Sarmientos de León, Jorge Alvaro (1933–)

Jorge Alvaro Sarmientos de León (b. 1933), Guatemalan composer, conductor, and percussionist. Born in San Antonio Suchitepéquez, Sarmientos began his training at the National Conservatory of Music in Guatemala City under Ricardo Castillo, José Arévalo Guerra, and other distinguished Guatemalan musicians. He continued his studies in Paris and later at the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires. Sarmientos returned to Guatemala, where he taught at the National Conservatory and served as musical and artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra. He has composed over sixty works, among them film scores, chamber music, orchestral works, and a ballet. His music often features indigenous themes, as in his Las estampas del Popol Vuh. He has received prizes from several international cultural organizations, including the Japanese International Concert Association, the Guatemalan Order of the Quetzal, and the Government of Venezuela. In May 1999, he organized the Tenth Caribbean Composers Forum, which brought together 23 composers from the Caribbean, Central, and South America. Since 2002, he has been a board member of the College of Latin American Composers of Art Music.

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ronald R. Sider, "Central America and Its Composers," in Inter-American Music Bulletin, no. 77 (May 1970): 10-16.

Enrique Anleu Díaz, Esbozo histórico-social de la música en Guatemala (1978), pp. 107-108.

Additional Bibliography

Anleu Diaz, Enrique. Historia crítica de la música en Guatemala. Guatemala: Artemis, 1991.

Sarmientos, Jorge. "Raíces y futuro de la música en Guatemala y Latinoamérica." Revista Musical Chilena, 33 (Oct-Dec 1979): 58-65.

                                        Steven S. Gillick