Ficher, Jacobo (1896–1978)

An Argentine composer, violinist, and conductor, Jacobo Ficher was born in Odessa, Ukraine, on January 15, 1896. He began violin lessons when he was nine years old with Pyotr Solomonovich Stolyarsky and M. T. Hait, then entered the St. Petersburg Imperial Conservatory at sixteen and studied under Sergei Korguyev and Leopold Auer. In 1923 he immigrated to Argentina, where he became active in the musical life of Buenos Aires. In 1929 he was a founding member of the Grupo Renovación; he was also one of the founders of the Argentine Composers League (1947). Ficher taught composition at the University of La Plata as well as other important conservatories and institutions.

Ficher received numerous awards, including the Buenos Aires Municipal Prize three times (1929, 1931, and 1943) and the Coolidge Prize for his String Quartet no. 2 (1937). Ficher's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra received honorable mention from the Free Library of Philadelphia (1942), and the Indianapolis Symphony commissioned the Suite for Strings (1954). Ficher also composed two operas, El oso (1952) and Pedido de mano (1956). He died in Buenos Aires on September 9, 1978.

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ficher, Miguel, Martha Furman Schleifer, and John M. Furman, eds. Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary, 2nd edition. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002.

Zipman, B. "Jacobo Ficher." In New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie. London and Washington, DC: Grove's Dictionaries of Music, 1980.

                                  Susana Salgado

                                  Vicente Palermo