Mario Lavista is a Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and writer. He has had numerous pieces published, especially chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, but also incidental music

Incidental music

Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

 for plays, film scores, orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

l pieces, and vocal music

Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...

.

In 1982, he founded Pauta, one of the most important music journals in Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, and continues to serve as its chief editor. He has also published many essays, most of which are collected in Textos en torno a la musica. In 1987. he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his first (and only) opera Aura, based on the short story by Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes

Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...

. Aura premiered in 1988 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes

Palacio de Bellas Artes

The Palacio de Bellas Artes is the most important cultural center in Mexico City as well as the rest of the country of Mexico...

 in Mexico City

Lavista has taught at the Conservatorio Nacional in Mexico City, University of Chicago

University of Chicago

The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...

, Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

 San Diego, Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

 and McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

.

In 1978 he won the Diosa de Plata from the Asociación de Periodistas y Críticos de Cine, and in 1991 the Premio Nacional de Artes y Ciencias, by the Mexican government, and the Mozart Medal, by the Embassy of Austria.

Chamber Works

• Antifonia, mixed quintet
• Cante, guitar ensemble
• Canto del Alba, flute solo
• Cinco Danzas Breves, woodwind quintet
• Cuaderno de Viaje, viola or violoncello solo
• Danza de las Bailarinas de Degas, flute and keyboard
• Diacronia, string quartet
• Dialogos, violin and keyboard
• Elegia (a la muerte de Nacho), flute and keyboard
• Lacrymosa, chamber orchestra
• Marsias, oboe and ensemble
• Natarayah, guitar solo
• Quotations, violoncello and keyboard
• Reflejos de la Noche, string orchestra or string quartet
• Responsorio in Memoriam Rodolfo Halffter, bassoon and ensemble
• String Quartet No. 6
• Tres Danzas Seculares, violoncello and keyboard

Orchestral Works

• Clepsidra
• Ficciones
• Hacia el Comienzo, medium voice and ensemble
• Lyhannh

Solo Keyboard

• Mater Dolorosa, organ solo
• Pieza Para un Pianista y un Piano, piano solo
• Simurg, piano solo

Sources

• AHARONIAN, Coriún (2000). An Approach to Compositional Trends in Latin America, International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST).
• CORTEZ, Luis Jaime (1988). Mario Lavista, textos en torno a la música, CENIDIM, Mexico City; 171 pp.
• ORELLANA, Joaquín (1977). "Hacia un lenguaje propio de Latinoamérica en música actual," Alero, Third period, No. 24 (Guatemala City, May-June 1977).

External links

• Biography of Mario Lavista on The Living Composers Project
• Peermusic Classical: Mario Lavista Composer's Publisher and Bio