Roberto Sierra
Roberto Sierra (born 9 October 1953 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) is a composer of contemporary classical music.
Sierra studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany. After his two-act opera El mensajero de plata, to a libretto by Myrna Casas, had premiered at the Interamerican Festival in San Juan on 9 October 1986, Sierra came to prominence in 1987 when his first major orchestral composition, Júbilo, was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. (Júbilo had been premiered in Puerto Rico in 1985 by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zdeněk Mácal; it was also performed in 1986 by the same forces conducted by Akira Endo.) Since then, his works have been performed by the orchestras of San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, San Antonio, and Phoenix, by the American Composers Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra (United States), the Kronos Quartet, Continuum, England's BBC Symphony, and at Wolf Trap, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Festival Casals of Puerto Rico, France's Festival de Lille, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, and Germany's Neue Musik Bonn.
On February 2, 2006 Sierra's Missa Latina, premiered at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C., conducted by Leonard Slatkin to considerable acclaim. The Washington Times judged it "the most significant symphonic premiere in the District since the late Benjamin Britten's stunning War Requiem was first performed in the still-unfinished Washington National Cathedral in the late 1960s."[1] On March 3, 2007, the Missa Latina was performed at the 51st Casals Festival in Sierra's homeland, Puerto Rico, where it was equally well received.
Sierra's Concierto Barroco takes its inspiration from a scene in Alejo Carpentier's novel of the same in which Handel and Vivaldi jam with a Cuban slave during the Venice Carnival. Sierra was commissioned by guitarist Manuel Barrueco to write a concerto that tried to capture what that might have been like. Eladio Scharron commented on Soundboard: "Sierra achieved - masterfully - a synthesis of a tradition of five centuries old... This work is truly a masterwork..."
Sierra is a professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he teaches composition. His notable students include Marc Mellits.
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[edit] Selected works
[edit] Orchestral
- Bayoán (oratorio for Soprano, Baritone and Orchestra)
- Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra
- Concierto Barroco concerto for Guitar and Orchestra
- Concierto Caribe concerto for Flute and Orchestra
- Concierto para orquesta
- Doble Concierto concerto for violin, viola and Orchestra
- Folias concerto for Guitar and Orchestra
- Missa Latina for Soprano, Baritone, Chorus and Orchestra
- Of Discoveries concerto for two Guitars and Orchestra
- "Con madera, metal y cuero" for percussion soloist and orchestra
- Symphonies Nos. 1-3
- Sinfonía No. 4, premiere 1 October 2009 Nashville Symphony/Giancarlo Guerrero
[edit] Chamber Orchestra
- Doce Bagatelas for String Orchestra
- El éxtasis de Santa Teresa for soprano and Chamber Orchestra
- Concerto for Viola with string orchestra and 2 percussionists
[edit] Chamber Music
- Doce Bagatelas for string quartet
- El mensajero de plata (chamber Opera)
- Sonata for Cello and Piano
- Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
- Sonata for Flute and Piano
- Triptico for Guitar and String Quartet
[edit] Solo Works
- Piezas Breves for Guitar
- Piezas Imaginarias for Piano
- Ritmorroto for Clarinet
[edit] External links
- Roberto Sierra official composer site
- Cornell University Department of Music faculty page
- Subito Music Online Store index of published works
- Art of the States: Roberto Sierra two works in streaming audio
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