Rubén Colón Tarrats (b. 1940) is a Puerto Rican

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 ...

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

player and

band director A music(al) director or director of music is the person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert band, the di ...

from

Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...

. He also conducted the

Banda Municipal de Ponce The Ponce Municipal Band (Spanish: ''Banda Municipal de Ponce''), also known as ''Centenaria Banda Municipal de Ponce'', is the band of the municipality of Ponce, Puerto Rico. The band is the oldest continuously-performing band in the Caribbean ...

for ten years. He received his music training at Escuela Libre de Música de Ponce, Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico, and Temple University College of Music, and was a music professor at

Ponce High School The Ponce High School is public educational institution in Ponce, Puerto Rico, offering grades nine through twelve. The school's main building is a historic structure located on Cristina Street, in the Ponce Historic Zone. From its beginning t ...

, Instituto de Musica Juan Morel Campos, and

Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Puerto Rico The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico) is a private Roman Catholic university with its main campus in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It provides courses leading to Bachelor's, Master's and Docto ...

. During a music career that spanned half a century, he directed over a dozen choirs, composed over 200 works of music, founded music institutes and music festivals, directed numerous orchestras, presented concerts spanning the

Western Hemisphere The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the term We ...

, and was president of the Puerto Rican Association of Choir Directors. Upon his retirement from active music life, he was honored by many artists, educators, and politicians, and was also honored by the

Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture ( es, Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña), or ICP, for short, is an institution of the Government of Puerto Rico responsible for the establishment of the cultural policies required in order to study, preser ...

and the Ponce Municipal Government.

Early years

Rubén Colón Tarrats was born on 9 March 1940 in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

, while his parents, both

Puerto Ricans Puerto Ricans ( es, Puertorriqueños; or boricuas) are the people of Puerto Rico, the inhabitants, and citizens of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and their descendants. Overview The culture held in common by most Puerto Ricans is referred t ...

, were visiting relatives in the Big Apple. His parents were Isaac Colón and Luz María Tarrats, both from Ponce. His family, including little Ruben Colón Tarrats, returned to Ponce before Colón Tarrats was a year old and he subsequently started his

grade school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

in the public schools of the Ciudad Señorial.

Training

Colón Tarrats studied music at Ponce's Escuela Libre de Música under Emilio Alvarado,

Librado Net Librado Net Pérez (1895-1964) was a Puerto Rican musician, educator and painter from Ponce, Puerto Rico. He was the first director of the Escuela Libre de Música de Ponce, considered the best of Puerto Rico's free Music Schools at the time. ...

, and Rafael Franco. After graduating from

, he entered Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico (UIA) where majored in music and learned music composition, choir conducting, and how to play the

, among various other music studies. He joined the university choir and sang first bass in a group called Interamerican Concert Singers. He became associate director of said Singers group and toured the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

, and

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

. He graduated from UIA in 1963 with a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

and entered a

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

program in Music at

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

, where he was a student of David L. Stone, founder of Temple University's Music College. At Temple, he was a member of the Opera and Concert Choir. He graduated from Temple in 1965 with an M.Mus. degree. Banda Municipal de Ponce, Puerto Rico (DSC05337)

Banda Municipal de Ponce, Puerto Rico (DSC05337)

Music career

Upon graduating from Temple, he joined the

Puerto Rico Department of Education The Puerto Rico Department of Education (PRDOE; ) is one of the statewide public education system in the United States, with (Hawaii being the other). The PRDOE is the state education agency in charge of managing public schools in Puerto Rico as ...

as a music teacher and school choir director in Ponce, where he taught at various Ponce public high schools and also lead the schools' choirs. While a music teacher, he created the ''Octeto de Ponce'', a musical group of eight singers. He also joined the ''Vocal Instrumental Ars Nova'' and the ''Coral Polifónica de Ponce.'' During 1980 and 1981, he co-founded the

Instituto de Música Juan Morel Campos Instituto de Música Juan Morel Campos (English: Juan Morel Campos Music Institute), formerly known as Escuela Libre de Música de Ponce (English: Ponce Free School of Music), is a musical arts institution in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is an institu ...

where he also became professor of choir and

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

. Among his students are Marilucy Rodríguez (director of Universidad de Puerto Rico-Ponce Choir), Alexander Rodríguez (director of Coro de la Academia Cristo Rey), Dennis Valdés-Brito Díaz (director of the

and Universidad Interamericana-Ponce choirs), Víctor Quiles (director

Choir), Hugo Adames (Director

Coro de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico The Coro de Cámara de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico (English: Resident Choir of the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico), more commonly referred to as the Coro de la PUCPR or simply El Coro de la Católica, is the ...

