Biography      Archive       Links      News     Contact me   Home

Alberto Ginastera

(b. Buenos Aires, 11 April 1916; d. Geneva, 25 June 1983),

Argentinian composer. He studied at the National Conservatory (1936-8) and made an early reputation with his ballet Panambí; (1940). Another nationalist ballet, Estancia, followed in 1941, when he was also appointed to the staff of the National Conservatory. During an extended visit to the USA (1945-7) he attended Copland's courses at Tanglewood; thereafter his life was divided between Argentina and abroad, his travels sometimes necessitated by changes of government. In 1971 he settled in Geneva.

Until the mid-1950s his music was essentially nationalist in a manner comparable with Bartok, Falla and Stravinsky, but he moved towards an atonal expressionism that has links with Berg and Penderecki: this made possible his late emergence as a composer of highly charged opera in which magic and fantastic elements are prominent (Don Rodrigo, 1964; Bomarzo, 1967; Beatrix Cenci, 1971). Other works include two piano concertos (1961, 1972), the Cantata para América mágica for soprano and percussion (1960) and three string quartets (1948, 1958, 1973).