xenophanes (2009) * Woman Gives Birth To Tomato! (2013) * Doom Patrol (2017) References * Ozuna, Tony: “Hip Homecoming”, The Prague Post, 2010-01-13.

Mauricio González de la Garza

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Mauricio González de la Garza (October 6, 1923 – July 2, 1996) was a Mexican journalist, writer and music composer. Life and career Mauricio González de la Garza was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico on October 6, 1923. His parents were Josefina de la Garza de los Santos and Mauricio González Hinojosa. Mauricio was the third of five siblings. The family suffered a big tragedy on April 1934 when the father died from rabbies. Her mother then started to operate a Money Exchange business to support her children. Mauricio studied at St Agustin School and then at the Laredo College. In 1950 he emigrated to Mexico City to study medicine. After a year he quit and started his studies of Philosophy at the University of Mexico (UNAM). Mauricio worked as an editor and translator and in 1953 he started therapy session with the most renowned psychoanalyst of the time: Santiago Ramirez. In 1958 Mauricio secluded himself in the Monastery of Santa de la Resurreccion in Ahuacatitaln, Morelos. He stayed there for almost 5 years. During this time he conducted therapy sessions with some of the monks. The use of psychoanalysis at the monastery became very famous after it the Abbot gave an intervi

Max Lifchitz

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Max Lifchitz (born 1948 in Mexico City) is a classical pianist, composer, and conductor. Lifchitz was born and grew up in Mexico City. After one year of study in Mexico, he moved to the United States in 1966 He has appeared in concert and recital throughout the US, Latin America and Europe. In 1980, he founded the North/South Consonance Ensemble, which is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music from the Americas; he serves as the ensemble’s director. Lifchitz has served on the faculty of Columbia University and the University at Albany, The State University of New York. Max Lifchitz was awarded first prize in the 1976 International Gaudeamus Competition for Performers of Twentieth Century Music held in the Netherlands. Compositions * Mosaicos, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, double bass and piano (1971) * Roberta, orchestra (1973) * Exploitations, solo double bass, chamber ensemble and tape (1975) * Intervencion, violin and chamber orchestra (1976) * Exceptional String Quartet, 4 double basses (players wear small sleigh bells on the wrist of right arm) (1977) * Rhythmic Soundscape, piano and percussion (1978) * Affinities, piano (pub. 1979) * Transformations, ce

Miguel Bernal Jiménez

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Miguel Bernal Jiménez (16 February 1910 – 26 July 1956) was a Mexican composer, organist, teacher, and musicologist. He is widely regarded as the best representative of 20th century Mexican religious music, in addition to his important contributions to the Mexican nationalist music movement. He is considered by some to be the mainstay of the nacionalismo sacro (sacred nationalism) movement. Biography He was born in the city of Morelia, Michoacán. He began his musical career at the age of seven as a choirboy in the Orfeón Pío X, studying in the Colegio de Infantes de la Catedral. His talent was discovered by his teachers Felipe Aguilera Ruiz and Ignacio Mier y Arriaga, who succeeded in getting him recommended and admitted in 1928 to the Instituto Pontificio de Música Sagrada (Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music) of Rome by the Canónigo José María Villaseñor. In this institution he was instructed in organ, counterpoint, fugue, paleographic musicology, composition, orchestration, harmony and Gregorian chant, by his teachers Cesare Dobici, Raffaele Manari, Raffaele Casimiri, Paolo M. Ferretti, and Licinio Refice. He graduated two years later with the titles of Doctor in Gregorian chan

Miguel Lerdo de Tejada (composer)

