Sergio Ortega

Sergio Ortega Alvarado (born February 2, 1938 in Antofagasta , Chile , † September 15, 2003 in Paris , France ), was a Chilean composer and pianist .

Sergio Ortega was born in Antofagasta, Chile. He studied composition with Gustavo Becerra Schmidt at the National Conservatory of the Universidad de Chile . After graduating, he worked at the Institute of Musical Extension and for six years as a sound engineer at the Teatro Antonio Varas, the university's experimental theater. Ortega can be counted among the left movement of Chile. For example, he composed President Salvador Allende's campaign song Venceremos (“We will win”) and wrote the world-famous resistance hymn El pueblo unido jamás será vencido (“The united people will never be defeated”). He also wrote the hymns of the Partido Radical (Radical Party), the Juventudes Comunistas (Communist Youth) and the Central Unica de Trabajadores . Finally, he turned Salvador Allende's political program into a song called Canto al Programa in the text version by Julio Rojas .

He wrote some of the central works of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement (New Chilean Songs), a combination of different rhythms and styles with a strong social background. His work includes poems, cantatas, operas, songs and soundtracks. His best-known works include the songs El monte y el rio (“The mountain and the river”) with a text by Nicolás Guillén and Les deux mere (“The two seas”) and a trilogy about the French Revolution .

Ortega wrote a large number of songs for the theater. One of his last works was an opera based on the epic poem Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta ("Splendor and Death of Joaquín Murieta") by his friend Pablo Neruda . Together with Gustavo Becerra he worked on a setting of Neruda's Canto General , which was premiered in 1970 by the Chilean band Aparcoa . In 1978 Ortega wrote a cantata for Neruda's Bernardo O'Higgins Riquelme, 1810. Poema sonoro para el padre de mi patria (“Homage to the Father of My Country”) for the liberator of Chile. Ortega worked with his eldest son Chanaral Ortega on an operatic version of Pedro Páramo , a novel by the Mexican author Juan Rulfo.

In 1969 Ortega became Professor of Composition at the Conservatory. A year later, in 1970, he took over the management of the university's television station, which he continued until 1973. After the coup in Chile in 1973 , he fled to France, where he lived until his death. In 1978 Ortega visited the USSR, took part in the festival "Red Carnation". In 1983 he was allowed to enter Chile again, which he made use of several times.

During his exile, Ortega directed the Ecole Nationale de Musique in Pantin, France. Gustavo Baez , Mirtru Escalona-Mijares , Christine Groult , Adolfo Kaplan , Sergey Kutanin , Arthur Lavilla , Clem Mounkala , Chanaral Ortega-Miranda , Martin Pavlovsky , Claire-Melanie Sinnhuber and others took part in his studies and master classes .

He died of pancreatic cancer in Paris on September 15, 2003, at the age of 65 , four days after the 30th anniversary of the coup. His grave is in Chile.