Antonio Estévez
*3 January 1916
†26 November 1988
Works by Antonio Estévez
Biography
Antonio Estévez (1916-1988) was a Venezuelan composer, oboist and conductor. He composed ‘Mediodia en el llano’ two years before graduating as composer in 1944, in Caracas. In 1945, he continued composition studies in Columbia University and Summer courses at Tanglewood, with other Latin-American composers as Ginastera and Orbón. 1947-48, in Paris, he was close to Venezuelan Cinetic painters Carlos Cruz-Diez and Jesus Soto and composer Pierre Boulez. In 1950’s, he composed ‘Concierto para orquesta’, ‘La Cantata criolla’ (perhaps the most important Venezuelan nationalist work of the 20th century), beautiful choral and piano pieces. Estévez explored electroacoustic music in Paris from 1962-71 at the French Radio-Television ORTF with Pierre Schaeffer. ‘Cromovibrafonía’ was commissioned for the Venezuelan pavilion of Montreal Expo in 1967 and ‘Cromovibrafonía múltiple’ for the Soto Museum of Modern Art (Venezuela). His music has been widely recognized and is being played worldwide.
About the music
Antonio Estévez is mostly considered as a nationalist composer but he’s not only that. It is true that his relation with what he saw and heard as a child in Venezuelan plains deeply marked him and diffused in all his music and life. He said about himself “first of all, I always want to be honest with me, but also Venezuelan, and Latin-American, and universal”. He didn’t stop learning and exploring till the end. Mediodía en el llano, for orchestra (1942) Concierto para orchestra (1950) Tríptico Ancestral, for mixed choir (1955) Cantata Criolla, for tenor, baritone, mixed choir and orchestra (1954) 17 piezas infantiles, for piano (1956) Canciones para canto y piano, voice and piano Obertura Sesquicentenaria, for orchestra (1963) Cromovibrafonía, electroacoustic music (1967) Cromovibrafonía múltiple, electroacoustic music (1970) 5 Poemas de Nicolas Guillén, for bass and ensemble (1977).
Antonio Estévez Estate
The Antonio Estévez Estate is the repository of Antonio Estévez' music legacy, which exists since the composer's passing in 1988.
The Estate is dedicated to the preservation, continuation and promotion of Antonio Estévez' artistic legacy. It is led by the composer's daughter María Victoria Estévez Roffé, who is the current and only holder and owner of Estévez' music rights and copyrights.
One of the most recent and notable achievement of the Estate has been to secure Universal Edition as the worldwide publisher of Antonio Estévez' music.
Works such as Cantata Criolla and Mediodía en el llano, among others, are now published and distributed exclusively by Universal Edition.
All other works by Antonio Estévez are also being published by Universal Edition - with the only exception of Concierto para Orquesta, which is published by Max Eschig.
-- IMPORTANT NOTICE --
If any of Estévez’ works appears unavailable for hiring when using the Hire Request tool in the Universal Edition website, please contact the Antonio Estévez Estate as well as Universal Edition directly at the following email addresses:
contact@antonioestevez.com
customer-relations@universaledition.com
For any other enquiry, please contact the Antonio Estévez Estate directly: contact@antonioestevez.com
-- NEWS --
Mediodía en el llano for orchestra will be performed on 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th September 2024, please see Universal Edition Performance calendar.
Cantata Criolla for tenor, baritone, mixed choir and Orchestra will be performed on 15h and 16h November 2024, please see Universal Edition Performance calendar.