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Miguel Lerdo de Tejada (September 29, 1869 in Morelia – May 25, 1941) was a Mexican composer/songwriter, pianist, and conductor. Lerdo de Tejada studied in Morelia and Mexico City. One of his most popular pieces was a song Perjura, with text by Fernando Luna y Drusina. His zarzuelas were also very popular in Mexico. He took his Orchesta Típica Lerdo (Carlo Curti’s Mexican Typical Orchestra remade) and toured the United States; one of his performances was at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. He continued to tour with his own ensemble in the U.S., Cuba, and South America until his death. His compositions are classed as “Light classical.” He has been described as the first “popular composer” in Mexico. His works included many arrangements of traditional songs in addition to original works. Selected works *Las luces de los ángeles, zarzuela *Las dormilonas, zarzuela *Esther, song (1895) *Perjura, song (1901) *Consentida, song (1901) *Amparo, dedicated to Ramón Corral (1921) *Paloma blanca, song (1921) *Las golondrinas, song *El faisan, waltz *Tlálpam, intermezzo-two step, dedicated to the borough of Tlalpan, D.F. (1911) Web sources External links * Miguel Lerdo de Tejad

Noel Schajris

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Nahuel Schajris Rodríguez (born July 19, 1974) is an Argentine-Mexican singer, songwriter and pianist based in Mexico who experienced chart-topping success as part of the duo Sin Bandera until he and fellow singer and songwriter Leonel García concluded their partnership in 2007. Schajris began his solo career in 2009 with the release of his first full-length solo album Uno No Es Uno, which was received with critical and commercial success, reaching number 10 on Billboards Latin Pop Albums chart and number 27 on Billboards Top Latin Albums chart. Career Schajris sang in a quartet with Luis Fonsi on the song “Aquí Estoy Yo” from Fonsi’s 2008 album Palabras del Silencio. This quartet also included artists David Bisbal and Aleks Syntek. In December 2008, Brian McKnight’s Christmas album featured Schajris performing a verse in Spanish on the track “Silent Night”. Schajris has also co-written songs for artists such as Alejandro Fernández, Yuridia, Paulina Rubio, Ednita Nazario, Fanny Lu, and others. Schajris volunteered in a charity organization called Playing for Change, which accepts donations to help build music schools for underprivileged children. The group records and films musicia

Pedro Bermúdez

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Pedro Bermúdez (1558–1605) was a Spanish composer and chapel master, who has been recognised as one of the most outstanding polyphonists in the New World, and who was active in Granada, Antequera, Cusco, Santiago de Guatemala (present-day Antigua Guatemala), and Puebla. Life Pedro Bermúdez was born 1558 in Granada, Spain. From an early age he was a choirboy in the cathedral of his home town, where he was taught by Santos de Aliseda. He later was a pupil of composition of Rodrigo de Ceballos (1530–81) at the Royal Chapel of Granada. In 1584, Bermúdez won the position of chapel master in Antequera, where he experienced continued strain and pressure from the church dignitaries, as he showed little inclination to teach the choirboys. After two years in that position he was dismissed following a fight with one of the choir singers. Returning to Granada, he became a singer in the Royal Chapel. In 1595 he was invited by Antonio de la Raya, newly appointed bishop of Cusco, Peru, to follow him to the New World and become the chapel master at the cathedral of that ancient Inca city, now under Spanish occupation. He commenced his activities in Cusco in September 1597. After only seven weeks,

Pepe Jaramillo

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Pepe Jaramillo (born José Jaramillo García; born October 27, 1921, Lerdo, Durango, Mexico; died April 30, 2001, Andalucía, Spain) was a notable Mexican pianist, composer, arranger, and recording artist. He was most active in London as an EMI recording artist in the 1960s and 1970s. Born in Lerdo, Durango, he began his professional music career playing in night clubs in Mexico City. Relocating to London, England, in his thirties, his many recordings and acclaimed concert appearances brought him international fame. At the age of 79, Jaramillo died of anemia in his sleep at his villa in Andalusia, Spain. Online, and within other sources, Jaramillo has often been confused with an Ecuadorean singer of the same name. Biography Early life and career in Mexico Both of Jaramillo’s parents were originally from the state of Chihuahua, having relocated to Lerdo, Durango in 1908, the year he was born. Pepe’s father was Vicente Baca Jaramillo and his mother was Doña Enriqueta García. He also had a sister and three brothers. Jaramillo’s sister’s piano-playing inspired the then-four-year-old to teach himself to play the instrument, largely by ear. His family soon arranged for private lessons with

