Fellows in Music Composition

Fabián Almazán (b. 1984, Havana): A pianist and composer, Almazán is the winner of a 2007 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award for Personalities, a work for string quartet. Almazán arrived in the United States in 1993; he studied at the New World School of the Arts in Miami and at the Manhattan School of Music, where he obtained a Master's degree and was a recipient of the Michael W. Greene Scholarship. He was one of six composers selected to participate in the Sundance Composers' Lab 2011. He has been pianist for Terence Blanchard's quintet and has toured throughout North and South America, Asia and Europe. His fist CD as leader, also titled Personalities, was released in the summer of 2011. Almazán lives in New York. (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in music composition, 2010-11)

Sergio Barroso (b. 1946, Havana): A composer, keyboard player and synthesist, Barroso works extensively in the electroacoustic music field, but he has also composed music for orchestra, for choral and chamber ensemble and for the stage and film. His work has been recognized at the International Music Council (IMC) Rostrums of Composers, Electroacoustic Music and Latin American Music, and the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges. He received a composition prize from the Canada Council for the Arts in 2000. His music has been performed extensively in North and South America, Europe and Asia. He Studied at the Havana National Conservatory, the Prague Superior School of Music and at Stanford University. (Cintas for music, 1999-00, CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in music composition, 2009-10)

Mario Bauzá (b. 1911, Havana-d. 1993, New York): A legendary trumpet man and orchestra director, Bauzá was often called the father of AfroCuban jazz. Bauzá first played in the United States in the 1920s with Orquesta de Antonio María Romeu. In the 1930s, he played with the Chick Webb Band and later became musical director and first trumpet for the Cab Calloway Orchestra. During his time with the orchestra, he was influential in the development of the young trumpet player Dizzie Gillespie. He led the orchestra Machito y sus AfroCubans and the Orquesta Afro-Cubana de Jazz. When he died at the age of 82, his music was experiencing a popular revival. He had just completed recording the CD 944 Columbus, which was released posthumously, and which followed The Tanga Suite, My Time is Now and El legendario rey del mambo, all issued in the early 1990s. (Cintas for music, 1988-89)

Armando Bayolo (b. 1973, Santurce, Puerto Rico): After initiating his studies in composition at age 16 at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, Bayolo went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree in music from the Eastman School of Music, a Master’s from Yale University and a PhD from the University of Michigan. His compositions include works for solo instruments, voices, chamber and orchestral music. Recent commissions include A Kind of Standoff, for the Percussion Plus Project; Colorfields, for the Hamilton College Orchestra, and Kaddish:Passio:Rothko, for the ensembles of the National Gallery of Art. The Washington Post has described Bayolo’s music as “full of lush ideas and a kind of fierce grandeur (which unfold) with subtle, driving power.” Bayolo is the founding artistic director and conductor of Great Noise Ensemble, and has been a guest conductor with the Rose City Chamber Orchestra in Portland, Oregon, and the Lee University Chamber Orchestra in Cleveland, Tennessee. Bayolo has served on the faculties of Reed College, Hamilton College and the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. He lives outside of Washington, D.C. Bayolo’s music is available through his web site, www.armandobayolo.com. (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in music composition, 2008-09)

José Bernardo (b. 1938, Havana): The winner of three Cintas fellowships, Bernardo is the composer of La Niña, a musical tragedy based on José Martí's poem La Niña de Guatemala that received an award from the National Opera Institute (now National Institute of Musical Theatre). He also composed Concerto Barroco, Taliesin Symphony, Concerto for Viola and Orchestra and Concerto for Piano, Cuban Dance Band and Symphony Orchestra. As a designer, he worked with the architecture firm Harrison and Abramovitz in New York. Independently, he participated in projects at various museums, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Natural History. Bernardo is also an author whose books include Silent Wing, The Secret of the Bulls and The Wise Women of Havana.  He has a Ph.D. from Columbia University. (Cintas for music, 1970-71, 1972-73, and for architecture, 1969-70)

