Composers

Sergio BARROSO (b. 1946, Havana): A composer, keyboard player and synthesist, Barroso works extensively in the electroacoustic music field, but he has also composed music for orchestra, for choral and chamber ensemble and for the stage and film. His work has been recognized at the International Music Council (IMC) Rostrums of Composers, Electroacoustic Music and Latin American Music, and the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges. He received a composition prize from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2000. His music has been performed extensively in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He Studied at the Havana National Conservatory, the Prague Superior School of Music and at Stanford University. (Cintas for music, 1999-2000)

Mario BAUZÁ (b. 1911, Havana-d. 1993, New York): A legendary trumpet man and orchestra director, Bauzá was often called the father of AfroCuban jazz. Bauzá first played in the United States in the 1920s with Orquesta de Antonio María Romeu. In the 1930s, he played with the Chick Webb Band, and later became musical director and first trumpet for the Cab Calloway Orchestra. During his time with the orchestra, he was influential in the development of the young trumpet player Dizzie Gillespie. He led the orchestra Machito y sus AfroCubans and the Orquesta Afro-Cubana de Jazz. When he died at the age of 82, his music was experiencing a popular revival. He had just completed recording the CD 944 Columbus, which was released posthumously, and which followed The Tanga Suite, My Time is Now and El legendario rey del mambo, all issued in the early 1990s. (Cintas for music, 1988-89)

Joaquín DIAGO (d. Miami): A violin player, Diago was a member of the Colegio de Músicos Cubanos en el Exilio. (Cintas for music, 1963-64)

Aldo Rafael FORTE (b. 1953, Havana): A music educator, composer and arranger, Forte’s works have been widely performed and recorded by the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, the Filharmonie Bohuslav Martinu Orchestra and many bands including those of the University of Georgia, the University of North Texas, the National Dutch Youth Wind Band, the Militarmusik der Voralberg in Austria, the U.S. Marine Band and the USAF Heritage of America. In 2003, he was commissioned by the Van Gogh Documentatie Museum in Nuenen, the Netherlands, to transcribe his band work Van Gogh Portraits for brass band to celebrate Van Gogh’s 150th birthday. He is adjunct professor of composition at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia, and composer/arranger with the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band at Langley Air Force Base, also in Virginia. His compositions range from chamber pieces to major pieces for band and orchestra. He has received commissions for new works from the Southwest German Radio Orchestra and various university bands and ensembles. He holds music degrees from Tennessee Technological University and the University of Southern Mississippi. (Cintas for music, 1985-86)

Orlando Jacinto GARCÍA (b. 1954, Havana): A composer, conductor and music educator, García is a professor at the School of Music at Florida International University in Miami, where he is also director of the Composition and Graduate Music Programs. He is the founder of the NODUS Ensemble, a professional chamber dedicated to the presentation of new music. He is also the founder of the New Music Miami Festival and the Music of the Americas Festival. Among the nearly 100 works in his catalog are Three Pieces for Double Bass and Tape, Images of Wood and Wire, Timbres Artificiales,  Entre el anochecer y la oscuridad, Threnody for the Americas, Retratos and Escher Waterfall. His music is performed throughout the Americas, Asia and Europe. He has received awards from Nuevas Resonancias, the American Composers Forum Sonic Circuits and the State of Florida Council of the Arts. He is also the winner of several Rockefeller and Fulbright residencies as well as a fellowship from the Dutka foundation. García received a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Miami in 1984. (Cintas for music, 1994-95, 1999-2000)

Maritza LEAL BANCHZ (Cintas for music, 1975-76, 1977-78)

Tania LEÓN (b. 1943, Havana): A classical composer and conductor, León became the first musical director and composer in residence with Dance Theater of Harlem in 1968. Since then, her pieces have been performed by some of the world’s top musicians. Scourge of Hyacinths, an opera based on a radio play by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, won the BMW Prize as best new work in the 1994 Munich Biennale and has been performed in Mexico, Switzerland, France and Austria. One of its arias, Oh Yemanja, was recorded by Dawn Upshaw. Other works include the ballets The Beloved (with Judith Hamilton), Haiku, Dougla (with Geoffrey Holder) and Tones; the orchestra pieces Batá,Carabalí, Concerto Criollo, Kabiosile, Para Viola y Orquesta and Seven Spirituals, as well as many pieces for instrumental ensemble and vocal ensemble and solo. She is a professor of music at Brooklyn College and the recipient of a grant from the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation. As a conductor, she has appeared with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa, the Beethovenhall Orchester of Bonn and the Louisville Orchestra. (Cintas for music, 1974-75, 1978-79)

Jorge MARTÍN (b. 1959, Santiago de Cuba): His one-act opera, Tobermory, won first prize in 1993 in the National Opera Association's Fifth Biennial Chamber Opera Competition and has been performed in several cities in the United States. Other compositions include Beast and Superbeast, a set of four one-act operas based on short stories by Saki; the Saxophone Quartet and Four Dances for Bassoon and String Quartet, which had its world premiere in Finland in July 1997. Martín is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters' Academy Award in Music, of an ASCAP Standard Music Award, and of an artist's residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs in 1993. Martín is a graduate of Yale and Columbia University. (Cintas for music, 1999-2000)

