Uberto Zanolli (1917–1994), the son of Amelia Pìa Balugani Vecchi and Luigi Zanolli Marcolini, was an Italo-Mexican

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 ...

, conductor and writer. An engineer official for the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

army during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he was a prisoner in

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

s for two years.

Biography

Uberto Zanolli, in his childhood, studied

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and composition in the Conservatories of

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Northern Italy, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and the ...

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

, and

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. At the age of 17, he made his professional debut as an orchestra director. After the war, Zanolli returned to artistic activities, working in some of the most important theatres in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Family

In 1944 his first son, Fausto, was born from his marriage with Elsa Angelini, from whom he was

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has Death, died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word ...

ed shortly after. From 1953, Zanolli lived in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and in 1959 he married Mexican

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...

Betty Fabila Betty Fabila (born 28 May 1929) is a Mexican retired soprano opera singer and biologist. Born in Mexico City, she studied at Mexico's National Conservatory of Music and the National School of Music at the National Autonomous University of Mexico ...

, becoming the father of the pianist

Betty Luisa Zanolli Fabila Betty Luisa Zanolli Fabila (born 1965 in Mexico City) is a Mexican of Italian descent pianist. She is the daughter of Italian-Mexican composer Uberto Zanolli and Mexican soprano Betty Fabila. Early life As a pianist and teacher, she specialized ...

Career

He was the

docent The title of docent is conferred by some European universities to denote a specific academic appointment within a set structure of academic ranks at or below the full professor rank, similar to a British readership, a French " ''maître de conf ...

of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (1958 - 1960); permanent orchestra director of the Academia de la Opera (1953 - 1960); title holder of the Coro de Bellas Artes (1959-1960) and the Orquesta del Teatro de Bellas Artes (1975). A

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

Mexican since 1957, Zanolli dedicated himself to magistery in diverse institutions. He was a professor in the Science faculty and, from 1957 until his death, he taught at the

Escuela Nacional Preparatoria The Escuela Nacional Preparatoria ( en, National Preparatory High School) (ENP), the oldest senior High School system in Mexico, belonging to the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), opened its doors on February 1, 1868. It was founded ...

, becoming the founder of the corrs La Viga and a General of the ENP (1967). From 1972 to 1987, he was the director of the Department of Music, and from 1987 to 1994, the General Coordinator of aesthetic activities of that institution. Uberto Zanolli was the founder and director of the Orquesta de Cámara de la ENP-

UNAM The National Autonomous University of Mexico ( es, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) is a public research university in Mexico. It is consistently ranked as one of the best universities in Latin America, where it's also the bigges ...

(1972 - 1994). Within the labor of the cultural diffusion that he created with the OCENP, he made the Didactic Concerts the principal mission. He presented an endless series of performances of composers from diverse times and nationalities, contributing especially to the divulgation of the contemporary Mexican composers. His name is connected to the rediscovery of an eighteenth-century composer,

Giacomo Facco Giacomo Facco (4 February 167616 February 1753) was an Italian Baroque violinist, conductor and composer. One of the most famous Italian composers of his day, he was completely forgotten until 1962, when his work was discovered by composer, condu ...

Awards

The President of Italy,

Antonio Segni Antonio Segni (; 2 February 1891 – 1 December 1972) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the president of Italy from May 1962 to December 1964 and the prime minister of Italy in two distinct terms between 1955 and 1960. A memb ...

, gave Zanolli the title of the Man of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (1962), and in Mexico, the Unión de Cronistas de Música y Teatro named him Musician of the Year (1963). He was a member of the Liga de Compositores Mexicanos de Música de Concierto, and recorded dozens of albums and media in the choral, symphonic and chamber genres with the companies CBS,

Musart Discos Musart is a Mexican record label founded in 1948. It is headquartered in Mexico City and remains one of the country's biggest labels, focusing on Mexican music, as well as international releases licensed from various labels around the world. ...

and Mexico's Voz Viva (

). Because of his important contribution in the play ''El Arte de la Fuga'' (The Art of the Fuga), by

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the '' Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard w ...

, of which he contributed in the transcription, interpretation, and instrumentation for the chamber orchestra, the Dirección General of the ENP granted him the Medalla de Oro al Mérito Académico (1975). He was also given the Águila de Tlatelolco de la Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores and, in 1986, the Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de la Música (CTM) granted him the Lira de Oro; the year in which the Escuela Nacional de Música (UNAM) gave him the Cátedra Extraordinaria Manuel M. Ponce.

Radio and television

He imparted televised courses and radio programs in which they show the cultural programs that he released for the

Instituto Politécnico Nacional The National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico ( es, Instituto Politécnico Nacional de México; ), abbreviated IPN, is one of the largest public universities in Mexico with 171,581 students at the high school, undergraduate and postgraduate level ...

in collaboration with his wife, Betty Fabila (1960 - 1962), like hundreds of

radio broadcast Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radio sta ...

s through XEN 690, a radio station for which he funded and lead the magazine ''Sele Música'' for many years. A Music critic since the age of 17, he collaborated in

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

s like '' Il Gazzetino di Venezia'', '' L'Arena di Verona'', '' Diario de la Nación'', ''

Zócalo The Zócalo () is the common name of the town square, main square in central Mexico City. Prior to the European colonization of the Americas, colonial period, it was the main ceremonial center in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. The plaza used t ...

'' and '' El Universal''. He participated in seminaries of academic actualization, and offered countless conferences and presentations within the university mark.

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zanolli, Uberto 1917 births 1994 deaths Italian classical composers Italian emigrants to Mexico Italian male classical composers Italian male conductors (music) Naturalized citizens of Mexico Mexican male classical composers Mexican classical composers Mexican conductors (music) Male conductors (music) People from Mexico City 20th-century Italian conductors (music) 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Italian composers 20th-century Italian male musicians