Sebastian Santa Maria (September 24, 1959-October 20, 1996) was a Chilean-Swiss musician. He was born in 1959 in

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...

, but settled in

Lausanne, Switzerland , neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR ...

at age 17. He played the

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 ...

in several clubs in Lausanne until beginning a fertile career as a composer, composing a number of songs including some made for

Catherine Lara Catherine Lara (born Catherine Bodet; 29 May 1945) is a French violinist, composer, singer, and author. Over a career spanning more than five decades, she has established herself as an icon in French pop/rock music as well as the neo-classical g ...

Bernard Lavilliers Bernard Oulion (; born 7 October 1946 in Saint-Étienne), known professionally as Bernard Lavilliers (), is a French singer-songwriter and actor. Discography Albums Studio albums * ''Premiers pas...'' (1968) * ''Les poètes'' (1972) * ''Le St� ...

, for Viktor Lazlo's album

My Delicious Poisons ''My Delicious Poisons'' is the fourth studio album by French-Belgian singer Viktor Lazlo. A French version of the album was recorded and released in France, entitled ''Mes Poisons Délicieux''. The album was not as successful as its predecessors ...

and

Isabelle Adjani Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for '' Possession'' (1981), '' ...

. Beside these composer activities, he also played numerous piano duet jazz concerts with François Lindemann, and a few years later he founded with Lindemann a unique group of seven Steinways called Piano Seven. He also participated on the reincarnation of British band

The Zombies The Zombies are an English rock band formed in the early 1960s in St Albans and led by keyboardist and vocalist Rod Argent and vocalist Colin Blunstone. The group had a British and American hit in 1964 with "She's Not There". In the US, two fu ...

, playing on their 1991 album, ''

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

''. As a solo artist, he released a few singles and one full-length album (''

Latino Latino or Latinos most often refers to: * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America * Hispanic and Latino Americans in the United States * The people or cultures of Latin America; ** Latin A ...

'', 1994). A second album, ''

Corpus Corpus is Latin for "body". It may refer to: Linguistics * Text corpus, in linguistics, a large and structured set of texts * Speech corpus, in linguistics, a large set of speech audio files * Corpus linguistics, a branch of linguistics Music * ...

'', was released posthumously in 1997. Santa Maria died of

adrenoleukodystrophy Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a disease linked to the X chromosome. It is a result of fatty acid buildup caused by peroxisomal fatty acid beta oxidation which results in the accumulation of very long chain fatty acids in tissues throughout the bo ...

in 1996 in Lausanne.

External links

Official webpage

Latino
* 1959 births 1996 deaths Swiss male composers Chilean composers Chilean male composers 20th-century male musicians The Lucky Strikes members The Zombies members 20th-century Swiss composers {{chile-composer-stub