Luis Szarán

• Name — Luis Szarán • Birth Name — Luis Szarán • Born — 24 September 1953 • Birthplace — Encarnación, Paraguay • Field — Musician, composer, orchestra director • Works — "Meditación por la caída del Muro de Berlin para violín o violoncello y cuerdas" "Preludio Sinfónico" "Impresiones del Chaco: Chaidi" • Awards — Honored by the Italian government with the title of Official Knight of the Republic • Website — http: www.luisszaran.org

Szarán was born in Encarnación, Itapúa, in Paraguay, on 24 September 1953. He studied music with the teacher José Luis Miranda in Asunción. In 1975 Szarán obtained a scholarship to master his studies in Italy, given by the Italian government. He studied orchestra direction in the Santa Cecilia Conservatory, in Rome. His teachers were Massimo Pradella, Piero Bellugi and Mario Migliardi. Later on, he took courses of improvement in the Colón Theater, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with teacher Hans Swarowsky. In 1977 he continued his education in Chigiana de Sierra Academy and the Instituto Francesco Canneti de Vicenza.

Szarán's work have been published in books. Some of his work is about Native-American music and Paraguayan popular music; also transcriptions of the music in the Jesuit Missions. Since 1989, he had been the director of the Paraguayan Area for the Spanish Hispanic-American Encyclopedic Dictionary of Music, organized by the Author General Society of Spain, SGAE. Szarán's compositions have been presented at the Festival de Música Contemporánea de Ouro Preto in Brazil, in 1975 and 1978; Encuentro de Compositores de Latinoamérica in Santiago, Chile 1988 and 1989, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in 1989, and in Buenos Aires in 1990. His piece "Variaciones en Puntas" for winds quintet was presented in the Youth International Festival of Beyreuth, Germany during the closing concert. It was also presented in the São Paulo's Musica Nova Festival. On 6 December 2016, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (France), Szarán received the recognition "Artist for Peace of UNESCO" for the Orchestra H2O Sounds of the Earth. On 4 May 2017, the Symphony Orchestra of the City of Asuncion (OSCA) presented at the Municipal Theater of Asunción the world premiere of the oratorio "The bronze arch", which Szarán composed 40 years ago, with a text by the journalist Jesus Ruiz Nestosa. On 6 October 2017, the label Klanglogo publishes the album "Jungle Baroque" by Szarán, as director of the orchestra "Sounds of Paraquaria".

• Year || Work • 1973 — Preludio Sinfonico (Symphonic Preamble) • 1973 — Las Musarañas, for winds • 1975 — Sonata for violin and piano • 1975 — Pequeña Suite (Small Suite), for violin and strings • 1975 — Trozos (Pieces), for strings • 1976 — Añesú, for narrator, choir and orchestra • 1978 — Sonata for piano • 1979 — El Río (The River), for contralto and instrumental band • 1983 — Tríptico Barrettiano (about texts of Rafael Barrett), for Chamber Orchestra • 1985 — Encarnaciones, suite for piano • 1985 — Concertino, for guitar, flute and strings • 1986 — Variaciones en Puntas, for wind quintet (National Award of Music in 1997) • 1989 — Mbocapú, for symphonic orchestra • 1990 — Miniaturas (miniatures), for oboe and piano • 1992 — Meditación por la caída del Muro de Berlín (Meditation for the fall of the Berlin Wall), for violin or violoncello and strings • 1992 — La Magdalena, for trombone and symphonic orchestra • 1997 — Rastros (Traces), for flute and piano • 1998 — Concertino, for violin and symphonic orchestra • 2001 — La Cruz del Sur (The South Cross), for soprano, violin, clavichord and strings • 2007 — Chaidi: los últimos sonidos (Chaidi: the last sounds), for flute, piano and strings

This project is directed towards the kids and young people, and was created by Szarán, who through the music schools, bands and cultural associations, gives access to musical education to 3.000 people of scarce resources, in 72 communities in the interior of the country. The program is inspired in the concept of "education for the art"; it was initiated in 2002 with the support of the AVINA Foundation, expanding it with alliances with other organizations like; the National Parliament, FONDEC, ITAIPU Bi-National, Asuncion's Philharmonic Society, the Embassies of Germany, United States, France and Italy, Partners of the Americans (Paraguay-Kansas), Culture Direction of Asunción Municipality and others. More than 100 organizations, municipalities, business and sponsors are involved. In 2005, Szarán was awarded with the Skoll Awards for The Social Entrepreneurships, given by the Skoll Foundation of California (USA). This award made possible to expand the project to other sector of society in need. The same year Sounds from my land was included as a program of Fundación Tierranuestra. On 16 May 2011, Szarán conducted the Paraguayan Bicentennial Chamber Orchestra, a musical ensemble brought together to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the Independence of the Republic of Paraguay. The orchestra comprised leading members of the City of Asunción Symphony Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra, plus some young musicians from the Sounds of the Earth Project. The program offered an overview of Paraguay's compositions from the 19th century to the present, and included works in a variety of styles. The celebrations were held at Church House, near Westminster Abbey, London, and the event was hosted by Miguel Solano-Lopez, Ambassador representing Paraguay in London.