Ailem Carvajal (b. 1972, Havana): A composer, pianist and teacher, Carvajal studied music at the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana and received a degree in composition from Cuba’s Institute of Advanced Studies. After moving to Europe in 1997, she received a diploma in experimental composition from the A. Boito Music Conservatory in Parma, Italy. Her pieces have been performed at the Q-ba Music Festival in Holland, the New Music Miami ISCM Festival in Miami, the Est-Ovest Festival in Turin and at La Scala in Milan. In 2004, she won the first prize at the International Competition for Women Composers in Venice. In 2011, her piece Okan, for mixed ensemble, was commissioned by the Latin American Puente Sonoro Festival in Williams College, Massachusetts. (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in music composition, 2012-13)

Flores Chaviano Jiménez (b. 1946, Villaclara, Cuba): Guitarist, director and composer, Flores studied at the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana and also at the Instituto Superior de Arte de la Habana (ISA). He has been living in Madrid since 1981. There he furthered his studies at the Royal Conservatory, the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de la Capital de España. He is a founder of Ensemble de Segovia, la Capilla Musical Esteban Salas and "Sonido Trece," “Fin de Siglo,” and “Trova Lírica Cubana” in Madrid. He has performed with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México D.F., the Gdansk Academy in Poland, the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias (OSPA)  Orquesta y Coros de la Comunidad de Madrid. Orquesta Sinfónica  de Granada, Orquesta clásica de Madrid,  Filarmónica de Montevideo,  Orquesta Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Orquesta Sinfónica del Salvador, Orquesta Sinfónica de Matanzas (Cuba), Orquesta de Cámara del Nalón Asturias, Mutare Ensemble in Frankfurt, Cuarteto Latinoamericano de México, Florida International University Percussion Quartet, among others. His work has been performed throughout Asia, Europe, as well as North and South America. He currently teaches at the Conservatorio Profesional Federico Moreno Torroba in Madrid. (CINTAS for Music Composition, 2017-2018)

Odaline de la Martínez (b. 1949, Matanzas): Martínez pursues a demanding and successful career composing – particularly opera, conducting repertoire from Mozart symphonies to the latest contemporary music, and recording CDs often with LORELT (Lontano Records) and numerous other labels. She was the first woman to conduct a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984, and has made several return visits since. She has received numerous awards including a Marshall Scholarship from the British Government and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Imoinda, Part I of her Slavery Opera Trilogy was commissioned by the Caribbean Women Writers’ Alliance with funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund. An Opera Grant from Opera America in 2015 allowed her to make the video Selected Scenes from Imoinda. The Crossing Part II her Slavery Opera Trilogy was commissioned by Tulane University and premiered in New Orleans in April 2013, while there as composer in residence, and received its UK Premiere in November 2014 at the opening concert of The Fifth London Festival of American Music. Martinez is published by Composers Edition. (CINTAS for Music Composition, 1989-90, 2016-17)

Joaquín Diago (d. Miami): A violinist, Diago was a member of the Colegio de Músicos Cubanos en el Exilio. He played for the Utah Symphony. (Cintas for music, 1963-64)

Aldo Rafael Forte (b. 1953, Havana): A music educator, composer and arranger, Forte’s works have been widely performed and recorded by the Southwest German Radio Orchestra, the Filharmonie Bohuslav Martinu Orchestra and many bands including those of the University of Georgia, the University of North Texas, the National Dutch Youth Wind Band, the Militarmusik der Voralberg in Austria, the U.S. Marine Band and the USAF Heritage of America. In 2003, he was commissioned by the Van Gogh Documentatie Museum in Nuenen, the Netherlands, to transcribe his band work Van Gogh Portraits for brass band to celebrate Van Gogh’s 150th birthday. He is a composer/arranger with the United States Air Force Heritage of America Band at Langley Air Force Base, also in Virginia. His compositions range from chamber pieces to major pieces for band and orchestra. He has received commissions for new works from the Southwest German Radio Orchestra and various university bands and ensembles. He holds music degrees from Tennessee Technological University and the University of Southern Mississippi. (Cintas for music, 1985-86)

Orlando Jacinto García (b. 1954, Havana): Through more than 200 works, composed for a wide range of performance genres many premiered at major festivals by renowned performers, Orlando Jacinto Garcia has established himself as an important figure in the new music world. The distinctive character of his music has been described as "time suspended haunting sonic explorations" qualities developed from working with Morton Feldman among others. Born in Cuba, he came to the US in 1961. His works are recorded on 8 solo CDs and numerous compilations on respected labels here and abroad. In demand as a guest composer, he has received recognition from among others the Fulbright, Rockefeller, and Cintas Foundations, recently being the recipient of 4 Latin Grammy nominations. Founder of the New Music Miami Festival, the NODUS Ensemble and resident composer for the Miami Symphony, Garcia is a dedicated educator, and Professor of Music and Composer in Residence for the School of Music at Florida International University. (Cintas for music, 1994-95, 1999-00)

