Modesta Bor

Works for Cello

Suite (1961), for cello and piano.


Works for Viola

Sonata (1960), for viola and piano, published by Ediciones ARE.


Sources:

Grove Music Online: https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.46806

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

Modesta Bor

Venezuelan composer and conductor, born in 1926, died April 7, 1998.


Modesta Bor was born in Juan Griego, Venezuela, in 1926. A well-known educator, composer and choral conductor, Bor began studying composition in Caracas with Vicente Emilio Sojo and graduated from the Conservatorio José Angél Lamas in Caracas in 1959. From 1960 to 1962, Bor studied with Khachaturian at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. From there, Bor began composing, conducting and teaching along with being a musicologist for the Servicio de Investigaciones Folklóricas Nacionales from 1963 to 1964. She then became the director of children’s choirs at the Conservatorio Juan Manuel Olivares in 1965 and the director of cultural activities at the Universidad Central de Venezuela from 1974 to 1990. Bor won the National Music Prize in 1991 and five Venezuelan composition prizes. 

Bor’s early compositions represent elements from Venezuelan folklore with an emphasis on counterpoint. After 1962, she adopted atonal serialism along with other modernist techniques. Her choral compositions are extremely influential especially in children’s choirs. Bor passed away in Mérida, Venezuela on April 7, 1998.