Rafael Antonio Castellanos

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Rafael Antonio Castellanos (c. 1725–1791) was a Guatemalan classical composer. His style is that of the late Spanish baroque, pre-classical, and classical periods, with frequent reference to Guatemalan folk music idioms. Life From an early age, Castellanos trained as an apprentice under his uncle Manuel José de Quirós, chapelmaster of the cathedral of Santiago de Guatemala. In 1740, the young Rafael signed a composition for voice and basso continuo, on the Latin text of the Second Lamentation of Jeremiah. This piece reflects his mastery of baroque writing and an unusual expressive talent. In 1745 he became a journeyman and was admitted as a member of the cathedral orchestra as first violin, sometimes also playing harp. During the 1750s he produced various of his own compositions for the matins services, along with those of his uncle. When Quirós died in 1765, Castellanos was appointed his successor as chapel master, with the duties of conducting cathedral music during matins, vespers, and Mass, and of composing suitable music for different liturgical occasions. After the earthquake of 1773 life changed dramatically in the City of Santiago de Guatemala, which would shortly move to t

Ricardo Castro (composer)

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Ricardo Rafael de la Santísima Trinidad Castro Herrera (7 February 1864 – 27 November 1907) was a Mexican concert pianist and composer, considered the last romantic of the time of Porfirio Díaz. Life Castro was born at the Hacienda de Santa Bárbara, in the municipality of Nazas, Durango. His father, Vicente Castro, was a federal deputy; his mother was María de Jesús Herrera. Castro began his music education with Pedro H. Ceniseros. In 1879, his family moved to Mexico City, where the boy entered the National Conservatory of Music and studied piano with Juan Salvatierra and . He studied harmony and counterpoint with Melesio Morales. He finished all his studies in just five years, half of the usual ten. He graduated in 1883. Castro began his musical career as a concert pianist and composer before finishing his studies. In 1882, he won two prizes. At 19, Castro finished his First Symphony in C Minor; the symphony was premiered in 1988, 81 years after his death. In 1883, the Government of Mexico chose some of Castro’s works to send to Venezuela for the centenary of Simón Bolívar’s birth and later in 1884 he made a concert tour through the United States. 1896 was the year of the first pr

Roberto Cantoral

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Roberto Cantoral García (7 June 1935 – 7 August 2010) was a Mexican composer, singer and songwriter. He was known for composing a string of hit Mexican songs, including “El Triste”, “Al Final”, “La Barca” and “El Reloj” The Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México () estimated that “La Barca” and “El Reloj” have been recorded over 1,000 times by other artists like Plácido Domingo, Gualberto Castro, José José, Luis Miguel, Joan Báez and Linda Ronstadt. In 2009, he won the Latin Grammy Trustees Award. Iconos, which was released by Marc Anthony in 2010, featured “El Triste”. Cantoral moved to Mexico City to attend college but dropped out to become a band leader. Career 1950–1960 In 1950, Cantoral formed the Hermanos Cantoral () with Antonio Cantoral. 1960–1980 In 1960, Cantoral went solo and achieved international fame for “”, “”, “”, and “”. Personal life Cantoral resided in Rancho Viejo, Texas, just across the border from Mexico. Death In 2010, 75-year old Cantoral died after suffering a heart attack on a flight from Brownsville, Texas, to Ciudad de México. The plane made an emergency landing in Toluca, Mexico, where Cantoral was pronounced dead. His body was placed on public vi

