Amadeo Roldán Gardes

1900 - 1939

About

Born in Paris, Amadeo Roldán y Gardes was the son of Afro-Cuban pianist Albertina Gardes and a Spaniard father. He spent his early life in Madrid, attending the Conservatorio de Música on the violin, where he won the prestigious Sarasate prize. Upon graduating, Roldán spent several years working as a violinist with the Orquestra Filarmónica de Madrid while continuing private composition studies. On moving to Havana in 1919, he quickly joined several local orchestras, rising to concertmaster of the Orquesta Filarmonica and eventually, upon the death of his former teacher, it's conductor.

While much of his music successfully fuses European orchestral idioms with rhythmic and harmonic qualities of indigenous Cuban music, he also pioneered a genre in which these traits could speak largely for themselves, the percussion ensemble, which was being concurrently explored by Edgard Varèse. In fact, just three years later, Roldán would help arrange a performance of Varése’s work in Havana through his association with Nicolas Slominsky, who had championed Roldán's work in Europe and America. Roldán’s series of Ritmicas helped set the trend for incorporating the rhythmic elements of ethnic musical traditions into Western concert music.

Roldán founded the Havana String Quartet and the Escuela National de Musica; he directed the Havana Conservatory for two years, and continued to teach there until his death in 1939.

Related Information

https://www.peermusicclassical.com/roster/11965

Works by Amadeo Roldán Gardes