Gerardo Guevara

Born in Quito, Gerardo Guevara showed music ability at an early age. Because his father worked as a caretaker at the Conservatorio Nacional, Guevara used to eavesdrop on the music dictations that were being given to older children and sometimes ventured to shout the answer before running away. When he was fifteen he started studying composition with Luis H. Salgado. In 1952, while playing the piano in an orchestra in Guayaquil, he studied composition and the analysis of Bartok's music with the Hungarian musician Jorge Aq. From 1959 onwards and thanks to a Unesco grant, Guevara studied composition with Nadia Boulanger at the École Normale de Musique de Paris where he graduated as a conductor. While in Paris, he also studied musicology at the University of La Sorbonne. After twelve years in France, he went back to Ecuador where in 1972 he formed the choir of the Central University of Quito. A year later, he created the Sayce (Society for the protection of musicians). He acted as a conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1974–75 and director of the Conservatorio Nacional (1980–88) where he taught composition and the history of Ecuadorian Music. Mainly nationalist he nonetheless explored contemporary techniques, which led Robert Stevenson to write: "Guevara Viteri has drawn on European styles". More appropriately Béhague comments: "more advanced techniques of composition appeared in some of the works of Gerardo Guevara". A prolific composer, he has also written essays and articles on music. As a teacher he also had a profound influence on his students. Guevara died on 23 December 2024, at the age of 94.

• Inspiración for piano, 1950 (world premiere 2011 by Alex Alarcon Fabre) • Despedida, pasillo, 1957 • Apanny Shungo for piano, 1958 • Yaguar shungo ballet for symphony orchestra and choir 1958 • Geografía for baritone and piano (texts by Jorge Enrique Adoum), 1960 • Tierras for baritone and piano (text by Jorge Carrera Andrade), 1960 • First string quartet, 1960 • El Hombre Planetario for baritone and piano (texts by Carrera Andrade), 1962 • Tres preludios for piano: Recitativo, Albazo and Sanjuanito, 1963 • Cantata de la paz for baritone, orchestra and choir 1963-64 • Second string quartet, 1963–64 • Atahualpa for choir, 1965 • Indios for choir, 1965 • Se va con algo mío, pasillo, 1967 • Danzante del destino, for pinkillu, pan flute, harp, bombo, 2 guitars, contralto solo, choir, 1967 • Danzante de la Ausencia, choir, 1967 • Yaraví del desterrado, 1967 • Tuyallay, 1967 • Ismos for violin, viola, cello, oboe, clarinet and piano, 1970 • Ecuador, orchestral suite, 1972 • 5 Miniaturas (Panecillo, Pichincha, La Compañía, Avenida Veinticuatro de Mayo, Quito Norte) for flute, French horn, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, 1973 • Quito arrabal del cielo for choir (text by Jorge Reyes), 1974 • Galería siglo XX de pintores ecuatorianos, orchestral suite, 1976 • El Panecillo, (texts by Eloy Proaño), 1977 • Solsticio de Verano, san juanito, 1977 • Tres melodías para soprano y orquesta de cámara texts by Ana María Iza (Iba a fugarme, Pasillo, Aquí me paro y grito), 1978 • Tríptico for choir, 1978 • El espantapájaros, • Jaguay, vocal, 1980 • Combate poético for baritone and piano, 1980 • Otoño for voice and piano, 1980 • Fiesta for piano, 1982 • Diálogos for flute, piano (dedicated to Luciano Carrera), 1982 • Recitativo and Danza for guitar, 1983 • Juegos, 1983 • Suite Ecuatoriana, for flute and piano, 1985 • Cuaderno pedagógico for piano students, 1985–86 • Et in Terra Pax Hominibus for baritone and orchestra, text by J. E. Adoum, 1987 • Huayra Shina for soprano, baritone and orchestra, 1987 • pasillo for piano, 1988 • Historia for orchestra, 1990. • Del maíz al trigo (tonada), 1993. • De mestizo a mestizo for orchestra (in three movements), 1994