Lavista, Mario
Biography
Born: April 03, 1943
Country: Mexico City, Mexico
Studies: National Conservatory of Music (1963-67, Mexico), Schola Cantorum (1967-69, Paris), Reinische Musikschule (1969, Köln)
Teachers: Carlos Chávez, Rodolfo Halffter, Héctor Quintanar, Jean-Etienne Marie
Mexican composer of mostly orchestral, chamber, vocal, and piano works that have been performed throughout the world; he is also active as a writer.
Prof. Lavista is the nephew of the composer Raúl Lavista (b. 1912 – d. 1980). He studied piano with Adelina Benítez and Francisco Gyves in Mexico City as a child. He studied analysis with Rodolfo Halffter and composition with Carlos Chávez and Héctor Quintanar at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City from 1963–67, on a grant from the Secretaría de Educación Pública in Mexico City. He then studied analysis with Jean-Étienne Marie at the Schola Cantorum in Paris from 1967–69, on a scholarship from the government of France. He also attended a seminar on analysis with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1968, courses with Christoph Caskel, Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne in 1968 and the Ferienkurse in Darmstadt in 1969, where he encountered György Ligeti.
Among his honours are the Diosa de Plata from the Asociación de Periodistas y Críticos de Cine (1978, for Flores de papel, shared with Raúl Lavista), a grant from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (1987–88), the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in Mexico (1991), the Medalla Mozart in Mexico (1991), and the Diploma de la Unión Mexicana de Cronistas de Teatro y Música (1999, for his œuvre). In addition, he has been a member of the Academia de Artes de México in Mexico City since 1987, an emeritus composer of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) since 1993 and a member of El Colegio Nacional in Mexico City since 1998.
As a writer, he has contributed articles and essays to numerous publications, many of which appear in Mario Lavista: textos en torno a la música (1988, second edition, 1990, edited by Luis Jaime Cortez, CENIDIM). His other writings include the lecture El Lenguaje del músico (1999, El Colegio Nacional). He founded the music journal Talea at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City in 1975 and served as its editor in 1975–76. He later founded the music journal Pauta in Mexico in 1982 and has served as its editor since 1982.
He is also active in other positions. He founded the improvisational ensemble Quanta in 1970 and performed as its pianist from 1970–73. He worked at the studio for electronic music of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City in 1970 and the studio for electronic music of NHK in Tōkyō in 1971–72. He has been a member of the board of editors of Ediciones Mexicanas de Música since 1979 and a regular collaborator with the Ballet Nacional de México in Mexico City since 1988. He co-founded the Asociación de Amigos del Museo Nacional del Virreinato in Tepotzotlán in 1988 and served as a musical advisor to the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes in Mexico City from 1990–98 and to the Instituto Cultural Domecq in Mexico City from 1994–98.
He taught music appreciation and 20th-century music at the Casa del Lago Juan José Arreola of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from 1965–67, where he later served as chair of the department of music of its Dirección de Difusión Cultural from 1974–76. He has taught as a professor of analysis of 20th-century music and composition at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City since 1970. He taught analysis, contemporary music, harmony, and musical culture at the music school Vida y Movimiento of the Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli in Mexico City from 1980–88.
In addition to the works listed below, Prof. Lavista has composed music for many TV productions and his music has often been used as the basis for dance productions.[1]
Works for Percussion
Marsias - Percussion Sextet; Oboe
Responsorio - Percussion Duo; Bassoon
References