Composer Biography: Leo Brouwer (1939-)
Leo Brouwer, born Juan Leovigildo Brouwer Mezquida in 1939, is a Cuban guitarist, composer, and conductor. Across his lifetime, he has many achievements and been involved in the advocacy of music and the arts internationally, but mainly in his home country of Cuba. Of the composers so far in this blog, Brouwer is the first to still be alive and still composing music at the age of 85 (at the time of writing this blog in 2024).
Brouwer taught himself music theory as a child. He is said to have visited music stores in Havana and spent days studying sheet music from the great composers. He is also a fan of popular music, ranging from the popular music of Cuba which he later used throughout many of his compositions, but also in the popular music of The Beatles, and even more recently, music of the heavy metal genre.
Brouwer went on to write many compositions which are now staples of the classical guitar repertoire. His Etudes Simples are played by students everywhere and his other works are played by professional guitarists in concerts that often require a strong technical capability on the instrument. In his writing he includes elements of Cuban music, Afro-Cuban, and avant-garde. He also composed for film and built a career as a conductor for many of the world’s best orchestras.
Outside of his career as a composer, Brouwer created the Cuban Institute of Art and Film Industry in 1960, founded the Orquestra de Cordoba in 1992, helped Cuban music conservatories build programs, and has recently been the General Manager of the Cuban National Symphony. He also is a Latin Grammy Award winner and recipient of the National Music Prize for Cuba. Brouwer has done a multitude of varied things across his career that all cannot be listed here, but it paints a picture of a lifetime of work that has influenced many modern guitarists today.
Notable Compositions:
Cuban Landscape with Rain
Concerto Elegiaco
Etudes Simples
El Decameron Negro
Un dia de noviembre
All the best for now - see you in the next blog!