THE INFLUENCE OF PUERTO RICAN MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES Guest Speaker: Dr. Raymond Torres-Santos

EARLY PUERTO RICAN INVOLVEMENT IN THE U.S. CLASSICAL MUSIC SCENE

Now, significant evidence of Puerto Rican presence in North America by the time was not really found. It is understood, however, the migration at that time was rather modest. The first direct impact is seen through education, performance and general exposure of composers and musicians in the United States. At the end of the 19th Century, noted pianist and composer Gonzalo Nuñez migrated to New York and became a very respectable teacher. In 1900 when North American troops camped in Utuado, Puerto Rico, a young musician by the name of Luis Rodriguez Miranda was hired, first as a soloist and later as a conductor in 1914, and continued a very successful career as an arranger/composer for the U.S. Army. I´ve seen compositions by this gentleman and he wrote so many compositions and arrangements for the U.S. Army that it´s really unbelievable. So he was very [much] a part of the U.S. Army band history. Between 1901 and 1902 famous tenor Antonio Paoli sang with much success in Boston, New York and Philadelphia along with the great Italian composer Pietro Mascagni. Also in this year, noted composer Braulio Dueño Colón won the diploma and medal at the Buffalo Exposition for his Cantos Escolares and composer Rafael Balseiro Dávila won similarly with his concert waltz El Niagara. Conductor and composer Francisco Cortés; received praises and distinctions in New York, where we are, and where he had actually become a very respected professional in music. In 1917, it´s interesting that child prodigy Jesús Maria Sanromá graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory of Music where he won the Mason and Hamlin Award and gave a successful recital in Boston in 1924. Interesting enough is also knowing that he was for many years the pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the noted Russian conductor Sergei Koussevitzky. He also was a collaborator with George Gershwin, premiering for the first time with the Boston Pops Rhapsody in Blue and also Concerto in F by George Gershwin who you may know as a very important composer. He was also acquainted and friends of other great musicians of the time such as Paul Hindemith and Walter Piston and was praised for the premieres of North American primary recordings. In fact, his recordings of the piano concerto by American composer Edward MacDowell are considered a very basic and anthological reference.

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