Keyla Orozco

Keyla Orozco
Born (1969-09-22) 22 September 1969
Santiago de Cuba, Cuba
Alma mater
OccupationComposer
AwardsGuggenheim Fellowship (2000)
Musical career
Genres
  • Classical music
  • Cuban music

Keyla María Orozco Alemán (born 22 September 1969) is a Cuban composer based in the Netherlands and the United States. A 2000 Guggenheim Fellow, her music has drawn inspiration from Cuban music.

Biography

Keyla María Orozco Alemán was born on 22 September 1969 in Santiago de Cuba.[1] She studied at the Conservatorio Esteban Salas de Santiago de Cuba and National Art Schools, before studying composition at Instituto Superior de Arte with Harold Gramatges.[1][2] She later studied at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Sweelinck Conservatorium, the former under Theo Loevendie, who encouraged incorporation of Cuban elements towards her work.[2]

In May 1999, Greg Sandow of the Wall Street Journal said that her piece Perpetuum, recently performed at the American Composers Orchestra's Sonidos de las Americas festival, "exemplified something striking about Cuban classical music, that it often uses Cuban dance rhythms".[3] In July 1999, her piece Perpetuum was performed at the Uncommon Voices: A New Presence in Music event at Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden.[4] In 2007, her piece Para Ti Nengon, inspired by the Cuban genre nengón, appeared at a Merkin Hall concert on Cuban music.[5] In May 2018, she appeared at the Kennedy Center.[6] In November 2021, her piece Viajeros was the finale at Zofo's Zofomama show in Saint Paul, Minnesota; Sheila Regan said that Orozco "offered a richly theatrical piece of music" with a transition from Russian to Cuban music, noting that the backdrop represents Russian influence on the country.[7]

In 2000, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.[8] One of her compositions appeared on Yleana Bautista's album Impresiones.[9] She was awarded a MacDowell Colony Fellowship in 2011.[10] She was one of the five composers profiled in Iván César Morales Flores' 2018 book Identidades en proceso: Cinco compositores cubanos de la diáspora (1990–2013).[11] In 2022, Marysol Quevedo of The Washington Post cited Orozco as an example of Cuban composers who settled abroad outside the United States after the end of the Cold War.[12]

Originally based in the Netherlands, she now lives in Washington, D.C.[13] She works in both the Netherlands and the United States.[14]

References

  1. 1 2 Galván, Gary; Schleifer, Martha Furman, eds. (2016). Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary. p. 444.
  2. 1 2 Flores Morales, Iván César (2018). Identidades en proceso. Cinco compositores cubanos de la diáspora (1990–2013). p. 206–208.
  3. ↑ Sandow, Greg (27 May 1999). "In Concert: Tuneful Coexistence". Wall Street Journal. p. A24. ProQuest 398658311.
  4. ↑ Oestreich, James R (6 July 1999). "A Crackling Energy Defies the Elements". New York Times. p. 5. ProQuest 431215121.
  5. ↑ Kozinn, Allan (10 January 2007). "Earthy Cuban Sounds, Rendered With an Urban Complexity". New York Times. p. E3. ProQuest 433480471.
  6. ↑ "Música cubana da família López-Nussa recebe aplausos nos EUA". Prensa Latina (in Spanish). 19 May 2018. ProQuest 2041118375.
  7. ↑ Regan, Sheila (18 November 2021). "Classical review: ZOFO duo melds piano with paintings in engaging, inventive performance". Pioneer Press.
  8. ↑ "Keyla Orozco". Guggenheim Fellowship. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
  9. ↑ "Tanto por EscucharJorge Torres Saenz". Reforma (in Spanish). 21 April 2005. p. 4. ProQuest 307486274.
  10. ↑ "Keyla Orozco – Artist". MacDowell. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
  11. ↑ Peñate, Cary. "Identidades en proceso: Cinco compositores cubanos de la diáspora (1990–2013)". Revista de Música Latinoamericana. 41 (2): 228–230. ProQuest 2699751854.
  12. ↑ Quevedo, Marysol (28 December 2022). "Decades of U.S.-Cuba musical exchange shaped Tania León's career". The Washington Post. ProQuest 2758761391.
  13. ↑ "Keyla Orozco". Donemus. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
  14. ↑ "Keyla Orozco". Fromm Music Foundation. Retrieved 16 April 2025.
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