Sergio Cervetti

Sergio Cervetti
Born
Sergio Cervetti Guigou

(1940-11-09) November 9, 1940 (age 85)
Dolores, Uruguay
GenresClassical, electronic music
Occupationscomposer and music pedagogue
InstrumentPiano
LabelPARMA Recordings
Publishers
Awards
WebsiteOfficial website

Sergio Cervetti Guigou (born 9 November 1940 in Dolores, Soriano) is a Uruguayan composer and teacher domiciled in the United States. His early compositional language reflects the post serialist Uruguayan avant-garde, often employing electronics and complex graphical notation. He gained international prominence in 1966 when he achieved first place with 5 Episodes for Piano Trio in the Inter-American Music Festival in Caracas, Venezuela. His compositions have been widely recorded on labels such as Albany Records, Vienna Modern Masters, and Navona Records, which have been reviewed in Gramophone and The Washington Post. His music has been played by renowned orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and New York City Opera.

Biography

Sergio Cervetti was exposed to music at a young age by his parents. His Italian father was a clarinettist and his French mother helped motivate him to learn the piano. His early piano studies were with José María Martino Rodas and Hugo Balzo and later studied counterpoint and harmony at the National Conservatory with Carlos Estrada and Guido Santorsola.

In 1962 he left Uruguay to study composition in the United States at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore under Austrian-born composer Ernst Krenek and South African composer Stefans Grové, graduating in 1967.

In 1969, Cervetti, went to Berlin to take up a one-year DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program composer-in-residence. Whilst in Germany he received Baden-Baden commissions and wrote an a cappella work Lux Lucet In Tenebris which won a Gaudeamus International Composers Award which was premiered at the festival in Zwolle.

After 1970, Cervetti attended the Electronic Music Centre at Columbia-Princeton University where he studied under Vladimir Ussachevsky and Mario Davidovsky.

Whilst in New York, he taught for 25 years at the Tisch School of the Arts having started his tenure in 1972. As Master Teacher of Music he tutored in music history, composition and historic dance.

Selected works

Chamber

  • Five episodes for violin, cello and piano (1965) (Cinco episodios para violín, violonchelo y piano)
  • Six sequences : for dance (1966) for chamber orchestra
  • Divertimento, para cuarteto de maderas (1967) for woodwind quartet
  • Zinctum (1969) for string quartet
  • Dies tenebrarum (1968) for electric organ, percussion, choir and strings
  • Prisons No. 1 (1969) for dancers, musicians, singers and pantomime
  • Pulsar (1969) for brass sextet
  • Cuatro fragmentos de Pablo Neruda (1970) for soprano, oboe, violoncello and percussion
  • Peripetia (1970) for voices and musicians
  • Cocktail Party (1970) work for music-theatre
  • Lux Lucet in Tenebris ("and the light shineth in the darkness") (1970) for a cappella voices
  • Plexus (1971) for chamber orchestra
  • Raga I (1971) for ensemble
  • ...de la tierra... (...from the earth...) (1972) for ensemble
  • Concerto for Trumpet and Strings (1974), reorchestrated 2015
  • Duelle (1974) concerto for cor anglais and string bass
  • Madrigal III (1976) for two sopranos and small ensemble
  • Ines de Castro (1988) ballet
  • The Triumph of Death (El Triunfo de la Muerte) (1993) mezzo-soprano and piano; Text: Circe Maia
  • House of Blues (1995) for wind ensemble
  • Nazca (2010) for string orchestra
  • Toward the Abyss (2015) piano quintet
  • And the Huddled Masses (2015) for clarinet and string quartet

Opera

  • Elegy for a Prince (2005) opera in two acts. Libretto: Elizabeth Esris
  • YUM! (2008) opera in one act for voices and chamber ensemble. Libretto: Elizabeth Esris

Orchestra

  • El Carro de Heno (The Hay Wain) (1967) for chamber choir and orchestra
  • Orbitas (1967) for orchestra
  • Candombe II (1996) for orchestra
  • Descent (2001) piano and orchestra
  • Consolamentum (2016) for orchestra
  • Et in Arcadia ego (2017) symphonic poem
  • Fanfare: Gated Angel (2019) for orchestra

Solo instrument or voice

  • Guitar Music (the Bottom of the Iceberg) (1975)
  • Four Fragments of Isadora (1979) soprano; Text: Letters of Duncan and Craig
  • Three Pieces for Marimba (2014)

