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Latin American Students at the Tanglewood Music Center

U.S. composer Aaron Copland was the Director of Composition at the Tanglewood Music Center nearly continuously from 1940-1965. His interest in Latin American musicians and U.S.-American musical relationships would foster the arrival of the first Latin American students at the fledgling Berkshire Music Center in 1941, the continued post-War attendance of Latin American students through the remainder of the 1940s, and Mexican composer Carlos Chávez’s position on the faculty in 1953.

In 1933, Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor Policy removed U.S. military presence from Latin American countries and turned towards cultural diplomacy, which aimed to cement international relations through artistic exchange and promotion. One such agency established in 1940 was the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. Through Copland’s recommendation, this agency enabled the first Latin American students (five in total) to attend the Berkshire Music Center in 1941, including composer Blas Galindo. After the war, Copland continued to help obtain scholarships for Latin American composers to attend the Berkshire Music Center, including Alberto Ginastera, Pia Sebastiani (the first woman Latin American composition fellow), and Juan Orrego-Salas. Instrumentalists and conductors also continued to attend, including Aldo Parisot (cello), Jorge Mester (violin), Luis Biava (violin), and Eduardo Mata (conducting).

As government sources of sponsorship died down, other funding sources arose. In 1977, Saville Ryan established a scholarship fund in honor of her late fiancé, the Argentinian playwright Omar Del Carlo. Several musicians from Latin America, including composer Osvaldo Golijov (1990) attended Tanglewood on the Omar Del Carlo Tanglewood Fellowship. Other Latin American students of note (not sponsored by the Del Carlo scholarship) have included Tania León (1978), who co-curated the 2024 Festival of Contemporary Music, and Marcos Balter (2005), who will serve on the Tanglewood Music Center’s Composition Faculty in 2025.

Program book for a chamber concert featuring music by five Latin American composers studying at Tanglewood in 1946

Program of Latin American Chamber music on August 4, 1946, featuring the music of five Tanglewood Music Center Fellows

Roque Cordero (Panama), Juan Orrego-Salas (Chile), Héctor Tosar (Uruguay), Alberto Ginastera (Argentina), and Julián Orbón (Cuba) all studied conducting or composition at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1946.

"During my three weeks at Tanglewood, the daily experience of each of us being able to discuss our music with colleagues and to study the many problems confronted by serious music in our various countries, was a very rewarding aspect of this gathering of young Latin American musicians that summer of 1946."

Roque Cordero, class of 1946

Some Students Returned as Visiting Composers or Artists...

Aldo Parisot returned to Tanglewood in 1966 as a soloist in the Festival of Contemporary American Music.

Listen: Excerpt from Aldo Parisot performing David Martino's "Parisonatina al’Dodecafonia" at Tanglewood in 1966

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"The experience of Tanglewood --first in 1946 as a student-- and then, in 1954 as a visiting composer....has been constantly present in my memories. The feelings of artistic richness and of human warmth, and the image of a friendly and peaceful landscape are often revived."

Juan Orrega-Salas, class of 1946

Carlos Chávez at Tanglewood: 1950s-1960s

Composers Aaron Copland and Carlos Chavez

Aaron Copland and Carlos Chávez. Photograph courtesy of Library of Congress

Copland met Chávez in 1926 during the latter’s second residency in New York City. They would maintain a friendship for over 50 years. Both composers wished to depart from European sounds to establish a national identity for their respective countries. Chávez first came to Tanglewood in 1953 where he joined Aaron Copland and Irving Fine on the composition faculty at the Berkshire Music Center. He appeared back on campus in 1964, where a photo captures him eating and talking with visiting conductor Seiji Ozawa and Aaron Copland.

Listen: Excerpt from Carlos Chávez conducting the BSO in his Sinfonía India at Symphony Hall on April 3, 1959

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Listen: Excerpt of Andris Nelsons conducting the BSO in Tania León's "Stride" at Tanglewood on July 27, 2024

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Listen: Excerpt of Robert Spano conducting the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and soprano Dawn Upshaw in Osvaldo Golijov's "Ainadamar," a BSO commission, at Tanglewood on August 11, 2003

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Listen: Excerpt of Tanglewood Music Center Fellows performing Marcos Balter's "Wicker Park" as part of the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood on July 28, 2024

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