Roberto Sierra

Roberto Sierra (born 9 October 1953) is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music.

Sierra was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico.

The Washington Times judged it "the most significant symphonic premiere in the District since the late Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was first performed in the Washington National Cathedral in the late 1960s."

He studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg (1979–1982), Germany.

(Júbilo had been premiered in Puerto Rico in 1985 by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zdeněk Mácal; it was also performed in 1986 by the same forces conducted by Akira Endo.) For more than three decades his works have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading orchestras, ensembles and festivals in the USA and Europe.

After his two-act opera El mensajero de plata, to a libretto by Myrna Casas, had premiered at the Interamerican Festival in San Juan on 9 October 1986, Sierra came to prominence in 1987 when his first major orchestral composition, Júbilo, was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

His Fandangos was performed at the opening night of the 2002 Proms, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and televised throughout Europe.

Sierra is a retired professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he taught composition.

In 2003 he was awarded the Academy Award in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The award states: "Roberto Sierra writes brilliant music, mixing fresh and personal melodic lines with sparkling harmonies and striking rhythms. . ."

In 2004, EMI Classics released his two guitar concertos Folias and Concierto Barroco with Manuel Barrueco as soloist (released on Koch in the USA in 2005).

His Sinfonía No. 1, a work commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, won the 2004 Kenneth Davenport Competition for Orchestral Works.

On February 2, 2006 Sierra's Missa Latina, premiered at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C., conducted by Leonard Slatkin to considerable acclaim.

On March 3, 2007, the Missa Latina was performed at the 51st Casals Festival in Sierra's homeland, Puerto Rico, where it was equally well-received.

Sierra's Concierto Barroco takes its inspiration from a scene in Alejo Carpentier's novel of the same name in which Handel and Vivaldi jam with a Cuban slave during the Venice Carnival.

Sierra was commissioned by guitarist Manuel Barrueco to write a concerto that tried to capture what that might have been like.

In Soundboard magazine, Eladio Scharron wrote that, "Sierra achieved – masterfully – a synthesis of a tradition of five centuries old... This work is truly a masterwork..."

Other commissioned works include:

Other ensembles who have commissioned Sierra include the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Mexico, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix, as well as the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the orchestras of Madrid, Galicia, and Barcelona.

Roberto Sierra's Music may be heard on CDs by Naxos, EMI, UMG’s EMARCY, New World Records, Albany Records, Koch, New Albion, Koss Classics, BMG, Fleur de Son and other labels.

In 2007 the Serge and Olga Koussevitzky International Recording Award (KIRA) was awarded to Albany Records for the recording of his composition Sinfonía No. 3 “La Salsa”.

Roberto Sierra has served as Composer-In-Residence with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and New Mexico Symphony.

In 2010, Missa Latina's Naxos recording was nominated for a Grammy Award under best contemporary classical composition category, and his Sinfonia No. 4 was nominated in that same category in 2015.

Some of Sierra's selected works include:

Selected orchestral works

Selected concertos

Selected vocal works

Chamber orchestra

Smaller ensembles

Wind ensemble (including works with soloists)

Choral (including works with soloists)

Chamber works

Keyboard works

Solo and duo works

In 2010 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

In 2011, UMG’s EMARCY label released Caribbean Rhapsody featuring the Concierto for Saxophones and Orchestra commissioned and premiered by the DSO with James Carter.

In 2017, Sierra was awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin, by the Society of Spanish Composers Foundation.

In 2021, he won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.