Ricardo Castillo (October 1, 1891,

Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is both the seat of the namesake Department and municipality, in Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It may ...

— May 27, 1966,

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...

) was a Guatemalan

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Life and career

Born in the city of

in the western highlands of

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

, Ricardo Castillo is the younger brother of composer of Jesús Castillo. Demonstrating a talent and love for music as a child, his mother sent him to France to study the subject in 1906 at the age of 14. He remained in Europe for the next 16 years. There he studied violin in Paris with Narcisse-Augustin Lefort and

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

with

Paul Vidal Paul Antonin Vidal (16 June 1863 – 9 April 1931) was a French composer, conductor and music teacher mainly active in Paris.Charlton D. Paul Vidal. In: ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.'' Macmillan, London and New York, 1997. Life and caree ...

. Eventually his studies moved away from the violin entirely and he focused solely on music composition; publishing his first compositions for solo piano during this period in Paris. In 1918 Castillo married the French pianist Georgette Contoux Quante who had graduated with honors from the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

where she had studied under

Alfred Cortot Alfred Denis Cortot (; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poeti ...

. The couple moved to Guatemala in 1922 and two years later Castillo joined the faculty of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Guatemala City as a professor of harmony, music history, and composition; a position he maintained until his retirement in 1960. In 1948 Castillo submitted entries under

pseudonyms A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person or group assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true name (orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individua ...

in all three categories of the Science, Literature and Arts National Contest in Guatemala; and won all three prizes. He won the arts prize again in 1951 with his ''Eight piano Preludes''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castillo, Ricardo 1891 births 1966 deaths Guatemalan composers