Yalil Guerra (b.1973, Havana) is the son of the famous Cuban vocal duo Rosell y Cary. His first musical studies were at the Escuela Nacional de Artes (ENA) in Havana, Cuba (1985-1991) with classical guitar professor and concert master Jorge Luis Zamora. At 16, Guerra won the International Competition & Festival of Classical Guitar in Krakow, Poland - becoming the youngest Cuban awarded a prize in an international competition. He started his career as a producer, composer, and arranger and has worked with artists such as Cristian Castro, Celia Cruz, Albita Rodríguez, Eddie Santiago, Rey Ruiz, Choco Orta and Yamila Guerra among others. Nowadays, he writes music for television networks, and continues to compose and produce albums. (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in music composition, 2014-15)

Antonino Hernández Lizaso (b. 1931, Havana): After receiving a law degree from the University of Havana, Hernández Lizaso studied music composition with Julián Orbón and went on to the Manhattan School of Music, where he received a Master’s degree in conducting. He is the winner of composition grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Organization of American States and the Florida Arts Council. He is the author of seven symphonic works, an opera and 24 chamber pieces. Hernández Lizaso has conducted the Miami Symphony Orchestra, the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra and the University of Miami Symphony. (Cintas for music, 1964-65, 1966-67)

Ivette Herryman Rodríguez (b. 1982, Island of Youth (Isla de Pino): A pianist, who began studying the  instrument at the age of eight, Herryman earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music Composition from the  Higher Institute of Arts (ISA) in Havana, in 2006, and her Master’s in Music Composition at Baylor  University, in Texas, graduating with distinction in 2013. She has written music for solo instruments,  chamber groups, large ensembles, electronic media, children, church music, film music, and musical  theater. Her compositions have been performed in Cuba, Mexico, El Salvador, Spain, and the United  States. Her zarzuela Cerca del Río, a musical play for children and adolescents, won a Cubadisco Award  in 2010. (Brandon Fradd Award in Music Composition, 2015-16)

 Maritza Leal Banchz (Cintas for music, 1975-76, 1977-78)

Tania León (b. 1943, Havana): A classical composer and conductor, León became the first musical director and composer in residence with Dance Theater of Harlem in 1968. Since then, her pieces have been performed by some of the world’s top musicians. Scourge of Hyacinths, an opera based on a radio play by Nobel Prize-winner Wole Soyinka, won the BMW Prize as best new work in the 1994 Munich Biennale. One of its arias, Oh Yemanja, was recorded by Dawn Upshaw. Other works include Inura, a composition for voices, strings and piano that was nominated for a Grammy and a Latin Grammy in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition; the ballets The Beloved (with Judith Hamilton), Haiku, Dougla (with Geoffrey Holder) and Tones; the orchestra pieces Batá, Carabalí, Concerto Criollo, Kabiosile, Para Viola y Orquesta and Seven Spirituals, as well as many pieces for instrumental ensemble and vocal ensemble and solo. She is a professor of music at Brooklyn College and the recipient of an ASCAP Victor Herbert Award and a Symphony Space Access to the Arts Award. Sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, León was a visiting scholar at the Witwatersrand University in South Africa. As a conductor, she has appeared with the Kwazulu Natal Philharmonic Orchestra, in Durban, and the Johannesburg Academy Orchestra, both in South Africa; the Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, in Mexico, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Bogotá, in Colombia. León is the founder and artistic director of Composers Now, an annual, month-long festival that celebrates living composers, their diversity and the significance of their work. (Cintas for music, 1974-75, 1978-79)

