Tauriello, Antonio (1931–)

Antonio Tauriello (b. 20 March 1931), Argentine composer, pianist, and conductor. Born in Buenos Aires, he studied composition with Alberto Ginastera at the National Conservatory and piano with Walter Gieseking in Tucumán. A resident conductor with the opera and ballet at the Teatro Colón, he worked extensively in the United States as assistant director and conductor of the New York City Opera, the American Opera Theater at the Juilliard School of Music, and the Chicago Lyric Opera. Tauriello has been a member of the Agrupación Música Viva (AMV) in Buenos Aires, a group founded by Gerardo Gandini, Alcides Lanza, and Armando Krieger. The AMV ensemble presented premieres of his works, and with it Tauriello conducted performances of contemporary music in Argentina and New York. He has also appeared as conductor at the Inter-American Music Festivals in Washington, D.C. In 1968 his Piano Concerto was premiered there, a work in which Tauriello sought to explore freer relationships between the soloist and the orchestra, with the piano part existing as an independent entity. Except for some synchronization cues, the pianist can choose the speed and pacing of musical phrases and the duration of individual notes.

Other works by Antonio Tauriello: Obertura Sinfónica (1951); Ricercari 1 à 6 (1963); Transparencias for six orchestral groups (1964); Música no. 3 for piano and orchestra (1965); Canti for violin and orchestra (1967); and La mansión de Tlaloc (1969), which premiered during the Third Festival of Music of the Americas and Spain in Madrid in 1970.

Among his chamber music compositions Tauriello has written Ilynx for clarinet, double bass, piano, and percussion (1968); Diferencias for flute and piano (1969); Signos de los tiempos for flute, violin, clarinet, violoncello, and piano (1969); Serenade no. 2 for eight instruments (1966), written to celebrate Alberto Ginastera's fiftieth birthday and Diferencias no. 2 for piano (1969). He has received various honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1969. He was awarded a Konex Foudnation Merit Diploma for Classical Music twice, in 1989 and in 1999.

See alsoGandini, Gerardo; Ginastera, Alberto Evaristo; Lanza, Alcides; Music: Art Music.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rodolfo Arizaga, Enciclopedia de la música argentina (1971), p. 295.

John Vinton, ed., Dictionary of Contemporary Music (1974), p. 731.

Gérard Béhague, Music in Latin America: An Introduction (1979), p. 338; New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Ficher, Miguel, Martha Furman Schleifer, and John M. Furman. Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002.

Vega, Aurelio De La. "Latin American Composers in the United States." Latin American Music Review, 1 (Autumn 1980): 162-175.

                                       Alcides Lanza