Santiago Vera-Rivera (born November 2, 1950) (also known as ''Santiago Vera Rivera'', without hyphen) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an composer, teacher and musical researcher.

Education

Vera-Rivera began his studies in composition at the Arts Faculty of the

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

, under composers Carlos Botto, Alfonso Letelier, Juan Amenábar, Juan Lemann and Cirilo Vila.

Career

He has taught at all educational levels in Chile and gave courses in Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Spain. At the present time he is a permanent teacher and Director of the Departamento de Educación Musical at the Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación (UMCE), the

and the Instituto Interamericano de Educación Musical (Inter-American Music Education Institute), a Chile-based organism of the Organization of American States (OAS).

Academic posts

Vera-Rivera was a founding member of prestigious authors and academic institutions, some of which he represented in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Sweden, France and England. In 1987, he was elected President of the Asociación Nacional de Compositores de Chile (ANC). On May 25, 1998, he was nominated as full member and for period 2000-06 Executive Secretary of the Academia Chilena de Bellas Artes of the Instituto de Chile, at present holding the post of President for period 2007–10.

Works

He has written more than 80 works for different genres, including the contemporary pieces '' Apocalíptika II'' for string orchestra and

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 keybo ...

, '' Apocalíptika III'' (1991) for

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, c ...

and

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

, and '' Silogístika I'' (1989), for flute and acoustic guitar, "Glípticas" for string quartet (1999). "Refocilaciones" (2007), for guitar will be released World Premiere in London in the month of July by the prestigious Chilean guitarist Luis Orlandini. He was the founder and director of SVR Producciones, a recording label created in 1987 to publish Chilean and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

n concert and folk music from the 20th century. His repertoire includes more than 70 musical works for almost all genres. Several of them have received national and international awards. Most of his work has been edited and performed in Chile, United States, Europe and Oceania. In 1987, he composed the first Mass for choir, soloists, traditional instruments and orchestra in Honor of

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

. In 1989, his "Apocalíptika II" for string orchestra and piano was selected by an international jury among 589 musical compositions from all over the world for the World Music Days Oslo-90; its premiere took place in Oslo (Norway) in September 1990. By the end of 1993, his "Silogístika II" for voice (alto), clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano obtained the highest score in it category in the sixth edition of the contemporary Latin American music festival Trimalca (Tribuna Musical de América Latina y el Caribe) that took place in Mar del Plata (Argentina).

Notable awards and recognitions

In 1996, he obtained the first prize in the competition of the National Federation of Chilean Choirs for the harmonization of the song "Arranca, Arranca", by

Violeta Parra Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (; 4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena (The Chilean New Song), a renewal an ...

. His harmonization of another song by Violeta Parra, "Gracias a la Vida", was performed for the first official visit of a President of Finland to Chile on March 5, 1997 at the

Municipal Theater of Santiago The Teatro Municipal, National Opera of Chile is the most important stage theatre and opera house in Santiago, Chile. History and overview The Chilean government ceded a significant parcel of land in downtown Santiago to the municipality, in 184 ...

by the Finnish artists Johanna Rusanen (soprano) and Ilkka Paananen (piano). In 1998, Santiago Vera-Rivera composed "Sonata al Jazz", dedicated to Walter "Pee Wee" Hunt. In recognition for his production and distribution of Chilean and Latin American classical music (música docta), Vera-Rivera was awarded in 2004 with the Prize of the Consejo Chileno de la Música (Chilean Council of Music), affiliated to the International Music Council of the

Unesco The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

. The year 2006 SVR Producciones received the Prize of the Critic by "Their permanent work of diffusion of works of composers and interpreters of learned music". In 2009, Santiago Vera-Rivera, director of SVR Producciones, received the Chilean award ''Prize of the President of Republic 2009'', in the category Phonographic Production.

External links

SVR Producciones

Programme of First Chilean Guitar Festival 2007Glípticas para Cuarteto de Cuerdas

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vera-Rivera, Santiago 1950 births Living people Chilean composers Chilean male composers 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers People from Santiago University of Oviedo alumni Male classical composers 20th-century male musicians 21st-century male musicians