Works with electronics or tape

  • Studies in Silence (1968) for electronics
  • Oulom for tape, in 1970
  • Graffiti (1971) for spoken chorus, orchestra and tape
  • Prisons No. 2 (1970-–71) for spoken choir, orchestra and tape
  • Raga II (1971) for trombone and tape
  • Raga III (1971) for tape
  • Stella Vindemiatrix (1975) for oboe and pre-recorded oboe
  • Bits & pieces and Moving Parts (1977) for tape
  • El Rio de los Pajaros Pintados (1979) for bandoneon and tape
  • Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1979–1980) for tape

Discography

References

  1. 1 2 Union, Pan American (1970). Compositores de América: Composers of the Americas. Datos biográficos y catálogos de sus obras (in Spanish). Secretaría General, Organización de los Estado Americanos. p. 47. Sergio Cervetti El compositor uruguayo ... Gaudeamus, Holanda (1970).
  2. ↑ "Sergio Cervetti Wins Global Music Award". Peabody Magazine. 16 September 2019. Retrieved 2 March 2026. Sergio Cervetti (BM '67, Composition) has been recognized for his album Parallel Realms, which has been named a gold medal winner at the Global Music Awards.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Schleifer, Martha Furman; Galván, Gary (2016). Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 139. ISBN 978-0-8108-8871-5. Cervetti Guigou, Sergio, Uruguayan composer; b.9 Nov 1940, Dolores, Uruguay.
  4. ↑ "Collection: Sergio Cervetti papers". aspace.library.jhu.edu. PIMS-0013. Retrieved 19 September 2024 – via Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface. From 1972 to 1997 and 2007 to 2008, Cervetti was Master Teacher of Music at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
  5. 1 2 Bethell, Leslie (1984). The Cambridge History of Latin America. Cambridge University Press. pp. 149–150. ISBN 978-0-521-49594-3.
  6. ↑ Musical Leader and Concert Goer. Vol. 98–99. 1966. p. 8. Sergio Cervetti, a student at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, has been awarded first prize for chamber music composition by the Inter-American Music Festival in Caracas, Venezuela.
  7. 1 2 3 4 McAllister, Colin L. (2000). An Evening of Contemporary Music for Classical and Electric Guitar. University of California, San Diego. p. 5. Sergio Cervetti came into the international scene when he won the Caracas Music Festival competition in 1966 with his 5 Episodes for Piano Trio.
  8. 1 2 "Release: Pursuing Freedom". discogs.com. Albany Records. 2016. TROY 1650. Retrieved 23 September 2024. Juan Álamo, Sergio Cervetti, Jay C. Batzner, Nathan Daughtrey – Pursuing Freedom.
  9. ↑ Brown, Stephen (Pianist) (31 March 2015). "From East to West : music from Ukraine to Uruguay". Toronto Public Library. 3247401. Retrieved 23 September 2024. Vienna: Vienna Modern Masters, p1999.
  10. ↑ "Escape to the sun-drenched beaches and eclectic sounds of Uruguay". ABC listen. 29 September 2021. Retrieved 23 September 2024. Sergio Cervetti: Keyboard3, NV5900 Navona Records.
  11. ↑ Oteri, Frank J. (17 July 2012). "Sounds Heard: Sergio Cervetti—Nazca and Other Works – New Music USA". newmusicusa.org. Retrieved 23 September 2024. I was delighted when earlier this year when Navona Records released Sergio Cervetti's Nazca and Other Works, since it was finally an opportunity for me to hear an entire disc of music by a composer whose music I have been intrigued with since the early 1980s.
  12. 1 2 3 Rickards, Guy (August 2019). "Cervetti Parallel Realms". Gramophone. Retrieved 23 September 2024. He was a pupil of Krenek, among others, at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, graduating in 1967.
  13. ↑ Sommers, Pamela (11 January 1987). "Nina Wiener and Dancers". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 23 September 2024. As Sergio Cervetti's synthesized, cyclical score heats up, so do the performers.
  14. ↑ "Sparks: Eye of London". Navona Records. NV6454. Retrieved 24 September 2024. Gated Angel – Sergio Cervetti – London Symphony Orchestra | Miran Vaupotić, conductor.
