| Luis Szarán | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Luis Szarán |
| Born | September 24th, 1953 Encarnación, Paraguay |
| Nationality | Paraguayan |
| Field | Musician |
| Works | "Meditación por la caída del Muro de Berlin para violín o violoncello y cuerdas" "Preludio Sinfónico" "Impresiones del Chaco: Chaidi" |
| Awards | Honored by the Italian government with the title of Official Knight of the Republic |
Luis Szarán is a Paraguayan musician, orchestra director, composer and musical researcher. He has directed symphonic and chamber orchestras in America and Europe. He is director of the Asunción City Symphonic Orchestra (OSCA, for its name in Spanish Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción) and the Phylomusica Orchestra of Asunción.
He has also directed plays of his own in numerous international festivals and has obtained the National Award of Music, given by the National Parliament in 1997.
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Luis Szarán was born in Encarnación, Itapúa, in Paraguay on September 24, 1953.
He studied music with the teacher José Luis Miranda in Asunción.
In 1975 he obtained a scholarship to master his studies, given by the Italian government. He studied orchestra direction in the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, in Rome. His teachers were Massimo Pradela, Piero Bellugi and Mario Migliardi.
Later on, he took courses of improvement in the Colón Theater, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with teacher Hans Swarowsky.
In 1977 he continued his education in Chigiana de Sierra Academy and the Instituto Francesco Canneti de Vicenza.
Luis is dedicated to musical research. The results of his work have been published in many books in Paraguay, Chile, Spain, Italy and United States. Some of his outstanding work is about Native-American music and Paraguayan popular music; also transcriptions of the music in the Jesuit Missions.
Since 1989, he had been the director of the Paraguayan Area for the Spanish Hispanic-American Encyclopedic Dictionary of Music, organized by the Author General Society of Spain.
His brilliant compositions have been presented in many international festivals, such as Festival de Música Contemporánea de Ouro Preto in Brazil, in 1975 and 1978; Encuentro de Compositores de Latinoamérica in Santiago, Chile 1988 and 1989, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1989, and in Buenos Aires in 1990.
His piece “Variaciones en Puntas” for winds quintet was presented in the Youth International Festival of Beyreuth, Germany during the closing concert. This festival was organized for the Centennial of Franz Liszt in 1986. It was also presented in the São Paulo’s Musica Nova Festival, among others.
Numerous orchestras in many countries of the world played his most outstanding compositions. Some of them were:
In addition, many solo artists have performed his compositions, such as: Eduardo Fernández (guitar), Götz Bernau (violin), Vihn Pham (violin), Nicholas Ktichen (violin), Daniel Luzko and José Luis Miranda (piano), Mami Sakuda Fiorentini (soprano), Antonio Dourthe (bass), Eladio Pérez González (baritone).
| Year | Work |
| 1973 | Preludio Sinfonico (Symphonic Preamble) |
| 1973 | Las Musarañas, for winds |
| 1975 | Sonata for violin and piano |
| 1975 | Pequeña Suite (Small Suite), for violin and strings |
| 1975 | Trozos (Pieces), for strings |
| 1976 | Añesú, for narrator, choir and orchestra |
| 1978 | Sonata for piano |
| 1979 | El Río (The River), for contralto and instrumental band |
| 1983 | Tríptico Barrettiano (about texts of Rafael Barrett), for Chamber Orchestra |
| 1985 | Encarnaciones, suite for piano |
| 1985 | Concertino, for guitar, flute and strings |
| 1986 | Variaciones en Puntas, for wind quintet (National Award of Music in 1997) |
| 1989 | Mbocapú, for symphonic orchestra |
| 1990 | Miniaturas (miniatures), for oboe and piano |
| 1992 | Meditación por la caída del Muro de Berlín (Meditation for the fall of the Berlin Wall), for violin or violoncello and strings |
| 1992 | La Magdalena, for trombone and symphonic orchestra |
| 1997 | Rastros (Traces), for flute and piano |
| 1998 | Concertino, for violin and symphonic orchestra |
| 2001 | La Cruz del Sur (The South Cross), for soprano, violin, clavichord and strings |
| 2007 | Chaidi: los últimos sonidos (Chaidi: the last sounds), for flute, piano and strings |
Without a doubt, the project “Sonidos de la tierra” (Sounds of the Earth), is the most important and elaborated communitarian project about musical culture in Paraguayan history. The project is being emulated nowadays in other countries in America.
