Amadeo Roldán (1900-1939)

Born in Paris on July 12, 1900 adopting Cuban citizenship (mother), and died on March 2, 1939. He is one of the most important symphonic musicians of Cuba.

At the early age of 17 years, he obtained the first prize from the Conservatory of Music and Declamation of Madrid as violinist, and two years before he opted successfully for Sarasate prize, one of the most wanted Spanish music prizes of that context. In Cuba he occupied the first viola music stands in the Symphonic Orchestra of Havana on July 1922, and later, with the creation of the Philharmonic, the stands of first violin.

His fructiferous work inside the creation field, as well as his never well satiated esthetic requirements, made him incursion into diverse genres: symphonic, chamber, ballets and for voice and piano works.

In 1928 Roldan created a partiture that excellently reflected the two main elements that integrate the Cuban nationality, the Spanish and the African: La Rebambarama, a ballet based upon a script by Alejo Carpentier which has been considered the most famous work of the composer and the most successful within his national creations.

He worked rigorously as educator in the Harmony and Composition Cathedra in the Municipal Conservatory of Havana. Among his merits as conductor, it was said that he was able to perform in Cuba the Mozart’s Overture of Magic Flute or Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony for the first time, without forgetting neither the Cuban composers nor the ones who at that moment were considered modern and of universal prestige such as Ravel, Stravinsky, and Debussy among others.

Amadeo Roldán was closely related to Nicolás Guillén’s poetic work with Los motivos del Son, played by him in the Town Hall of New York. Amadeo composed many works in the symphony, ballet and instrumental combinations fields. Some of his most well known works: La Rebambaramba, El Milagro de Anaquillé, Tres pequeños poemas,Rítmica no. 5, Serenata Andaluza, among others.

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