Biographical Information

A musician of tremendous vesatility, Argentine-born Eduardo Alonso-Crespo has not only gained international popularity as a conductor but has also been hailed by La Prensa, Argentina as one "of the most distinguished of Argentine composers".

Because the musical seasons in North and South America are inverted, Eduardo Alonso-Crespo is able to hold conducting positions in both hemispheres, serving as Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tucumán in his native Argentina and as Music Director of the Carnegie Mellon Contemporary Ensemble in the United States. Alonso-Crespo also maintains a busy schedule as guest conductor with engagements in Argentina, Mexico, and France. In previous seasons, Alonso-Crespo has served as Music Director of the Orquesta Estable and the San Martín Opera and Ballet Theater Orchestra in Tucumán, as Music Director of the Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble, as Associate Conductor of the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic, as Assistant Conductor of the Pittsburgh Civic Orchestra, and as Conductor in Residence at Carnegie Mellon University.

As a composer, Alonso-Crespo has received numerous national and international awards, including the Cristóbal Colón International Prize for Symphonic Music, the First and Second Prizes (simultaneously) in the Luis Gianneo Composers Competition, the Alejando Shaw First Prize from the National Academy of Fine Arts of Argentina, and the 1994 Iris Marga Award for Best Original Score for Drama with his incidental music for Macbeth. Alonso-Crespo has also received honors from the Viotti-Valsesia International Competition, the Fundación San Telmo, the Fundación Promúsica and the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Bahía Blanca Symphony Orchestra, the National University of La Plata, and the Secretary of Culture and the National Endowment for the Arts of Argentina. In 1990, he was honored with the Musician of the Year Award in Argentina by the Foundation Canal 11 of Salta, for his achievements as composer and conductor.

Alonso’Crespo's compositions include Symphonic Dances and Variantes Líricas for orchestra, Epic Dances for symphonic band, and Sinfonietta and Diario de Viaje for string orchestra, among others. The composer has also written several works for the stage, among them the ballet Medea for chorus and orchestra, the incidental music for Macbeth, and four operas—Putzi, based on an anecdote from Franz Liszt's life; Yubarta, conceived as a metaphor on the survival of endangered species; Juana, la loca (Joan, The Mad) composed for the commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of America; and Gorbachev, based on the epic figure of Michail Gorbachev and the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Alonso-Crespo's compositions have been widely performed in the United States, France, Poland, Mexico, and by most of Argentina's orchestras, including the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, the Camerata Lysy, the Camerata Lazarte, the Orquesta Mayo, and the Tucumán, Rosario, San Juan, Mendoza, and Córdoba Symphony Orchestras. In the United States, Overtures and Dances from Operas have been recorded by the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Epic Dances by the Carnegie Mellon Wind Ensemble, and his incidental music for Macbeth by the Camerata Lazarte—all of them conducted by the composer. In the fall of 1996, Ocean Records released New Energy from the Americas that includes Overtures and Dances from Operas. "[Alonso-Crespo] is a voice that remains unswayed by various isms" making music solely influenced by his aesthetic temperament and wish to combine sounds pleasurable to the ear" (Alberto Giménez, La Nación)

Born in 1956, Alonso-Crespo studied at the School of Musical Arts of the National University of Tucumán in Argentina where he graduated in 1981. (Two years earlier, he had received his Civil Engineer diploma from the same university.) He came to the United States on a Fulbright Grant and obtained his master's degree in Conducting at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, after studying with maestros Lukas Foss and Samuel Jones. Further training included seminars and workshops with maestros Max Rudolf, Gunther Schuller, and Henry Holt. Alonso-Crespo has been professor of composition at the National University of Tucumán, Argentina for seven years as well as instructor of instrumental and choral conducting at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. Sponsored by the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs he has also lectured on the Semiotics of Music—his major field of research—at music schools and universities in Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.

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List of Works

Band Music

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Opera

Orchestral Music

String Orchestra