Latin American Music Center . . . the beginning
Orrego-Salas stands in front of a map of South America.
Juan Orrego-Salas was instrumental in the establishment of the Latin American Music Center, serving as the founding director from its inception until his retirement in 1987. Founded by the Rockefeller Foundation in 1961, when the foundation provided the initial $10,000 grant, the Latin American Music Center actively promotes the research and performance of Latin American music. In partnership with the William and Gayle Cook Music Library and the Archives of Traditional Music, the LAMC curates collections of traditional, art, and popular music.
Among Orrego-Salas many contributions to the Center during his tenure as director, he produced two editions of the catalog Latin American Music Available at Indiana University (1964, 1971), which aided in making Latin American materials available to scholars and musicians. He also introduced graduate courses on the music history of Latin America and an ensemble focused on Latin American music at Indiana University, laying foundations for coursework that continues today. During his tenure, the LAMC sponsored conferences, guest artists, lectures, and concerts in support of its mission of fostering the academic study, performance and research of Latin American music.
In addition to collections of books, scores, recordings, and ephemera associated with Latin American music, the LAMC has sponsored many music events like the chamber concert series "Salón Latino," the Alberto Ginastera Music Festival, the Latin American Music Recording Competition, the Crossroads of Traditions Concerts, and the Indiana International Guitar Festival and Competition. Since the retirement of Juan Orrego-Salas, the LAMC has been directed by Venezuelan composer Ricardo Lorenz, Venezuelan-American conductor Carmen Téllez, Erick Carballo, Paul Borg, and the current director, Javier F. León.
Over fifty years after its founding, the Latin American Music Center continues to promote the academic study, performance, and research of Latin American music.
Orrego-Salas is pictured here with the former Dean of the School of Music, Wilfred Bain.
From one of Orrego-Salas’s many scrapbooks, this is a page with a 1961 article from the Indiana University newspaper Indiana Daily Student reporting on the original $10,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation for the creation of the Latin American Music Center under the direction of Dr. Juan Orrego-Salas.
Like the LAMC, the Centro Latinamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM) was a center of Latin American music studies also sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. It opened in 1962 as part of the Di Tella Institute in Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the direction of Alberto Ginastera.
In 1962, Dr. J.W. Ashton, Dean of the Graduate School at Indiana University, received a letter from Flora M. Rhind, informing him that the Rockefeller Foundation was offering the university a second grant of $97,000 for the establishment of the Latin American Music Center under the direction of Dr. Juan Orrego-Salas.
Here is a letter from composer Alberto Ginastera to Juan Orrego-Salas, written in April of 1967. In it, Ginastera discusses his scheduled visit to Bloomington, Indiana to attend the performance of his Cantata Bomarzo (1964) at the Fifth Spring Festival of Latin American Music, Indiana University School of Music.
Juan Orrego-Salas with Indiana University School of Music Dean Emeritus Wilfred Bain and the Venezuelan singer Fedora Aleman in a lecture in Caracas, Venezuela during the South American Tour, 1965.
A 1973 article detailing the founding and growth of the Latin American Music Center, as collected by Orrego-Salas in one of his scrapbooks.
Winners and Judges of the Competition in the Performance of Music from Spain and Latin America, one of the competitions sponsored by the Latin American Music Center.
Left to right: Ernesto Bitetti, Alfonso Montecino, the two winners of the competition, Juan Orrego-Salas, Mauricio Fuks, and Carmen Téllez.
After the 2011 donation of Orrego-Salas’s extensive collection of scores, writings, and ephemera, members of the Latin American Music Center team worked to organize, catalog and describe the collection. Here, Orrego-Salas looks at one of his scores, providing insights to David Scimonelli, a LAMC Library Assistant working on the collection.
Interview (2011): "Juan Orrego Salas: A Latin American Composer in the USA"
One of the activities Juan Orrego-Salas established at the Latin American Music Center was the Spring Festival of Latin American Music. The Fifth Spring Festival (1967), which included Orrego-Salas's Concerto de Camera, op. 34 (1952), can be listened to on Indiana University's Media Collections Online.
Interview (2011):
"Juan Orrego Salas: A Latin American Composer in the USA"
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Indiana University's Latin American Music Center (LAMC), composer, scholar, and LAMC founder Juan Orrego-Salas, talks about his musical upbringing and the foundation of the LAMC in 1961.