Alberto Evaristo Ginastera

Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (1916-83), Argentine composer, known for combining nationalistic musical idioms with 20th-century techniques. Born and trained in Buenos Aires, he taught at several Argentine conservatories and in 1971 moved to Geneva. He developed a personal synthesis of compositional procedures that draws on serial and chance methods of organization and utilizes microtones (intervals smaller than a half step), as well as using more traditional forms. His Second String Quartet, first performed at the first Interamerican Music Festival (1958), won him international stature. With his chamber opera Bomarzo (1967) he was recognized as a leading 20th-century composer of opera.