Odaline MARTÍNEZ (b. 1949, Matanzas): An opera composer and director, Martínez lives in England, where she gained recognition as the conductor of the Lontano Ensemble and became the first woman to conduct a BBC Proms Concert. She has also conducted the London Chamber Symphony Orchestra and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Among her compositions are Cantos de Amor, based on the poems of Federico García Lorca, and the opera Sister Aimee.  She’s a graduate of Tulane University and studied composing and pianism at London’s Royal Academy of Music. She’s the winner of a Marshall grant and the Artijus Prize.  (Cintas for music, 1989-90)

Solomon MIKOWSKY (b. 1936, Havana): A lifelong music educator, many of Mikowsky’s pupils have been top prizewinners in international competitions, including the Rubinstein in Tel Aviv and the Tchaikovsky in Moscow. Mikowsky teaches at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Manhattan School of Music and Columbia University and has served on the faculties of the New York University, the Philadelphia Music Academy and the Juilliard School. He is artistic director of the International Piano Festivals and has been a juror in more than 20 international competitions. Mikowsky is the author of a book on 19th Century music, Ignacio Cervantes y la danza en Cuba. He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Juilliard and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. (Cintas for music, 1965-66) 

Julian ORBÓN (b. 1926, Asturias-d. 1991, Miami Beach): Born in Spain, Orbón began traveling to Cuba with his family in 1932 and settled there permanently in 1940.  His first piano teacher was his father, Benjamín Orbón, but he also studied under Aaron Copland, who once called him "the most gifted composer of his generation."  In 1942, he became one of the founders of El Grupo de Renovación Musical, which worked to gain international recognition for Latin American symphonic music. Orbón eventually took over his father’s studio in Havana, and also wrote music reviews for the newspaper Alerta. He left Cuba for the United States in 1963. Orbon’s compositions include pieces for orchestras, chamber music, choral works and music for piano and voice. He was the winner of the Juan Landaeta Award for his Three Symphonic Versions in the first Latin American Music Festival in Caracas. He is the author of La Esencia de los estilos, published by Colibrí. (Cintas for music, 1963-64, 1964-65)

Keyla OROZCO ALEMÁN (b. 1969, Santiago de Cuba) A composer whose work has been performed in numerous international festivals, Orozco lives in the Netherlands, where she teaches composition at Amsterdam’s Conservatory.  She has received numerous commissions and her work was recognized with a Guggenheim fellowship in 2000.  Orozco studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana, at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague and at Amsterdam’s Conservatory. She is the winner of two prizes at the René Amengual International Competition in Chile and received a symphonic music award  from Cuba’s UNEAC.(Cintas for music, 2003-2004)

Ileana PÉREZ VELÁZQUEZ (b. 1964, Cienfuegos): A composer, pianist and music educator, Pérez Velázquez has taught at the Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA) in Havana, at Portland State University in Oregon, at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota and at Williams College. Her music has been presented in international festivals and concerts in Europe and Latin America as well as in the United States. Among her works are Crystals, a piece for soprano and instrumental ensemble, Un ser con unas alas enormes, for violin and tape, and Epur si mouve, for instrumental ensemble. She has been commissioned by soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including the Flux Quartet, Cuarteto Eco from Madrid, and the Insomnio instrumental ensemble from the Netherlands. Pérez Velázquez has a master’s in electroacoustic music from Darmouth College and a Ph.D. in music composition from Indiana University.  Before coming to the United States in 1991, Pérez Velázquez won several first prizes for composition in Cuba. (Cintas for music, 1999-2000)

Daniel PONCE (b. 1953, Havana): A percussionist and bandleader, Ponce began playing music in Cuba, but fully dedicated himself to music as a profession when he arrived in the United States in 1980. He has performed in albums by Kip Hanrahan, Paquito D'Rivera, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Laurie Anderson and Mick Jagger, among others. His solo albums include New York Now, Arawe '87 and Changó te Llama. Ponce has received the Creative Artists public service award for composition. (Cintas for music, 1991-92)

Carlos PUIG-HATEM (b. 1968, Havana, Cuba) Puig-Hatem began studying music at the age of seven and composing jazz at the age of 15. Two years later, he graduated from the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory as trumpet professor and later received a bachelor in music, with a specialization in composition from the Higher Institute of Art in Havana. Puig-Hatem worked as conductor of the Children Symphony Orchestra of Havana from 1992 to 1994 and as director in the composition department at the Havana Institute of Art. Among his influences are Ligeti, Messiaen, Bach, Beethoven, Stravinsky. He considers Cuban composer Alejandro García Caturla his strongest influence when writing. He lives and works in Miami. (Cintas Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in Music Composition, 2007).

Viviana RUIZ (b. Havana, 1963). A pianist and composer, Ruiz graduated in 1989 from Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte with a degree in music composition. Among her works are Penetrating Silence, a piece for piano, string orchestra and percussion, and Bosque, a piece for orchestra and batá drums, in which she incorporates Afro-Cuban rhythmic elements. Her pieces have been heard in various national and international festivals. She lives in Miami, where she teaches piano and composition from her own studio. (Cintas for music, 1992-93)

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