The project is directed towards the kids and young people, and was created by Luis Szarán himself, who through the music schools, bands and cultural associations, gives access to musical education to 3.000 people of scarce resources, in 72 communities in the interior of the country.
The program is inspired in the concept of “education for the art”; it was initiated in 2002 with the support of the AVINA Foundation, expanding it with alliances with other organizations like; the National Parliament, FONDEC, ITAIPU Bi-National, Asuncion’s Philharmonic Society, the Embassies of Germany, United States, France and Italy, Partners of the Americans (Paraguay-Kansas), Culture Direction of Asunción Municipality and others. More than 100 organizations, municipalities, business and sponsors are involved.
In 2005, Luis Szarán was awarded with the Skoll Awards for The Social Entrepreneurships, given by the Skoll Foundation of California (USA). This award made possible to expand the project to other sector of society in need. The same year Sounds from my land is included as a program of Fundación Tierranuestra.
On 16th May 2011, Luis Szarán conducted the Paraguayan Bicentennial Chamber Orchestra, a musical ensemble brought together especially to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Paraguay, 1811-2011. The orchestra comprised leading members of the City of Asunción Symphony Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra, plus some of the most gifted young musicians of the Sounds of the Earth Project. The program offered an overview of Paraguay's own compositions from the 19th century to the present, and included works in a variety of styles. The celebrations were held at Church House, near Westminster Abbey, London, and the event was hosted by His Excellency Mr Miguel Solano-Lopez, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary representing Paraguay in London.
| Year | Work |
| 1974 | Honored by the Italian government with the title of Official Knight of the Republic. |
| 1975 | Was named Outstanding Young Man by the Junior Camera of Asunción, Paraguay.
Won the award Los 12 del año (The top 12 of the year) four times by Radio Station Primero de Marzo, Paraguay. |
| 1987 | Honor to the Cultural Merit by the Rotary Club of Encarnación, Paraguay.
The French Alliance seat in Asunción founded the first Library of Music in Paraguay after him. Award of gratitude from the Philharmonic Society of Asunción, Paraguay. |
| 1992 | Annual Award from the Friends of Arts Association, Paraguay. |
| 1993 | Selected among the 8 most successful Paraguayan people, along with other personalities such as Augusto Roa Bastos, José Luis Chilavert and others. Workers’ National Bank, Paraguay. |
| 1993 | Best Director. Radio Station Curupayty, Paraguay. |
| 1994 | Official Knight of the Italian Republic, from the Italian Government for his research and international projection of life and work of Domenico Zipoli, musician in the Jesuit Missions in Paraguay. |
| 1995 | Silver Medal in acknowledge to the professional efficiency. Granted by the Municipality of Asunción, Paraguay. |
| 1996 | Selected among the 8 most successful Paraguayan people, along with other personalities such as Augusto Roa Bastos, José Luis Chilavert and others. Workers’ National Bank, Paraguay. |
| 1997 | National Award of Music, received for the first time in Paraguay from the National Parliament. |
| 2000 | Received in Rome, the distinction “International Award to the Culture” from the International Lions Club Prato Datini in Italy. |
| 2001 | He received the medal UNESCO “Orbis Guaraniticus”. |
| 2002 | He was the first Latin American composer and fifth in the world to receive the “Vivaldi Medal” given in the International Festival of Venice and the “Franz Xaver” Medall from the Jesuit Legal of Germany in acknowledgement of his work in the care and diffusion of the musical culture of the Jesuit Missions in South America.
He was acknowledged as “Honorary Citizen” of the cities: Yuty, Caaguazú, Encarnación and Asunción, in Paraguay, and of Limana, in Veneto, Italy. He holds the Order of Arts and Literature of the Ministry of Culture in France. |
| 2004 | Acknowledge as Academic of the Paraguayan Academy of History. |
| 2005 | Awarded with the International Prize from the Skoll Foundation of California (USA) for his character of social enterprising and was distinguished as Member in the Spanish Royal Academy of History. |