Ramiro Cortés Jr. (25 November 1933 – 2 July 1984) was an American composer. Cortés was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1933 to Ramiro Cortés, Sr. and Elvira Cortés (née Acosta). He studied with

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

, Richard Donovan,

Ingolf Dahl Ingolf Dahl (June 9, 1912 – August 6, 1970) was a German-born American composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Biography Dahl was born Walter Ingolf Marcus in Hamburg, Germany, to a German Jewish father, attorney Paul Marcus, and his Swed ...

Vittorio Giannini Vittorio Giannini (October 19, 1903 – November 28, 1966) was an American neoromantic composer of operas, songs, symphonies, and band works. Life and work Giannini was born in Philadelphia on October 19, 1903. He began as a violinist under the t ...

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...

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, and, in Rome on a Fulbright Fellowship, with

Goffredo Petrassi Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 3 March 2003) was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.Petrassi, Goffredo. (2008). ...

. He worked for a brief period in the 1960s as a computer programmer, and then taught composition at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

(1966–67),

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(1967–72), and the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

(1972–84). He died of heart failure in Salt Lake city on 2 July 1984. His earlier compositions employed serial technique, but beginning in the late 1960s he turned to a freer form of chromatic

atonality Atonality in its broadest sense is music that lacks a tonal center, or key. ''Atonality'', in this sense, usually describes compositions written from about the early 20th-century to the present day, where a hierarchy of harmonies focusing on a s ...

. He was "perhaps the first Mexican-American composer of classical music to earn an international reputation."

Works (selective list)

*Piano Sonata no. 1 (1954) *''Sinfonia sacra'' (1954/59) *Chamber Concerto for Cello and 12 Winds (1957–58/78) *''Prometheus'', opera, after Aeschylus (1960) *String Quartet no. 1 (1962) *''Three Movements for Five Winds'', for wind quintet (1967–68) *''Rêve parisien'' (text: Baudelaire), for soprano and string quartet (1971–72) *Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1975) *Piano Sonata no. 3 (1979) *String Quartet no. 2 (1983) *''Music for Strings'' (1983)

Sources

* *Pitt, Roland Charles. 1990. "The Piano Music of Ramiro Cortés." DMA Dissertation. Austin: University of Texas.
Ramiro Cortés papers and recordings in University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cortes, Ramiro 20th-century classical composers 1933 births 1984 deaths UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music faculty University of Southern California faculty University of Utah faculty American male classical composers American classical composers American musicians of Mexican descent American opera composers Male opera composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians Hispanic and Latino American musicians