  15. ↑ Griffel, Margaret Ross (2012). Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press. p. 147. ISBN 978-0-8108-8325-3. Elegy for a Prince ... First performance (excerpts) May 12, 2007, New York, Skirball Center, New York City Opera. VOX 2007 series.
  16. ↑ Ríos, Mary (1995). Guía de la música uruguaya, 1950–1990 (in Spanish). Arca. p. 44. LCCN 95832056.
  17. ↑ "Sergio Cervetti, composer". sergiocervetti.com. Retrieved 25 September 2024. He was born in Dolores on November 9, 1940 to an Italian father who played the clarinet and to a French mother who encouraged piano lessons at an early age.
  18. ↑ II Festival de Música de América y España [Music Festival of America and Spain] (in Spanish). Madrid: Instituto de Cultura Hispánica. 14–28 October 1967. El compositor uruguayo Sergio Cervetti nació en noviembre de 1940. Realizó sus estudios de Piano bajo la dirección de Hugo Balzo y José Martino Rodas, y contrapunto con Carlos Estrada y Guido Santorsola.
  19. ↑ de la Vega, Aurelio (1980). "Latin American Composers in the United States". Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana. 1 (2): 162–175. doi:10.2307/780307. ISSN 0163-0350. JSTOR 780307. With another Uruguayan composer, Sergio Cervetti, ... who settled in the United States...
  20. ↑ "Sergio Cervetti". apps.operaamerica.org. National Opera Center. Retrieved 24 September 2024 – via Opera America. Sergio Cervetti left his native Uruguay in 1962 to study composition in the United States.
  21. ↑ Ping-Robbins, Nancy R. (1984). The Piano Trio in the Twentieth Century: A Partially Annotated Bibliography with Introduction and Appended Lists of Commissioned Works and Performing Trios. Regan Press. p. 35. Cervetti, Sergio, b. Uruguay, 1941; US citizen; studied composition with Stefan Grove, Krenek;...
  22. 1 2 3 4 5 International Who's who in Music and Musicians' Directory: In the classical and light-classical fields. International Biographical Centre. 2000. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-948875-53-3. Cervetti Sergio , b. 9 Nov 1940, Dolores, Uruguay ... Carro de Heno, 1967; Zinctum, 1968; Peripetia, 1970; Plexus, 1971; Madrigal III, 1976...
  23. ↑ Staff, Macmillan General Reference; Publishing, Macmillan (1998). Latin American Lives: Selected Biographies from the Five-volume Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture. Macmillan Library Reference USA. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-02-865060-9. In 1968 he was artist-in-residence with the DAAD (German exchange program) for the city of Berlin and received important commissions from Baden-Baden...
  24. 1 2 "First Performances". The World of Music. 12 (4). Bärenreiter: 72–74. 1970. ISSN 0043-8774. JSTOR 24318362. Cervetti, S. "Lux lucet in tenebris". 15. IX. 1970. Zwolle, NL. Gaudeamus Festival.
  25. ↑ Ficher, Miguel; Schleifer, Martha Furman; Furman, John M. (2002). Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. Scarecrow Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-4616-6911-1. He studied electronic music with Mario Davidovsky and Vladimir Ussachevsky at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center...
  26. ↑ "Sergio Cervetti Composer". apps.operaamerica.org. Retrieved 28 September 2024 – via OPERA America. From 1972 to 1997 and 2007–08, Cervetti was Master Teacher of Music at Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.
  27. ↑ Opera America Newsline. Vol. 16. Opera America. 2006. p. 9. LCCN 92640572. Sergio Cervetti has composed over 150 works for orchestra, voice, chamber ensemble, dance, and film... He taught composition at New York University for 25 years and currently resides in Bucks County, PA.
  28. ↑ "Sergio Cervetti". www.epdlp.com (in Spanish). El Poder de la Palabra. 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2024. Enseñó historia de la música, composición y coreografía en la New York University Tisch School hasta el año 2008.