Choir), José Rafael Morales and Mayte Morales Frau (co-directors of La Coral Municipal de Ponce). From 1983 to 1999 he was director of the ''Coral Polifónica de Ponce'' and while under his direction, ''Coral Polifónica'' competed at the ''Festival Coral America Canta'' in

Mar del Plata, Argentina Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a sh ...

, in 1983 and, in 1999, at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In 1993-1994 he was choir director of the ''Coro de la Universidad Interamericana'' in Ponce and from 1994 to 1995 he was president of the Puerto Rican Association of Choir Directors. In 1994, he joined the teaching staff at the

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico) is a private Roman Catholic university with its main campus in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It provides courses leading to Bachelor's, Master's and Doct ...

(PUCPR) and became the school's choir director. Under his leadership, the choir at the PUCPR recorded its first DVD of Christmas carols. In 2003, former Ponce mayor

Rafael Cordero Santiago Rafael Cordero Santiago (24 October 1942 – 17 January 2004), better known as "Churumba", was the Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Ponce, Puerto Rico, from 1989 to 2004. Many considered him as a synonym of Ponce, being baptized as "El León Mayor ...

named him director of the

, an orchestra that he conducted until November 2013. In 2006 he co-founded ''Festival Internacional de Coros “Descubre a Puerto Rico y su Música Coral”'', and international musical festival that takes places yearly in Ponce. In 2009, he created the ''Coral Municipal de Ponce'' for the Ponce Municipal Government, directing it until 2013. Also in 2009, he was a

visiting professor In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

of music at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo in the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

promoted by the United States Embassy in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 (Distrito Nacional) , websi ...

Honors and legacy

Upon his retirement as director of the Banda Municipal de Ponce and the ''Coral Municipal de Ponce'' in November 2013, the municipality of Ponce honored him with a commemorative celebration at

Teatro La Perla Teatro La Perla is a historic theater in the city of Ponce, Puerto Rico. Inaugurated in 1864, it is the second oldest theater of its kind in Puerto Rico, but "the largest and most historic in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean." The theater was name ...

, attended by over 1,000 guests. The commemorative sketch for the occasion was a work by Wichie Torres. On 13 December 2013 Colón Tarrats was recognized by the Municipality of Ponce as one of its illustrious citizens. He is recognized at the Ponce Tricentennial Park for his contributions to music. In 2015, he was also honored by the

.''Primer Festival Coral festeja sesenta años del ICP.''
Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. ''circa'' 1 April 2015.

Works

Colón Tarrats has authored nearly 200 chorals many of which are about Puerto Rican

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

, among which are several by Rafael Hernández Marín including El Cumbanchero, Silencio, Capullito de Alelí, Preciosa,

Lamento Borincano "Lamento Borincano" ('Puerto Rican Lament') is Rafael Hernández Marín's acclaimed composition in Puerto Rico's patriotic tradition. It takes its name from the free musical form Lament (Latin, ''lāmentor''), and from Borinquen, an indigenous n ...

, Romance, y Ahora Seremos Felices. * Fantasía de Navidad, a musical (1986) * Cantares Navideños * Padre Nuestro * Guakia Baba * Shema Yisrael * Salmo 46 * Dios mi Dios * Pueblo de Israel * Adonai Roi * Oración de San Francisco * Regalo de Reyes * Ruiseñor * Navidad Borincana * Plegaria de Navidad * Tributo Musical a Puerto Rico * 25 de Enero

Notes

References

External links

'' ¡Canta a la esperanza el Festival! Sandra Torres Guzmán. La Perla del Sur. 21 March 2012. Accessed 10 May 2016.''