Sergio Cervetti


Sergio Cervetti 'Guigou' is a Uruguayan composer and teacher domiciled in the United States. His early compositional language reflects the post serialist Uruguayan avant-garde, often employing electronics and complex graphical notation. He gained international prominence in 1966 when he achieved first place with 5 Episodes for Piano Trio in the Inter-American Music Festival in Caracas, Venezuela. His compositions have been widely recorded on labels such as Albany Records, Vienna Modern Masters, and Navona Records, which have been reviewed in Gramophone and The Washington Post. His music has been played by renowned orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and New York City Opera.
WWW sergiocervetti.com

Biography

Sergio Cervetti was exposed to music at a young age by his parents. His Italian father was a clarinettist and his French mother helped motivate him to learn the piano. His early piano studies were with José María Martino Rodas and Hugo Balzo and later studied counterpoint and harmony at the National Conservatory with Carlos Estrada and Guido Santorsola.
In 1962 he left Uruguay to study composition in the United States at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore under Austrian-born composer Ernst Krenek and South African composer Stefans Grové, graduating in 1967.
In 1969, Cervetti, went to Berlin to take up a one-year DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program composer-in-residence. Whilst in Germany he received Baden-Baden commissions and wrote an a cappella work Lux Lucet In Tenebris which won a Gaudeamus International Composers Award which was premiered at the festival in Zwolle.
After 1970, Cervetti attended the Electronic Music Centre at Columbia-Princeton University where he studied under Vladimir Ussachevsky and Mario Davidovsky.
Whilst in New York, he taught for 25 years at the Tisch School of the Arts having started his tenure in 1972. As Master Teacher of Music he tutored in music history, composition and historic dance.

Selected works

Chamber

Five episodes for violin, cello and piano Six sequences : for dance for chamber orchestra
  • Divertimento, para cuarteto de maderas for woodwind quartetZinctum for string quartetDies tenebrarum for electric organ, percussion, choir and stringsPrisons No. 1 for dancers, musicians, singers and pantomimePulsar for brass sextetCuatro fragmentos de Pablo Neruda for soprano, oboe, violoncello and percussionPeripetia for voices and musiciansCocktail Party work for music-theatreLux Lucet in Tenebris for a cappella voicesPlexus for chamber orchestraRaga I for ensemble...de la tierra... for ensemble
  • Concerto for Trumpet and Strings, reorchestrated 2015Duelle concerto for cor anglais and string bassMadrigal III for two sopranos and small ensembleInes de Castro balletThe Triumph of Death '''' mezzo-soprano and piano; Text: Circe MaiaHouse of Blues for wind ensemble
  • Nazca for string orchestra
  • Toward the Abyss piano quintet
  • And the Huddled Masses for clarinet and string quartet

Opera

Elegy for a Prince opera in two acts. Libretto: Elizabeth EsrisYUM! opera in one act for voices and chamber ensemble. Libretto: Elizabeth Esris

Orchestra

El Carro de Heno for chamber choir and orchestraOrbitas for orchestraCandombe II for orchestraDescent piano and orchestraConsolamentum for orchestra
  • Et in Arcadia ego symphonic poem
  • Fanfare: Gated Angel for orchestra

Solo instrument or voice

Guitar Music Four Fragments of Isadora soprano; Text: Letters of Duncan and Craig
  • Three Pieces for Marimba

Works with electronics or tape

Studies in Silence for electronics
  • Oulom for tape, in 1970Graffiti for spoken chorus, orchestra and tapePrisons No. 2 for spoken choir, orchestra and tapeRaga II for trombone and tapeRaga III for tapeStella Vindemiatrix for oboe and pre-recorded oboeBits & pieces and Moving Parts for tapeEl Rio de los Pajaros Pintados for bandoneon and tapeSomething Borrowed, Something Blue for tape

Discography