Adolfo Mejía

• Name — Adolfo Mejía Navarro • Background — person • Born — 5 February 1905 • Birthplace — Sincé, Colombia • Died — 6 July 1973 • Place of death — Cartagena, Colombia

Mejía was born on 5 February 1905 in Sincé, in the Colombian department of Sucre, to Adolfo Mejía and Francisca Navarro. His father was a guitarist and notable singer. In 1916 Mejía moved to Cartagena, where he studied at the Normal de Institutores and sang in the choir of the San Pedro Claver church. Around this time he wrote his first composition, a piano piece called "Primicias". He obtained a bachelor's degree in philosophy and letters from the University of Cartagena.

In 1923 Mejía enrolled at the Instituto Musical de Cartagena, where he studied under Juan de Sanctis and Eusebio Celio Fernández. Concurrently he was a member of the Estudiantina Revollo, the Orquesta Eureka, and the Jazz Band Lorduy, and was composing in several traditional Colombian styles including fandango, chandé (music), bambuco, and pasillo. Mejía moved to New York in 1930, where he formed the Trío Albéniz with Terig Tucci on mandolin and Antonio Francés on lute. The Trío Albéniz recorded albums for Columbia Records and RCA Victor, and toured various cities around New York. In 1933 Mejía returned to Colombia, and moved to Bogotá. There he started working as a librarian for the National Symphony Orchestra, and played piano on the radio station Ecos del Tequendama. He also formed a guitar trio, and enrolled at the National Conservatory of Music, where he studied under Gustavo Escobar Larrazábal, Jesús Bermúdez Silva, and Andrés Pardo Tovar. In 1938 a composition of Mejía's called "Pequeña Suite para Orquesta" won the Premio Ezequiel Bernal. Mejía used the prize winnings to move to Paris in 1939, where he enrolled in the École Normale de Musique and was taught by Nadia Bonneville, Nadia Boulanger, and Charles Koechlin, and influenced by the work of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He left Paris in 1940 due to the Nazi occupation and travelled via Italy to Brazil, following which he spent some time in New York and Argentina before returning to Colombia. Alongside musician Espinosa Grau, Mejía was involved in the formation of the Sociedad Pro-Arte Musical in Colombia in 1945, an organisation that oversaw music festivals in Cartagena. In 1950 he travelled in Spain, France, and Italy, and then lived briefly in New York before returning to Colombia, where in 1954–1957 he directed the orchestra of the Instituto Musical de Cartagena, where he had studied as a young man. He taught music at several schools on the Caribbean coast and was also conductor of the Navy Band for several years.

Mejía was friends with Lucho Bermúdez. He died on 6 July 1973 in Cartagena.