José Serebrier

The son of Russian and Polish parents, Uruguayan composer José Serebrier was born in Montevideo in 1938. He began studying violin at the age of nine and made his conducting debut two years later, giving concerts all over South America. In 1974 the journal "Music and Musicians" wrote about Serebrier's first major accomplishment as a composer: In 1953 Serebrier "entered the annual contest sponsored by the National Orchestra of Uruguay (known as SODRE), which that year announced only a few weeks before the deadline. He won it--with a hastily written 'Legend of Faust' Overture--finishing the orchestration during a breathless taxi drive rushing to reach the judges on time." Due to the young composer's age, however, his work was given to another guest conductor, Eleazar de Carvalho. Serebrier's music from the 1960s and 1970s reveals a strong preoccupation with tone color. His "Colores mágicos," for example, exemplifies his use of many contemporary techniques, such as cluster effects, serialism and spatial music. This work also employs the Synchroma, which is a light-producing machine that responds to sound stimuli.

Serebrier’s Compositions