Biography
Aurelio de la Vega emerged as a leading voice for avant-garde composition both in his native Cuba and after his move to the United States. Longtime head of the Electronic Music Studio and composer-in-residence at California State University, Northridge, he produced works across an unusually broad range of instrumental and vocal media.
Born in Havana on November 28, 1925, de la Vega completed a bachelor’s degree at the Colegio de la Salle in 1944. Although he briefly prepared for a diplomatic career, receiving a master’s degree in that discipline from the University of Havana in 1946, he simultaneously pursued private lessons with Fritz Kramer; he soon abandoned diplomacy and traveled to California for further study with Ernst Toch in 1947 and 1948. Returning to Havana, he entered the Ada Iglesias Music Institute in 1951, earning a master’s degree in musicology in 1956 and a doctorate in composition in 1958. Between 1952 and 1954 he delivered lectures throughout the United States, while in Cuba he served as professor of music and chair of the music department at the Universidad de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba from 1953 to 1959. He departed Cuba for Los Angeles in 1959 and became a U.S. citizen in 1966.
That same summer he held a visiting professorship at the University of Southern California. He then joined the faculty of California State University, Northridge, where he remained until retiring in 1992 and where he also directed the Electronic Music Studio; in 1971 the entire California State University system presented him with its Outstanding Teaching Award.
Academic duties never limited the reach of his music. Performances of his works were numerous, and he received four Latin Grammy nominations, three of them between 2009 and 2019 when he was already of advanced age. In 1978 the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington awarded him the Friedheim Prize for his orchestral composition Adios, a score commissioned and first performed by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. De la Vega’s style evolved from post-Impressionist beginnings through free atonality and, for a period, serial procedures. Although he supervised an electronic studio, the majority of his pieces employed traditional instruments; occasional experiments included Undici Colori (1981), scored for solo bassoon accompanied by projections of abstract drawings. He composed extensively for orchestra, chamber ensembles, keyboard, and small vocal groups. Remaining productive long after retirement, de la Vega died in Northridge on February 12, 2022.
Born in Havana on November 28, 1925, de la Vega completed a bachelor’s degree at the Colegio de la Salle in 1944. Although he briefly prepared for a diplomatic career, receiving a master’s degree in that discipline from the University of Havana in 1946, he simultaneously pursued private lessons with Fritz Kramer; he soon abandoned diplomacy and traveled to California for further study with Ernst Toch in 1947 and 1948. Returning to Havana, he entered the Ada Iglesias Music Institute in 1951, earning a master’s degree in musicology in 1956 and a doctorate in composition in 1958. Between 1952 and 1954 he delivered lectures throughout the United States, while in Cuba he served as professor of music and chair of the music department at the Universidad de Oriente in Santiago de Cuba from 1953 to 1959. He departed Cuba for Los Angeles in 1959 and became a U.S. citizen in 1966.
That same summer he held a visiting professorship at the University of Southern California. He then joined the faculty of California State University, Northridge, where he remained until retiring in 1992 and where he also directed the Electronic Music Studio; in 1971 the entire California State University system presented him with its Outstanding Teaching Award.
Academic duties never limited the reach of his music. Performances of his works were numerous, and he received four Latin Grammy nominations, three of them between 2009 and 2019 when he was already of advanced age. In 1978 the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington awarded him the Friedheim Prize for his orchestral composition Adios, a score commissioned and first performed by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. De la Vega’s style evolved from post-Impressionist beginnings through free atonality and, for a period, serial procedures. Although he supervised an electronic studio, the majority of his pieces employed traditional instruments; occasional experiments included Undici Colori (1981), scored for solo bassoon accompanied by projections of abstract drawings. He composed extensively for orchestra, chamber ensembles, keyboard, and small vocal groups. Remaining productive long after retirement, de la Vega died in Northridge on February 12, 2022.
Albums