Rosa Guraieb

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Rosa Guraieb Kuri (20 May 1931 – 2 March 2014) was a Mexican pianist, music educator and composer of Lebanese ancestry. She was born in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, Mexico, and studied in Beirut with Michel Cheskinoff at the National Conservatory. She continued her education in Mexico studying composition with José Pablo Moncayo and piano with Salvador Ordones Ochoa at the Conservatory of Mexico, then at Yale University (1954) and in Bayreuth, Germany. She studied with Carlos Chavez between 1962-1965 . She continued her studies with Mario Lavista and Daniel Catan. In 2003 she was honored for her fifty years of musical activity by the 7th International Meeting of Women in Arts. In 2013 she received recognition for Lifetime Achievement by the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico. Works Selected works include: Chamber Music * Sonata for violin and piano (1978) * String Quartet: Reminiscencias (1978) * String Quartet, Cuarteto Il, Homenaje a Gibran (1982) * Canto a la paz for oboe, bassoon, piano (1982) * Impresiones for guitar (1983) Piano * Espacios (1983) * Pieza ciclica (1977) * Scriabiniana (1981) Vocal * Arias olvidadas, soprano and piano (1983) * Lyrica, soprano and piano (1980)

Salvador Contreras

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Salvador Contreras Sánchez (10 November 1910 – 7 November 1982) was a Mexican composer and violinist, a member of the Grupo de los cuatro. Life Contreras was born in Cuerámaro, Guanajuato, the son of José Contreras and Nemoria Sánchez. His musical education was at the Mexico City Conservatory, where he studied violin with Silvestre Revueltas, music theory with Candelario Huízar, and composition and conducting with Carlos Chávez. Together with Daniel Ayala Pérez, Blas Galindo, and José Pablo Moncayo, he formed the Grupo de jóvenes compositores in 1935, which later became the Grupo de los cuatro. Musical style Contreras’s early works from the 1930s and early 1940s were predominantly contrapuntal and neoclassical, with folk-like tunes and brash rhythms. His Obertura en tiempo de danza (Overture in Dance Time, 1942), for example, prominently uses measures in 7/8 and 5/8, which alternate with the more common 2/4 and 3/4. In the mid-1960s he began using serial techniques, allying him with Manuel Enríquez and losing him his former broad public appeal. Compositions Among his best-known works are: * Sonata, for violín and cello (1933) * Piece for String Quartet (String Quartet No. 2) (1936)

Sergio Luque

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Sergio Luque is a composer of vocal, instrumental and electroacoustic music. His work often involves computer-aided algorithmic composition and stochastic processes. His music has been performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Les Jeunes Solistes, Garth Knox, the Nieuw Ensemble and the Schönberg Ensemble, among others, and has been presented in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, Chile, Argentina, Japan and Australia. He has a PhD in Musical Composition from the University of Birmingham, where he studied with Jonty Harrison and Scott Wilson, and was a member of BEAST (Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre). During his PhD, he worked on the development of stochastic synthesis, a synthesis technique invented by Iannis Xenakis. In 2006, he received a master’s degree with Distinction in Sonology from the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, studying with Paul Berg and Kees Tazelaar. In 2004, he received a master’s degree in Composition from the Conservatory of Rotterdam, studying with Klaas de Vries and René Uijlenhoet. He has a bachelor’s degree in Compo

Silvestre Revueltas

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Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican classical music composer, a violinist, and conductor. Life Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, and the Chicago College of Music. He gave violin recitals and in 1929 was invited by Carlos Chávez to become assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, a post he held until 1935. He and Chávez did much to promote contemporary Mexican music. It was around this time that Revueltas began to compose in earnest. He began his first film score, Redes, in 1934, a commission which resulted in Revueltas and Chávez falling out. Chávez had originally expected to write the score, but political changes led to him losing his job in the Ministry of Education, which was behind the film project. Revueltas left Chávez’s orchestra in 1935 to be the principal conductor of a newly created and short-lived rival orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. He was a member of the Revueltas Sánchez family, a number of whom were also famous and recognized in Mexico: his brother Fermín (1901–1935) an

