Cristina Altamira
Encyclopedia
Cristina Altamira is a mezzosoprano specializing in baroque
and Latin American music
.
with her father, Manuel Altamira, a well-known tenor specializing in the genres of tango
and milonga
. She also became conversant with Argentine folk dance
and guitar
playing, and was a member of various choral organizations and music groups. After a performance tour through Argentina
, Peru
, Ecuador
, Colombia
, and Venezuela
, she settled in Caracas
. Here she founded the vocal-instrumental ensemble Alabanza, taking much interest in the study of Venezuelan folk music, instruments, and vocal techniques. In 1977 she recorded the album Gracias together with Pedro Inatty and Dieter Lehnhoff
, whom she had met in Caracas
and who became her husband.
After settling in Guatemala, Cristina Altamira developed an interest in Renaissance music
from Europe
and especially Spain
, the country of her ancestors. She studied with Marina Prado Bolaños and Manuel Gómez, and performed as soloist with the accompaniment of lutenist Alejandro Herrera and with the Da Camera Ensemble. After a new period in Venezuela for a series of performances, she returned to Guatemala, where she sang and acted in theatrical productions such as Sophocles
' Antigona, Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream), and the musical Un sueño hecho realidad (A Dream Come True) with the Carrusel group, winning the Opus 1983 award for the best theatre music. At the same time she began to devote herself to the project of reviving Guatemalan music from the Renaissance
and baroque
with the ensemble, now renamed Capella Antiqua. They were awarded the "15th of September" Central American Music Prize in 1985.
For four years she resided in Washington, D.C.
with her husband and their two children, Gabriela and Sebastian. Here she sung Spanish American baroque
music with The New World Consort and studied voice with Raymond McGuire. Upon return to Guatemala, she founded the Millennium Ensemble together with Dieter Lehnhoff
. With this new group she recorded premieres of a sizable number of villancico
s, songs, and cantatas by Manuel José de Quirós
, Rafael Antonio Castellanos
, Pedro Nolasco Estrada Aristondo, José Eulalio Samayoa
, and José Escolástico Andrino. Further recordings included Mass
es, hymns, and vespers
music by Hernando Franco, Pedro Bermúdez, and Gaspar Fernández, as well as orchestral songs by Luis Felipe Arias, Rafael Alvarez Ovalle, and Rafael Juárez Castellanos. At the same time, she has cultivated European baroque and classical repertoire, performing cantata
s by Johann Sebastian Bach
, aria
s by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
, and ode
s by Henry Purcell
.
Mme. Altamira has sung solo parts in numerous concerts in various countries with the Millennium Ensemble, as well as with the New Philharmonic Orchestra, later Metropolitan Orchestra and finally Millennium Orchestra. She has participated in festivals and concerts in Argentina
, Colombia
, Ecuador
, El Salvador
, Guatemala
, Nicaragua
, Paraguay
, Peru
, Spain
, Venezuela
, and the United States
to great acclaim.http://miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment14120539.htm. For her outstanding performances, she was awarded a number of prizes such as the Dante Alighieri
Medal. She is also a founding member of the Guatemalan Music Council, affiliated to the International Music Council
of Unesco
.
In 2001 Mme. Altamira commenced her radio broadcasting programme "Barroco de dos mundos" (Baroque from Two Worlds) on the Guatemalan national public Radio Faro Cultural 104.5 FM. The programme, which airs every Friday night at 8 PM for a full hour, is devoted to the dissemination of new discoveries of baroque music from the Americas and Europe, having found a wide audience and critical acclaim.
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
and Latin American music
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
.
Biography
Born into an Argentine family of Spanish descent, Cristina Altamira trained in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
with her father, Manuel Altamira, a well-known tenor specializing in the genres of tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
and milonga
Milonga
Milonga can refer to an Argentine, Uruguayan, and Southern Brazilian form of music which preceded the tango and the dance form which accompanies it, or to the term for places or events where the tango or Milonga are danced...
. She also became conversant with Argentine folk dance
Folk dance
The term folk dance describes dances that share some or all of the following attributes:*They are dances performed at social functions by people with little or no professional training, often to traditional music or music based on traditional music....
and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
playing, and was a member of various choral organizations and music groups. After a performance tour through Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, and Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, she settled in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
. Here she founded the vocal-instrumental ensemble Alabanza, taking much interest in the study of Venezuelan folk music, instruments, and vocal techniques. In 1977 she recorded the album Gracias together with Pedro Inatty and Dieter Lehnhoff
Dieter Lehnhoff
Dieter Lehnhoff is a composer, conductor, and musicologist.-Life:Born in Guatemala City to German settlers, 1955, Dieter Lehnhoff has been a pupil of Klaus Ager, Gerhard Wimberger, Josef Maria Horváth, and Dr. Friedrich C. Heller in Salzburg...
