Nationality: Mexican

20th Century Mexican

BERNAL JIMÉNEZ, Miguel

Born in Morelia, Michoacán, Feb 16, 1910;
León, Guanajuato, July 26, 1956

Miguel Bernal Jiménez [pronunciation] is revered as a composer of sacred music with conservative stylistic traits and an overriding sense of Mexican Nationalism.
At 18, Jiménez was sent to Rome to study at the Pontificio Istituto di Musica Sacra. He completed his degree in 1933 in organ, composition, and Gregorian chant.
In his professional career, Jiménez was an active educator and lecturer, in addition to composing and conducting. In 1939, he founded the Schola Cantorum magazine, the first periodical to publish musicological, musical, and educational material.
- Like Carlos Chávez, Jiménez fought for increased access to music, particularly sacred music.
- From 1954 until his death, Jiménez taught at Loyola University, New Orleans.
As a composer, Jiménez wrote ballets, opera, symphonic works, organ works, and sacred vocal music.¹

Pieces

Tres cartas de de México

Late Romantic Mexican

CAMPA, Gustavo E.

Born in Mexico City, Sept 8, 1863
Died in Mexico City, Oct 29, 1934

Campa taught composition at Mexico City Conservatory, and also edited a music journal for a Mexico City music publisher.¹
He was honored by the Mexican government: ²
- In 1884 his Himno sinfónico was played at the opening of the Mexican National Library
- In 1900 he served as a delegate to an international congress in Paris.
Campa was part of a group of composers who called themselves The Group of Six who wanted to promote “Mexican composers’ aesthetic principles, so as to create a truly national art.”³

Short biography

Pieces

Melody for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 1

Romantic Mexican

CASTRO HERRERA, Ricardo

Born in Nazas, Durango State, Feb 7, 1864
Died in Mexico City, Nov 28, 1907

Castro Herrera was a Mexican pianist, composer, teacher, who studied at Mexico City Conservatory.
Castro Herrera toured internationally as pianist, and became director of the Mexico City Conservatory in 1907.¹

Pieces

Atzimba

20th Century Modernist Mexican

CHÁVEZ, Carlos

Born in Mexico City, June 13, 1899
Died in Mexico City, Aug 2, 1978

Chávez’s musical career spanned more than 50 years. As a composer, Chávez wrote over 200 works, including ballets, symphonies, concertos, a cantata and opera, and many pieces for voice, piano, and chamber ensemble.
- As a conductor, he led nearly every major orchestra in the US, Latin America, and Europe.
Chávez’s coming of age coincided with the end of the Mexican Revolution in 1921, after which a new cultural nationalism emerged with particular emphasis on the pre-Conquest era indigenous Indian cultures. This cultural shift greatly impacted Chávez’s music, fusing native Mexican music and instruments with modernist techniques.
Chávez was an invaluable advocate for increased access to the arts in Mexico. As founder and head of the Orquesta Sinfónica de México (OSM), Chávez organized concerts for workers and children and even took the orchestra out to Mexican provinces, bringing music to many audiences experiencing classical music for the first time.¹

“As a composer, Chávez is often linked in the United States to his good friend and contemporary, iconic American musician Aaron Copland. Both composers worked to create a distinct musical sound world that spoke to their home countries at a time when Europe was seen as the only serious and legitimate contributor to classical music.”
L. A. Phil²

Learn More
Short biography via Wise Music Classical

Pieces

Piano Concerto

20th Century Mexican

DOMINGUEZ, Alberto

Born in Chiapas, 21 April 1913
Died in Mexico City, 2 Sept 1975

Mexican composer Alberto Dominguez was a founding member of the Sociedad de Autores y Compositores de México (Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico).
Fun fact – Dominguez studied composition with Silvestre Revueltas.¹

Pieces

Perfidia

20th Century Mexican

LARA, Agustín

Born in Tlacotalpan, Veracruz, 30 Oct 1897
Died in Mexico City, 6 Nov 1970

Agustín Lara was an internationally famous singer-songwriter. His songs have been covered by some of the most famous musicians of the 20th century, including Frank Sinatra, Mario Lanza, and Enrico Caruso.¹

Learn More
Lara’s obituary in the NY Times

Pieces

Granada

Contemporary Mexican

MÁRQUEZ, Arturo

Márquez studied at the Conservatorio Nacional in Mexico, privately in Paris, and at California Institute of the Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Márquez has served as leader of the Navojoa Municipal Band and a composition teacher at the Escuela Nacional de Música.
Márquez has written many mixed-media works (theater, dance, film) as well as concert music incorporating popular styles.¹

Pieces

20th Century Mexican

MONCAYO, José Pablo

Born in Guadalajara, June 29, 1912
Died in Mexico City, June 15, 1958

Moncayo studied with Carlos Chávez at the Mexico City Conservatory. He also took composition lessons with Aaron Copland in 1942.
Moncayo formed the Group of Four with three other Mexican composers in 1934: the group wanted to foster a nationalist school of Mexican music (cf. Russia’s “The Five” and France’s “Les six”)
Moncayo also conducted the National Symphony Orchestra (then called the Mexican Symphony Orchestra) from 1949-1954.¹

Pieces

Huapango

Late Romantic Mexican

PONCE, Manuel

Born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Dec 8, 1882
Died in Mexico City, April 24, 1948

Full name: Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar

Ponce was recognized as the leading Mexican composer of his time, instrumental in helping to create a Mexican national style.
As a young man, Ponce was a church chorister and organist. He then went on to study music in Mexico City, then in Bologna, Italy, and then in Berlin, before returning to Mexico. He also visited France from 1925-1933 to refresh his compositional style, studying with Dukas and collaborating with Andrès Segovia.
Ponce served at the Conservatorio Nacional in Mexico City as a piano professor, and latterly as its Director.
Ponce was a lecturer on musicology, especially Mexican music. He also edited Mexican music publications and wrote extensively on musical topics.¹

Short biography

Pieces

20th Century Mexican

REVUELTAS, Silvestre

Born in Santiago Papasquiaro, Durango, Dec 31, 1899
Died in Mexico City, Oct 5, 1940

Revueltas was a violinist, composer and conductor.
Revueltas was the assistant conductor of the Mexico Symphony Orchestra from 1929-35, and he also taught at Mexico City Conservatory.¹

Pieces

Romantic Mexican

ROSAS, Juventino

Born in Santa Cruz de Galeana, 23 or Jan 25, 1868
Died in Batabanó, Cuba, July 13, 1894

Rosas was a member of the Otomí, an indigenous people of Mexico.
Rosas got his start in music as the violinist in his family’s quartet (his father played the harp, one brother played guitar, the other brother sang).
Rosas held several small orchestra appointments and eventually moved to Mexico City and became a successful composer of salon music, including waltzes, polkas and mazurkas.¹

Pieces

Sobre las olas (Over the Waves, aka “The Anniversary Waltz”)

Romantic Mexican

VILLANUEVA, Felipe

Full name: Felipe de Jesús Villanueva Gutiérrez

Born February 5, 1862 in Santa Cruz Tecamac, Mexico
Died May 28, 1893, Mexico City

Villanueva was a Mexican violinist, pianist, and composer. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City.¹
Along with Gustavo Campa and several other Mexican composers,² Villanueva formed a “Group of Six” dedicated to Mexican nationalism in music. In 1887 Villanueva, Campa and others founded a new Mexican school of music for young people.³
Villanueva created the musical genre of danza mexicana. It was partly inspired by the contradanza habanera, popularized by Ignatio Cervantes.⁴
Short biography from Naxos

Pieces

Sueño Dorado: Mazurka