Jorge Martín (b. 1959, Santiago de Cuba): Martin’s first full-length large-scale opera, Before Night Falls, inspired by Reinaldo Arena's acclaimed memoir, received its world premiere in 2010 at the Fort Worth Opera Festival. In 2005, he received a fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa. His one-act opera, Tobermory, won first prize in 1993 in the National Opera Association's Fifth Biennial Chamber Opera Competition and has been performed in several cities in the United States. Other compositions include Beast and Superbeast, a set of four one-act operas based on short stories by Saki; the Saxophone Quartet and Four Dances for Bassoon and String Quartet, which had its world premiere in Finland in July 1997. Martín is the recipient of an American Academy of Arts and Letters' Academy Award in Music, of an ASCAP Standard Music Award, and of an artist's residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs in 1993. Martín is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia University. (Cintas for music, 1999-00; CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in music composition, 2011-12)

Solomon Mikowsky (b. 1936, Havana): A lifelong music educator, many of Mikowsky’s pupils have been top prizewinners in international competitions, including the Rubinstein in Tel Aviv and the Tchaikovsky in Moscow. Mikowsky has been a member of the piano faculty at Manhattan School of Music in New York for more than 40 years and until 2013 was also a member of the Artist Faculty at Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. He has been a juror in more than 20 international competitions. Mikowsky is the author of a book on 19th Century music, Ignacio Cervantes y la danza en Cuba. He received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Juilliard and a PhD from Columbia University. (Cintas for music, 1965-66)  

Eduardo Morales Caso (b. 1969, Havana): After winning several composition prizes in Cuba, Morales Caso received a grant to study at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid in 1996 and has lived in Spain since. His pieces have been performed throughout Spain and other European countries.  In 2000-2001, he took first prizes in the international composition competitions in Paraguay, Spain and England. Two of his pieces had premieres in Madrid in late 2003 – El Vellocino de Oro, for string octet, and Sonata Bien Temperada, for solo clarinet.  Morales Caso studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana. (Cintas for music, 2003-04)

Julian Orbón (b. 1926, Asturias-d. 1991, Miami Beach): Born in Spain, Orbón began traveling to Cuba with his family in 1932 and settled there permanently in 1940.  His first piano teacher was his father, Benjamín Orbón, but he also studied under Aaron Copland, who once called him “the most gifted composer of his generation.”  In 1942, he became one of the founders of El Grupo de Renovación Musical, which worked to gain international recognition for Latin American symphonic music. Orbón eventually took over his father’s studio in Havana, and also wrote music reviews for the newspaper Alerta. He left Cuba for the United States in 1963. Orbon’s compositions include pieces for orchestras, chamber music, choral works and music for piano and voice. He was the winner of the Juan Landaeta Award for his Three Symphonic Versions in the first Latin American Music Festival in Caracas. He is the author of La Esencia de los estilos, published by Colibrí. (Cintas for music, 1963-64, 1964-65)

Keyla Orozco Alemán (b. 1969, Santiago de Cuba): A composer whose work has been performed in numerous international festivals, Orozco lives in the Netherlands, where she teaches composition at Amsterdam’s Conservatory.  She has received numerous commissions and her work was recognized with a Guggenheim fellowship in 2000.  Orozco studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte de La Habana, at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and at Amsterdam’s Conservatory. She is the winner of two prizes at the René Amengual International Competition in Chile and received a symphonic music award from Cuba’s UNEAC. (Cintas for music, 2003-04)

Sabrina Peña Young (b. 1977 Ft. Lauderdale): Peña Young became involved with SYCOM, an experimental enclave of composers and media artists while at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She worked with Emmy-winning director Charles Lyman at Atlantic Productions before leaving to study music technology at Florida International University. Combining her love of music and love of science fiction imagery, in 2011 she received a New Genre Award from the International Alliance for Women in Music for her futuristic multimedia oratorio Creation. She has composed scores for Emmy-winning Rob Cabrera‘s animated short Monica (2012) and Sean Fleck’s time-laps film Americana. Wanting to explore film further, she began production on Libertaria: The Virtual Opera, a science fiction machinima opera produced entirely online. In 2015 Young published her debut novel Libertaria: Genesis as an addendum to her groundbreaking opera and collaborated with composer Lee Scott on his interactive social media opera The Village. Young is a member of the New York Women Composer’s Association, the International Alliance for Women in Music, Madrinas, Vox Novus, and the Buffalo Movie and Video Makers. (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in Music Composition 2018-2019)

