Valcárcel Arce, Edgar (1932–)

Edgar Valcárcel Arce (b. 4 Dec. 1932), Peruvian composer. He was born in Puno and studied in Lima at the National Conservatory with Andrés Sas and at Hunter College in New York City with Donald Lybbert. With a fellowship from the Torcuato Di Tella Institute, Valcárcel studied in Buenos Aires at the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (1963–1964). He studied there with Alberto Ginastera, director of the center, and Olivier Messiaen, Luigi Dallapiccola, Gerardo Gandini, Riccardo Malipiero, and Bruno Maderna. He was in New York City in 1966 with a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship to do graduate work on electronic music under the guidance of Vladimir Ussachevsky and Alcides Lanza. In 1986 he became a professor at the National School of Music in Lima and in 1989 the director of that institution. In 1976 he was a visiting professor of composition at the Faculty of Music, McGill University, Montreal. Valcárcel has received the National Music Prize in 1956 and 1965, the State Choir Prize in 1965, the Composition Prize of the Grand Masonic Lodge in 1971, and the Inocente Carreño Prize, Caracas, in 1981.

His principal works include Variaciones for piano (1963); Espectros no. 1 for flute, viola, and piano (1964); Cantata para la noche inmensa for men's choir and orchestra (1964); Canto coral a Tupac Amaru no. 1 for soprano, baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1968); Sonata no. 1 for piano (1965); Dicotomías nos. 1 and 2 for piano (1966) and no. 3 for chamber ensemble (1966); Invención (1966), electronic sounds; Fisiones for chamber ensemble (1967); Hiwaña uru for winds, strings, and piano (1967), in memory of Andrés Sas; Piano Concerto (1968); Canto Coral a Tupac Amaru no. 2 for chorus and electronic sounds on tape (1968); Antaras for flute and electronic sounds (1968); Checán no. 1 for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, and piano (1969), no. 2 for orchestra (1970), and no. 3 for nineteen instruments (1971); Sonata no. 2 for piano (1971); Karabotasat Cutintapata for orchestra (1977); Zampoña sónica for flute and tape (1976); Retablo no. 2 (Flor de Sancayo) for piano and electronic sounds (1975); Antimemorias no. 2 for orchestra (1980); Checán no. 4 for choir (1981); Homenaje a Stravinsky for two pianos, flute, French horn and percussion (1982); Andahuaylillas for organ (1983); Concierto para guitarra y orquesta (1984); and A Theodoro for soprano and three French horns (1986). In 2007, he was a judge for the Premio de Compsición Casa de las Americas.

See alsoMusic: Art Music.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Compositores de America 17 (1971):113-120.

John Vinton, ed., Dictionary of Contemporary Music (1974), p. 790.

Gérard Béhague, Music in Latin America: An Introduction (1979), pp. 313-314; Octavo festival internacional de música contemporánea (1992), pp. 29, 83, 119-120.

                                     Alcides Lanza