Alejandro García Caturla, musician and lawyer, was born in Las Villas, Cuba, in 1906. His musical education began in his hometown of Remedios. There, he studied under Fernando Estrems and later with María Montalván and Carmen Valdés. In 1922, he moved to Havana to enroll at the University (Avenida Universidad e/G y Ronda) and received classes from the Spanish professor Pedro Sanjuán in the subjects of harmony, counterpoint, and fugue.

Motivated by the innovative currents of 20th-century music and its aesthetic positions, he stayed in Paris for a few months in 1928, where he studied with Nadia Boulanger. This trip was a result of his relationship with Alejo Carpentier and other members of the Minorista Group.

In 1929, Caturla returned to Europe with Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes to participate in the Ibero-American Symphony Festivals at the Barcelona International Exposition, where he performed “Tres Danzas Cubanas” for a symphony orchestra. He represented our country internationally.

In 1932, he founded the Caibarién Concert Society, serving as its orchestra’s conductor. In 1938, he won first prize with “Obertura Cubana” at the National Music Competition convened in 1937 by the Directorate of Culture of the Ministry of Education, and received an Honorable Mention for “Suite for Orchestra.” As a violinist, he held the positions of second violin and viola in the Havana Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic. As a pianist, he began playing in a jazz band, of which he directed, making some personal appearances. He also played saxophone, clarinet, and percussion. His baritone voice was heard in several concerts organized by Anckermann and Lecuona.

Alejandro García Caturla, raised in the Cuban cultural environment, became a part of it. He created his own style, fusing important elements of Cuban popular music, both Afro-Cuban and guajira, with elements of the European avant-garde musical language. One of the techniques he used in the 1920s was the imitation of the sounds of typical folk instruments with conventional European instruments. He handled Cuban rhythms effectively, even without percussion instruments. He also used pentaphonic melodies, which gave the impression of a primitive style. His capacity for assimilation led him to master contemporary European musical languages, which gave his musical output a stamp of originality.

A member of the Afro-Cuban movement and a representative of symphonic music, he is considered the first composer to create a truly national work. He used African rhythms and melodies in his concert music.

He wrote music for orchestra, chamber music, ballet, opera, theater, film, band, various instruments, as well as for voice and various accompaniments.

Alejandro García Caturla’s work is recognized both in Cuba and abroad. In “Music in Cuba,” Alejo Carpentier himself writes that, “endowed with true genius, his creative power manifested itself from adolescence in a series of vehement, dynamic works, uncontrollable in their expression like a telluric force.”