Ileana Pérez Velázquez (b. 1964, Cienfuegos): A composer, pianist and music educator, Pérez Velázquez has taught at the Instituto Superior de Artes (ISA) in Havana, at Portland State University in Oregon, at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogota. She is an associate professor of music at Williams College. Her music has been presented in international festivals and concerts in Europe and Latin America as well as in the United States. Among her works are Crystals, a piece for soprano and instrumental ensemble, Un ser con unas alas enormes, for violin and tape, and Epur si mouve, for instrumental ensemble. She has been commissioned by soloists, ensembles and orchestras, including the Flux Quartet, Cuarteto Eco from Madrid, and the Insomnio instrumental ensemble from the Netherlands. Pérez Velázquez has a Master’s in electroacoustic music from Darmouth College and a PhD in music composition from Indiana University.  Before coming to the United States in 1991, Pérez Velázquez won several first prizes for composition in Cuba. (Cintas for music, 1999-00)

Daniel Ponce (b. 1953, Havana - d. 2013, Miami): A percussionist and bandleader, Ponce began playing music in Cuba, but fully dedicated himself to music as a profession when he arrived in the United States in 1980. He performed in albums by Kip Hanrahan, Paquito D'Rivera, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Laurie Anderson and Mick Jagger, among others. His solo albums include New York Now, Arawe '87 and Changó te llama. Known as a virtuoso of the conga drums, he performed in many major venues, including Carnegie Hall and the Berlin Jazz Festival. Ponce received the Creative Artists public service award for composition. (Cintas for music, 1991-92)

Carlos Puig-Hatem (b. 1968, Havana): Puig-Hatem began studying music at the age of seven and composing jazz at the age of 15. Two years later, he graduated from the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory as trumpet professor and later received a bachelor in music, with a specialization in composition from the Instituto Superior de Artes in Havana. Puig-Hatem worked as conductor of the Children Symphony Orchestra of Havana from 1992 to 1994 and as director in the composition department at the Instituto Superior de Arte. He considers the Cuban composer Alejandro García Caturla to be his strongest influence when writing. In 2010, Puig-Hatem received a Master of Music degree from the University of Miami. He lives and works in Miami. (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in Music Composition, 2007-08)

Viviana Ruiz (b. Havana, 1963): A pianist and composer, Ruiz graduated in 1989 from Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte with a degree in music composition. Among her works are Penetrating Silence, a piece for piano, string orchestra and percussion, and Bosque, a piece for orchestra and batá drums, in which she incorporates Afro-Cuban rhythmic elements. Her pieces have been heard in various national and international festivals. She lives in Miami, where she teaches piano and composition from her own studio. (Cintas for music, 1992-93)

 Yosvany Terry (b. 1971, Camaguey): A saxophonist as well as a composer, Terry graduated from the Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana. After moving to the United States in 1999, he studied music composition and orchestration at Juilliard and at the New School for Music in New York. He has received commissions from the Ford Foundation, the Harlem Stage, the Map Fund, the Jerome Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and Chamber Music America. He has recorded with Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Manuel Valera, among others. His own recordings include Today’s Opinion (2012) and Metamorphosis (2006). (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in music composition, 2013-14) 

Armando Tranquilino (b. 1959, Havana): A composer and pianist, Tranquilino won first place in the International Electroacustic Music Competition in Bourges, France, with a piece called Tragoidia/Komoidia. Other recognitions include a professional development grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts and a first place in the Arizona Mini-Concert Series. Among his works are solo piano pieces, a ballet for narrator and piano trio and a number of symphonies. Tranquilino has a Master’s degree in composition and electronic music from Indiana University and has taught at the University of Arizona, Ball State University and, since 2004, at Florida International University. Since 2008 he has been the musical director of F.I.U.’s Classically Cuban Concerts. His music is available through Cultures Electroniques/Harmonia Mundi. (Cintas for music, 1994-95)

David Virelles (b. 1983, Santiago de Cuba) A musician and pianist, Virelles’ work is fundamentally tied to studying anthropological information, in order to compose music that bears a meaningful relationship to his cultural lineages. In 2018 he became the recipient of a grant from the Cristobal Díaz Ayala Collection at FIU, where he conducted research for several projects. Virelles presents his music internationally as a touring musician as a solo pianist with his own ensembles as well as with many collaborative projects. (CINTAS Foundation Brandon Fradd Fellowship in Music Composition 2021-2022)