Sofía Cancino de Cuevas

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Sofía Cancino de Cuevas (July 29, 1897 – December 16, 1982) was a Mexican composer, pianist, opera promoter, singer, and her country’s first woman symphonic conductor. Biography Sofía Cancino de Cuevas was born in Mexico City on July 29, 1897. At age 22 she obtained the title of piano teacher at the Pedro Luis Ogazón Academy. In 1932 she entered the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) School of Music, where she studied singing with Consuelo Escobar de Castro and David Silva, as well as complementary composition courses with Rafael J. Tello, Manuel Ponce and Julián Carrillo. In 1935 the Adagio and the Allegro of her First Symphony premiered at the Simón Bolívar Amphitheater. In the Beethoven room of the Hotel Reforma she presented violinist Jeanne Court and the singers Lorenzo Canno and Alfred Knopf. In successive years she presented complete operas with costumes and set design at private functions as part of her opera dissemination activities. Among them were the 1962 Mexican run of Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, where she played the main role of Isabella, once again under the baton of Umberto Mugnai. Under her orchestral direction and arrangement, she presented operas

Tarsicio Herrera Zapién

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Tarsicio Herrera Zapién (born 1935) is a Mexican writer, researcher and academic, specializing in the culture and classical literature. He studies the works of Sister Juana Inés de la Cruz, as well as music composition and recovery of classical musicological works. Biography Tarsicio Herrera Zapién was born 19 July 1935 in Churintzio, Michoacán, Mexico. Herrera earned a degree in philosophy from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1955. He completed his Bachelor’s (1967), Master’s (1968) and Doctorate (1970) degrees in classical literature at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). and president in 2000. He has been Senior researcher at the Institute of Philological Research of the National Autonomous University of Mexico The first edition of this book on the Greek and Latin etymology of the Spanish language was in 1971. External links * The Journal of Roman Studies, Review of Tarsicio Herrera Zapién References

Víctor Rasgado

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Víctor Rasgado (1959 – 18 January 2023) was a Mexican pianist and classical composer, whose works have been performed in Mexico, the United States, Italy, and the Netherlands. Biography Born in Mexico City, he studied piano and composition at the Escuela Nacional de Música and the Centro de Investigación y Estudios de la Música in Mexico, the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi (Milan and the Accademia Chigiana (Siena). His opera Anacleto Morones was one of the winners of the Premio Orpheus for new chamber operas and was premiered in Spoleto at the Teatro Caio Melisso on 9 September 1994 in a production by Luca Ronconi. That same year his Revontulet (Fantasia for piano, percussion, and instrumental ensemble) premiered in Siena. Other notable compositions include his 2001 children’s opera, El conejo y el coyote (The Rabbit and the Coyote) and Revuelos (for trumpet, piano, contrabass and percussion), performed in Carnegie Hall during the Sonidos de las Americas festival in 1994. Rasgado died on 18 January 2023, at the age of 63. See also *Paso del Norte (opera) References * Casa Ricordi, Catalogue: Victor Rasgado * Ficher, Miguel, Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionar

Zacarías Salmerón

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Zacarías Salmerón Daza (September 6, 1918, in Tlapehuala, Guerrero, Mexico - January 28, 2011 ) was a Mexican composer, musician and violinist of son calentano. Biography Zacarías Salmerón Daza was born in Tlapehuala, Guerrero, Mexico. He is nephew of J. Isaías Salmerón Pastenes, who is considered one of the pillars of the calentano music and who became a teacher to Zacarías and Juan Reynoso Portillo. He is considered an important composer of son calentano, traditional music genre of Tierra Caliente, a region within the state of Guerrero, along with other composers such as Juan Reynoso Portillo, Ángel Tavira, Cástulo Benítez, José Natividad Leandro and Pedro Ignacio Pablo. He studied at the National School of Fine Arts and is author to 50 waltzes. He has recorded three albums: El poeta del violín (Poet of Violin), Entre amigos (Among Friends), and Bienvenidos a Tlapehuala (Welcome to Tlapehuala) Furthermore, he has been a music teacher at Tlapehuala’s kindergarten, a job obtained thanks to President Lázaro Cárdenas, who cherished his friendship. He was married twice; from his first marriage he had eight children, and one more from his second marriage to Consuelo Segura Beltrán. Ref