The Argentine composer Claudia Montero, died this morning at the age of 58 at her home in Valencia, the city in which she lived and worked for almost two decades. Since last July, Montero was not the resident composer of the Palau de la Música, a position that included meetings with young composers and the creation of a musical work on which she was currently working.
As he told in an interview with Levante-EMV last July, Montero left Argentina almost 20 years ago “when the famous corralito”, and arrived in Valencia “almost by chance.” “They told me well about the city and I came to check it out and they don’t move me from here.” In Valencia, she studied her Master’s Degree in Musical Aesthetics and Creativity at the University of Valencia and worked as a teacher in the Composition area of the ” Salvador Seguí ” Superior Conservatory of Music in Castelló.
Her works have been programmed in various countries of the world and with them, she has won four Latin Grammys for best album and best contemporary classical composition. In 2018 she won the Grammy for the best contemporary classical composition for Luces y Sombras: Concerto for guitar and string orchestra; a Best classical album that same year for Mágica y Misteriosa; Best Contemporary Classical Composition 2016 for her Quartet for Buenos Aires; and Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2014 for her Violin Concerto.
Regarding her work at Palau, Montero explained that the residence of a composer means a direct link with the orchestra and with the conductor and its function is to carry out one or two original works for the orchestra ». Since this summer she was working on the first of her residency compositions. It was called Ave Fenix symphony and it was a choral symphonic work for mezzo-soprano, mixed choir, and orchestra. The objective was to complete the composition in mid-2021 to premiere it with the Orquesta de València and with the Choral Arts Society of Washington.
Ave Fenix was going to be her second composition, a work, as she explained, necessarily traversed by the current pandemic: “If you don’t put yourself inside a bubble, if you indulge in social experience, this will inevitably have an influence. That is why Ave Fenix has gone from being a composition about individual pain to one about collective pain, but what is most important is the hopeful message, the need to convey that we can get out of it, that we are going to achieve it ».
The Palau de la Música joins the composer’s condolences
The president of the Palau de la Música, Gloria Tello, the director of the Palau, Vicent Ros, the head of the Orquesta de València, Ramón Tebar and the teachers of the Valencian symphonic group, have lamented the sudden death of Claudia Montero and the loss of a great composer, of recognized international career and winner of four Latin Grammys, who was closely linked to València and the Palau de la Música, since she was the composer in residence for the Valencian auditorium in the current 2020/21 season.
The Palau de la Música will dedicate the subscription concert of the Valencia Orchestra to him, on February 26, which will be conducted by Ramón Tebar, with the presence of the great violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann.
Claudia Montero was preparing with great enthusiasm the third edition of the “Young Composers Program”, organized by the Palau de la Música this season, where she would work with eight young creators and the Orquesta de València. This residency also contemplated the composition of a work to be premiered with the Orquesta de València in the 2021/22 season. Likewise, the world premiere was held in the Iturbi Hall of her work “Luces y Sombras. Concert for guitar and orchestra ”, on November 17, 2017 with the Orquesta de València and the soloist José Luís Ruíz del Puerto, under the direction of Virginia Martínez.
Amelia Warner
Amelia Warner writes all the Latest Articles. She mostly covers Entertainment topics, but at times loves to write about movie reviews as well.