  29. ↑ Sacau-Ferreira, Enrique (June 2011). Performing a Political Shift: Avant-Garde Music in Cold War Spain (Dphil thesis). St Catherine’s College, University of Oxford. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  30. ↑ Congress, The Library of; Cervetti, Sergio; Cervetti, Sergio. "Cervetti, Sergio Six sequences, for dance (Work) - LC Linked Data Service | Library of Congress, from LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)". id.loc.gov. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  31. ↑ Congress, Library of (1973). Library of Congress Catalog: Music and phonorecords. Library of Congress. p. 435. Cervetti, Sergio. Divertimento, woodwinds Divertimento, para cuarteto de maderas (for woodwind quartet).
  32. ↑ Cervetti, Sergio (1967). Divertimento, para cuarteto de maderas: (for woodwind quartet). Pan American Union.
  33. ↑ Dimpker, Christian (2013). Extended Notation: The Depiction of the Unconventional. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 10. ISBN 978-3-643-90302-0.
  34. ↑ Section, Pan American Union Music (1955). Compositores de América: datos biográficos y catálogos de sus obras [Composers of the Americas; biographical data and catalogs of their works] (in Spanish). p. 49. 1968 Dies tenebrarum – Orquesta: organ eléc, 3 percusionistas – cuerda – coro masculino.
  35. ↑ Ficher, Miguel; Schleifer, Martha Furman; Furman, John M. (2002). Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. Scarecrow Press. p. 132. ISBN 978-1-4616-6911-1.
  36. ↑ Music Journal. Vol. 29. Elemo Pub. 1971. p. 8. Cervetti's 4 Fragmentos de Pablo Neruda premiered.
  37. ↑ "First Performances". The World of Music. 13 (2): 73–75. 1971. ISSN 0043-8774. JSTOR 43615623. Cervetti, S. "Cocktail-Party" 9. XI.
  38. ↑ The Unesco Courier. UNESCO. 1973. p. 31. Lux Lucet in Tenebris ("and the light shineth in the darkness"), by the young Uruguayan composer Sergio Cervetti.
  39. 1 2 3 4 5 Marco, Tomás (2017). Escuchar la música de los siglos XX y XXI (in Spanish). Fundacion BBVA. p. 160. ISBN 978-84-92937-71-4. Sergio Cervetti ... Óperas: Elegy for a prince (Elegía para un príncipe, 2005), Yum! (2008). Instrumental: Plexus (1970), Madrigales de amor y muerte (1995), Candombe (1996), Descent (2001)...
  40. ↑ "Parallel Realms". Navona Records. NV6217. Retrieved 21 September 2024. Plexus, on the other hand, takes the listener back to the realm of science.
  41. ↑ "Research Catalog | NYPL". Research Catalog | NYPL. Retrieved 21 September 2024. ...from the earth... ...de la tierra... : for chamber orchestra : 1972 / Sergio Cervetti.
  42. 1 2 "KøgeBibliotekerne". www.koegebib.dk. American Record Guide. September 2017. pp. 81–82. Retrieved 21 September 2024. Cervetti: Trumpet Concerto; Toward the Abyss; Hay Wain.
  43. ↑ McMullen, William Wallace (1994). Soloistic English Horn Literature from 1736–1984. Pendragon Press. p. 58. ISBN 978-0-918728-78-4. Duelle "for Carol Conway" English horn and string bass, composed May 21, 1974. First performed by Thomas Stacy, Eh., and John Deak, string bass, in New York City in June, 1974.
  44. ↑ Dunning, Jennifer (25 October 1988). "Review Dance Sad Medieval Romance Dedicated to Harkness". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 September 2024. The staging of the dance, which is set to music by Sergio Cervetti, is properly dramatic and builds to a bizarre and shocking end.
  45. ↑ Brandão, Stela M. (2010). A Guide to the Latin American Art Song Repertoire: An Annotated Catalog of Twentieth-Century Art Songs for Voice and Piano. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-22138-4. El triunfo de la meurte, 1993 Circe Maia.
  46. ↑ Kozinn, Allan (15 June 1994). "Review/Music; Poetic Call and Response As a Tribute to WNYC". The New York Times. p. 13. Retrieved 25 September 2024. Ms. Marshall was also the soloist, with a harpsichordist, Christopher Oldfather, and the Essex String Quartet, in a haunting setting by Sergio Cervetti. 'House of Blues'
  47. ↑ "Nazca for String Orchestra, 2010 | Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface". aspace.library.jhu.edu. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  48. ↑ Harrie, Jessica (1 October 2017). "Audio Notes, September 2017 – New Works for Clarinet – The Clarinet [Online]". International Clarinet Association. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  49. ↑ International Who's Who in Classical Music 2008. Taylor & Francis Group. 2008. p. 138. ISBN 978-1-85743-455-2. Cervetti, Sergio; American/Uruguayan composer and teacher ... Orbitas for orchestra 1967...