, whom she had met in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
and who became her husband.
After settling in Guatemala, Cristina Altamira developed an interest in Renaissance music
Renaissance music
Renaissance music is European music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually; musicologists have placed its beginnings from as early as 1300 to as late as the 1470s.Literally meaning...
from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and especially Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, the country of her ancestors. She studied with Marina Prado Bolaños and Manuel Gómez, and performed as soloist with the accompaniment of lutenist Alejandro Herrera and with the Da Camera Ensemble. After a new period in Venezuela for a series of performances, she returned to Guatemala, where she sang and acted in theatrical productions such as Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
' Antigona, Calderón de la Barca's La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream), and the musical Un sueño hecho realidad (A Dream Come True) with the Carrusel group, winning the Opus 1983 award for the best theatre music. At the same time she began to devote herself to the project of reviving Guatemalan music from the Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
and baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
with the ensemble, now renamed Capella Antiqua. They were awarded the "15th of September" Central American Music Prize in 1985.
For four years she resided in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
with her husband and their two children, Gabriela and Sebastian. Here she sung Spanish American baroque
Baroque
The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...
music with The New World Consort and studied voice with Raymond McGuire. Upon return to Guatemala, she founded the Millennium Ensemble together with Dieter Lehnhoff
Dieter Lehnhoff
Dieter Lehnhoff is a composer, conductor, and musicologist.-Life:Born in Guatemala City to German settlers, 1955, Dieter Lehnhoff has been a pupil of Klaus Ager, Gerhard Wimberger, Josef Maria Horváth, and Dr. Friedrich C. Heller in Salzburg...
. With this new group she recorded premieres of a sizable number of villancico
Villancico
The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...
s, songs, and cantatas by Manuel José de Quirós
Manuel José de Quirós
-Life:Born in Santiago de Guatemala, present day Antigua Guatemala, towards the end of the 17th century, Quirós had a religious education while pursuing his musical apprenticeship and reaching the level of a journeyman...
, Rafael Antonio Castellanos
Rafael Antonio Castellanos
Rafael Antonio Castellanos was a Guatemalan classical composer. His style is that of the late Spanish baroque, pre-classical, and classical periods, with frequent reference to Guatemalan folk music idioms.-Life:...
, Pedro Nolasco Estrada Aristondo, José Eulalio Samayoa
José Eulalio Samayoa
-Biography:José Eulalio Samayoa was educated within the system of guilds, progressing from apprentice to journeyman before becoming a master. He founded the Philharmonic Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a series of musical and liturgical celebrations held on July 2, 1813...
, and José Escolástico Andrino. Further recordings included Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
es, hymns, and vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
music by Hernando Franco, Pedro Bermúdez, and Gaspar Fernández, as well as orchestral songs by Luis Felipe Arias, Rafael Alvarez Ovalle, and Rafael Juárez Castellanos. At the same time, she has cultivated European baroque and classical repertoire, performing cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
s by Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, aria
Aria
An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...
s by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
, and ode
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
s by Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell
Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...
.
Mme. Altamira has sung solo parts in numerous concerts in various countries with the Millennium Ensemble, as well as with the New Philharmonic Orchestra, later Metropolitan Orchestra and finally Millennium Orchestra. She has participated in festivals and concerts in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, Nicaragua
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...
, Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
, and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to great acclaim.http://miami.com/mld/miamiherald/entertainment14120539.htm. For her outstanding performances, she was awarded a number of prizes such as the Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
Medal. She is also a founding member of the Guatemalan Music Council, affiliated to the International Music Council
International Music Council
The International Music Council was created in 1949 as UNESCO's advisory body on matters of music. It is based at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, France, where it functions as an independent international non-governmental organization...
of Unesco
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
.
In 2001 Mme. Altamira commenced her radio broadcasting programme "Barroco de dos mundos" (Baroque from Two Worlds) on the Guatemalan national public Radio Faro Cultural 104.5 FM. The programme, which airs every Friday night at 8 PM for a full hour, is devoted to the dissemination of new discoveries of baroque music from the Americas and Europe, having found a wide audience and critical acclaim.
Recordings
- Lila, LP, 1975
- Gracias, LP, 1977
- Capilla Musical, CD, 1992
- La Sociedad Filarmónica, CD, 1993
- Coros de Catedral, CD, 1995
- Ecos de antaño, CD, 1997
- Los caminos de Santiago, CD, 1999
- Tesoros musicales de la Antigua Guatemala, CD, 2003
- Joyas del Barroco en Guatemala, CD, 2006