Álvaro Manzano Montero (1955 – 19 February 2022) was an Ecuadorian opera and

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, ce ...

conductor.

Biography

Manzano was born in 1955 in Ambato where he began his musical studies. In 1975, he went to Moscow, where in 1979 he obtained his Choral Conductor degree from the Tchaikovsky School. In 1985, he graduated cum laude from the P.I. Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, in the class of conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky. From 1985 to 2001 and during 2006, he was Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador. From 2001 to 2004 and from 2007 to 2009, he was music director and Principal of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic. Manzano conducted symphony orchestras in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, United States, Estonia, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Russia and Venezuela. He was the Musical and Artistic Director of the in Quito and a teacher at important conservatories in Ecuador and the Dominican Republic. He died on 19 February 2022, at the age of 66.

Awards

* Honorary Citizen, Louisville, Kentucky, United States, 1987. * Outstanding Young Man of the World, Helsinki, Finland, 1991. *

Order of Rio Branco The Order of Rio Branco (''Ordem de Rio Branco'') is an honorific order of Brazil instituted by decree 51.697 of February 5, 1963. It is named in honor of the Brazilian diplomat José Paranhos, Baron of Rio Branco. The President of Brazil serves ...

, Presidency of Brazil, 1994. *

Premio Eugenio Espejo The ''Premio Nacional Eugenio Espejo'' ("Eugenio Espejo National Award") is the national prize of the nation of Ecuador. Decrees 677 and 699 (of August 1975 and September 1997, respectively) established the prize, which is conferred by the President ...

, in the category Creations, Achievements or Activities in area of Culture and the Arts, conferred by the President of Ecuador, September 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Manzano, Álvaro 1955 births 2022 deaths Ecuadorian conductors (music) Male conductors (music) Ecuadorian composers People from Ambato, Ecuador