Alfredo Rugeles

Alfredo Rugeles

Works for Cello

Inventio (1983, rev. 2003), for cello.


Sources:

Grove Music Online: https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.45216 

Furman Schleifer, M., and Galván, G (2016). Latin American Classical Composers, A Biographical Dictionary. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

Alfredo Rugeles

Venezuelan composer and conductor, born in 1949.


Venezuelan music administrator, composer, and conductor Alfredo Rugeles was born in Washington D.C. in 1949. In 1976, he graduated from the Escuela Juan Manuel Olivares in Caracas, Venezuela,where he studied singing with Fedora Alemán, choral conducting with Alberto Grau, and composition with Yannis Ionnidis. He also studied conducting with Gonzalo Castellanos, Antonio Estévez, Abraham Abreu, Silvia Eisenstein, Modesta Bor, Eric Colón, José Clemente Laya, Alba Quintanilla, and Ingrid Hernández. Rugeles studied composition with Sergiu Celebidache in Germany and Franco Ferrara in Italy. He furthered his education by attending Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, where he graduated in 1979 with a master’s in composition and orchestral conducting.

Rugeles sang and conducted with the Schola Cantorum in Caracas. He also created and directed Grupo Instrumental Universitario Simón Bolívar and Kai-yumei which both performed primarily Latin American traditional folk music. Canto a la paz for a cappella is one of his best known choral works. Rugeles’ Somosnueve won the 1979 National Composition Prize for chamber ensemble, and Tanguitis for piano won the Premio Municipal de Música in 1985. In 1983, he was appointed orchestral conductor and professor of composition at the Instituto Universitario de Estudios Musicales in Caracas. 

Rugeles is still one of the most active conductors in Venezuela, where he has premiered many contemporary Venezuelan works. He is currently the director of the orchestra of the Teatro Teresa Carreño and director of the Circuito Sinfónico Simón Bolívar, which dedicates diffusion and development of music in Venezuela. Rugeles is also the artistic director of “Festival Latinoamerico de Música,” one of the main festivals dedicated to Latin American music, which has been held since 1990.