Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary

Now in its third edition, Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary provides a singular English-language resource for biographical information on hundreds of composers from Central and South America and the Hispanic Caribbean. Painstakingly gathered from a wide variety of sources, the information updates and expands previous editions and fills in the gaps left by the other major English-language music dictionaries and encyclopedias.

Entries provide biographical data comprising full names, birth and death dates and locations, background, education, and training, as well as selective works lists more than 2,300 composers. An index of composers by country and women composers of Latin America complement the volume. An essential part of any music library, Latin American Classical Composers is an invaluable reference for librarians, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, researchers, and music students.

The Dictionary A-Z
Composers by Country

Martha Furman Schleifer taught at Temple University and was senior editor of the Hildegard Publishing Co. She coedited the first and second editions of Latin American Composers: A Biographical Dictionary along with Women Composers: Music Through the Ages (8 volumes) and Three Centuries of American Music (12 volumes). As author of many books and articles on women and American composers, she has contributed to The New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers and The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.

Gary Galván is curator for the Edwin A. Fleisher Collection of Orchestral Music at the Free Library of Philadelphia, the largest collection of circulating orchestral performance materials in the world. He has lectured and written extensively on classical and Latin American music, contributing to publications such as TheNew Grove Dictionary of American Music and presenting his research around the globe. A jazz and classical guitarist by training, he has performed at the Moulin d’Ande in Normandy and with the University of Florida’s Jacaré Brazil. He also teaches a wide variety of music topics at La Salle University.

This third edition of a book first published some 20 years ago includes 2,330 entries, substantially more than did its predecessors. New to this edition is a list of some 280 women composers. Of the 20 Latin American countries represented, the top five (Argentina, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, and Cuba, in that order) garner more than two-thirds of the entries. . . .[T]he third of edition of this hefty reference work will prove useful for those looking for basic information on the many Latin Americans who have composed for venues other than the pop/rock arena.

Summing Up:Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.