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Sergio Cervetti

Uruguayan composer and musician (born 1940) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Sergio Cervetti Guigou (born 9 November 1940 in Dolores, Soriano) is a Uruguayan composer and teacher domiciled in the United States.[1][2] His early compositional language reflects the post serialist Uruguayan avant-garde, often employing electronics and complex graphical notation.[3] He gained international prominence in 1966 when he achieved first place with 5 Episodes for Piano Trio in the Inter-American Music Festival in Caracas, Venezuela.[4][5] His compositions have been widely recorded on labels such as Albany Records,[6] Vienna Modern Masters,[7] and Navona Records,[8][9] which have been reviewed in Gramophone[10] and The Washington Post.[11] His music has been played by renowned orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra[12] and New York City Opera.[13]

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Biography

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Sergio Cervetti was exposed to music at a young age by his parents.[14] His Italian father was a clarinettist and his French mother helped motivate him to learn the piano.[15] His early piano studies were with José María Martino Rodas and Hugo Balzo and later studied counterpoint and harmony at the National Conservatory with Carlos Estrada and Guido Santorsola.[16]

In 1962 he left Uruguay to study composition in the United States[17][18] at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore under Austrian-born composer Ernst Krenek[10] and South African composer Stefans Grové,[19] graduating in 1967.[20]

In 1969, Cervetti, went to Berlin to take up a one-year DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program composer-in-residence.[5] Whilst in Germany he received Baden-Baden commissions[21] and wrote an a cappella work Lux Lucet In Tenebris which won a Gaudeamus International Composers Award which was premiered at the festival in Zwolle.[22][23]

After 1970, Cervetti attended the Electronic Music Centre at Columbia-Princeton University where he studied under Vladimir Ussachevsky and Mario Davidovsky.[24]

Whilst in New York, he taught for 25 years at the Tisch School of the Arts having started his tenure in 1972.[5] As Master Teacher of Music he tutored in music history, composition and historic dance.[25][26][27]

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Selected works

Chamber

  • Five episodes for violin, cello and piano (1965) (Cinco episodios para violín, violonchelo y piano)[28]
  • Six sequences : for dance (1966) for chamber orchestra[29]
  • Divertimento, para cuarteto de maderas (1967) for woodwind quartet[30][31]
  • Zinctum (1969) for string quartet[32]
  • Dies tenebrarum (1968) for electric organ, percussion, choir and strings[33]
  • Prisons No. 1 (1969) for dancers, musicians, singers and pantomime[34]
  • Pulsar (1969) for brass sextet[1]
  • Cuatro fragmentos de Pablo Neruda (1970) for soprano, oboe, violoncello and percussion[35]
  • Peripetia (1970) for voices and musicians[20]
  • Cocktail Party (1970) work for music-theatre[36]
  • Lux Lucet in Tenebris ("and the light shineth in the darkness") (1970) for a cappella voices[37][23]
  • Plexus (1971) for chamber orchestra[38][39]
  • Raga I (1971) for ensemble[1]
  • ...de la tierra... (...from the earth...) (1972) for ensemble[40]
  • Concerto for Trumpet and Strings (1974), reorchestrated 2015[41]
  • Duelle (1974) concerto for cor anglais and string bass[42]
  • Madrigal III (1976) for two sopranos and small ensemble[20]
  • Ines de Castro (1988) ballet[43]
  • The Triumph of Death (El Triunfo de la Muerte) (1993) mezzo-soprano and piano; Text: Circe Maia[44]
  • House of Blues (1995) for wind ensemble[45]
  • Nazca (2010) for string orchestra[46]
  • Toward the Abyss (2015) piano quintet[41]
  • And the Huddled Masses (2015) for clarinet and string quartet[47]

Opera

  • Elegy for a Prince (2005) opera in two acts. Libretto: Elizabeth Esris[38]
  • YUM! (2008) opera in one act for voices and chamber ensemble. Libretto: Elizabeth Esris[38]

Orchestra

  • El Carro de Heno (The Hay Wain) (1967) for chamber choir and orchestra[20]
  • Orbitas (1967) for orchestra[48]
  • Candombe II (1996) for orchestra[38]
  • Descent (2001) piano and orchestra[38]
  • Consolamentum (2016) for orchestra[49]
  • Et in Arcadia ego (2017) symphonic poem[10]
  • Fanfare: Gated Angel (2019) for orchestra[50]

Solo instrument or voice

  • Guitar Music (the Bottom of the Iceberg) (1975)[5]
  • Four Fragments of Isadora (1979) soprano; Text: Letters of Duncan and Craig[20]
  • Three Pieces for Marimba (2014)[6]

Works with electronics or tape

  • Studies in Silence (1968) for electronics[3]
  • Oulom for tape, in 1970[51]
  • Graffiti (1971) for spoken chorus, orchestra and tape[51]
  • Prisons No. 2 (1970-–71) for spoken choir, orchestra and tape[52]
  • Raga II (1971) for trombone and tape[1]
  • Raga III (1971) for tape[51]
  • Stella Vindemiatrix (1975) for oboe and pre-recorded oboe[53]
  • Bits & pieces and Moving Parts (1977) for tape[51]
  • El Rio de los Pajaros Pintados (1979) for bandoneon and tape[54]
  • Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1979–1980) for tape[55]
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Discography

  • 1987 – The Hay Wain, Sergio Cervetti. (Periodic Music: PE-1631)[56]
  • 1998 – New Music for Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, cond. Jiri Mikula. (Vienna Modern Masters: VMM 3045)[57]
  • 2011 – From East to West, Music from Ukraine to Uruguay, Lithuanian Music Academy Chamber Choir. (Vienna Modern Masters: VMM2030)[58]
  • 2012 – Nazca and Other Works Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic Chamber Players, Vit Micka, cond. Petr Vronský. (Navona Records: NV5872)[59]
  • 2015 – Las Indias Olvidadas (The Forgotten Indies) (Nibius: NIBI 118)[60]
  • 2017 – Sunset at Noon (Six Works In Memory Of), Vít Muzík, María Teresa Chenlo,cond. Enrique Pérez Mesa, Kühn Choir of Prague, cond. Marek Vorlicek. (Navona: NV6072)[61][62]
  • 2016 – Pursuing Freedom, UNC Percussion Ensemble, Juan Álamo. (Albany Records: TROY1650)[63][64]
  • 2020 – Mortal Dreams: Four Vocal Works Sergio Cervetti, Cara Latham, Charles Abramovic. (Navona Records: NV6313)[65]
  • 2022 – Sparks : Eye of London, London Symphony Orchestra, cond. Miran Vaupotić. (Navona: 4385947)[66]

References

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