Rafael Solano

Rafael Solano Sánchez (born April 10, 1931 in Puerto Plata ) is a Dominican composer.

Solano had violin and cello lessons from Manuel Plá Cocco and, at the age of thirteen, led a choir group in the Parochial Church of his hometown. He then studied piano with Vicente Grisolía and Rafael Arzeno and continued his training from 1950 at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música with Mary Siragusa and Pedro Lerma .

He then became director of the Gran Orquesta Angelita of the radio station La Voz Dominicana and switched from there to the Antonio Morels Orchestra . In 1954 he traveled to Colombia as a pianist with the Luis Alfonzo Larrains orchestra , where he worked for two years as conductor of the Embassy Club orchestra in the Hotel Embajador. Further concert tours took him to Jamaica and the Bahamas.

From 1959 Solano directed the television series La Hora de More , in which musicians such as Aníbal de Peña , Fernando Casado , Horacio Pichardo , Niní Cáffaro , Julio César Defilló , Arístides Incháustegui , Luchy Vicioso and José Lacay began their careers. He also founded the Festival de la Voz , which took place annually until 1971 and (with Nobel Alfonso and Mac Cordero ) the Show del Mediodía . In 1963 he went to New York and performed there with Charlie Fisk at the Hotel Americana . He also studied contemporary music there with Hall Overton .

Solano became known as a composer with titles like Por amor , Por caridad , El 10 de abril , Magia and En la oscuridad . They have been sung by Sonia Silvestre , Lope Balaguer , Fernando Casado, Marco Antonio Muñiz , Vikki Carr , Danny Rivera and Plácido Domingo , among others . He was awarded the Orden de Duarte, Sánchez y Mella by the Dominican government , received the El Gran Dorado Prize in 1976 , El Soberano in 2005 and was Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to UNESCO in Paris from 1982 to 1986 .

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• El Tren de Yaguaramas - Rafael Solano
• El Desván del Poeta: Por Amor - Rafael Solano