  50. ↑ "Network Notebook Fall Quarter 2020" (PDF). radionetwork.wfmt.com. WFMT. Retrieved 22 September 2024. We feature two living composers in this program the Chilean Manuel Orrego Salas and his Symphony No. 2 and Uruguayan Sergio Cervetti with his work, Consolamentum.
  51. ↑ "Fanfare: Gated Angel, for orchestra, 2019 | Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface". archivesspace.library.jhu.edu. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  52. 1 2 3 4 Dal Farra, Ricardo L. (January 2006). Un voyage du son par les fils électroacoustiques l'art et les nouvelles technologies en Amérique Latine (PDF) (PhD thesis). Retrieved 22 September 2024. Cervetti composed several pieces using electroacoustic media: Studies in Silence, a taped version of modified piano and voices in 1968; Oulom for tape, in 1970; Grafitti for orchestra, spoken choir and tape in 1971; Raga III for tape, in 1971; Bits & pieces and Moving Parts for tape in 1977...
  53. ↑ Vinton, John (1974). Dictionary of Contemporary Music. Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated. p. 134. ISBN 978-0-525-09125-7.
  54. ↑ Heinlein, Federico (14 May 1976). "Recital de León Biriotti" (PDF). Crítica musical. Retrieved 22 September 2024. "Stella Vindemiatrix", de Sergio Cervetti, combina cinco oboes, cuatro de ellos previamente grabados en cinta magnética por Biriotti.
  55. ↑ "El Rio de los Pajaros Pintados, Bandoneon and Tape, 1979 | Johns Hopkins University Libraries Archives Public Interface". archivesspace.library.jhu.edu. Retrieved 22 September 2024.
  56. ↑ Association, International Computer Music (1996). Proceedings of the 1996 International Computer Music Conference: August 19–24, 1996. International Computer Music Association. p. 168. ISBN 978-962-85092-1-8. Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1979-1980) by Cervetti.
  57. ↑ Schwann CD. Vol. 4. NILS Publishing Company. 1989. p. 185. LCCN 89641813. Periodic Music PE-1631 [ADD]-Sergio Cervetti: The Hay Wain (musical depiction of the Hieronymous Bosch painting); Transatlantic Light (ballet score) (all-electronic compositions).
  58. ↑ "New Music for Orchestra : 1998 Series | Mediathek". www.mediathek.at (in German). VMM 3045. Retrieved 26 September 2024 – via Österreichische Mediathek. Mitwirkende: Cervetti, Sergio (Komponist).
  59. ↑ Brown, Stephen (Pianist); Cervetti, Sergio (31 March 2015). "From East to West : music from Ukraine to Uruguay". Toronto Public Library. 3247401. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  60. ↑ Oteri, Frank J. (17 July 2012). "Latin American music – New Music USA". newmusicusa.org. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  61. ↑ "Las indias olvidadas: Sergio Cervetti". bibliotecacdt.mcu.es (in Spanish). Madrid. NIBI 118. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  62. ↑ "Sunset at Noon". Navona Records. 10 February 2017. NV6072. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  63. ↑ Cervetti, Sergio (2017). "Sunset at noon : six works in memory of". searchworks-lb.stanford.edu. NV6072 Navona. Retrieved 27 September 2024 – via Stanford Libraries. Sergio Cervetti. Latin. Choral work sung in Latin.
  64. ↑ Navas, Danilo (15 August 2024). "Artist Profile: Juan Álamo". Latin Jazz Network. Retrieved 25 September 2024. His 2016 recording, Pursuing Freedom, was selected to represent Albany Records at the 2017 Latin Grammy Awards in the category of "Best Solo Classical Album."
  65. ↑ "Pursuing Freedom". Presto Music. 1 November 2016. TROY1650. Retrieved 25 September 2024. Cervetti: Marimbamor.
  66. ↑ "Mortal Dreams". Navona Records. NV6313. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  67. ↑ Sparks : Eye of London, Navona, 2022, OCLC 1372192713, retrieved 26 September 2024 – via University of Wisconsin–Madison, Cervetti, Sergio. Gated Angel.