AURELIO DE LA VEGA

1925 - 2022

November 28, 1925 - February 12, 2022 Maestro Aurelio de la Vega, the world-class composer and a key figure of Los Angeles classical music circles, passed away February 12 of congestive heart failure at his home in Northridge. He was 96.
A long-time resident of Los Angeles, de la Vega was a hugely productive artist-his catalog includes orchestral, chamber, vocal, piano and electronic works and his commissions were sought the world over. Among them, in 1977 he composed "Adiós," one of his more ambitious pieces, for Maestro Zubin Mehta on behalf of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout his long life he garnered, as a result, numerous recognitions, among them the Friedheim Award, of the Kennedy Center for the performing arts which he received twice (1978, 1984), the Cintas Foundation William B. Warren Lifetime Achievement Award; the Carlos Vo Hispanic Imperial Order, of which he was made a member; and four nominations to the Latin Grammy Awards, three times for Best Classical Contemporary Composition and once for Best Classical Album.

De la Vega taught composition for thirty-four years at California State University, Northridge as Distinguished Professor of Music and Director of the Electronic Music Studio. In 1971 he was awarded the Outstanding Professor Award of the entire California State University system. Legions of students and colleagues all coincide in calling him "larger than life" and "a force onto himself."
At a time when U.S. Latino composers were a rarity, de la Vega was a notable pioneer. He first visited Los Angeles in 1947-- traveling from his native Cuba, where he first trained with Fritz Kramer and befriended Erich Kleiber-to work with Arnold Schonberg. Still a diehard atonalist, de la Vega eventually sought alternate training at UCLA with Ernst Toch. He returned to Havana to contexts that often regarded his works as too avant-garde, influenced by Eastern European trends and critical of the more traditional Spanish repertoires. Despite such odds, he became, during the nineteen fifties, a stable international referent to the Cuban musical scene through his frequent premieres-eight major pieces between 1950 and 1958, including his 12-tone masterpiece String Quartet in Five Movements-In Memoriam Alban Berg; his journalism-as music critic for two major Havana dailies-; his public service-as member of the National Culture Institute; and his teaching-as founding Dean of the University of Oriente School of Music.
Both in Cuba and the U.S. de la Vega taught, mentored and inspired students, performers and artists, including visual artists whom he encouraged and patronized. Testimonies abound of both his generosity and his uncanny ability to affect lives, both personally and through his music. "He was one of those people you must remember as 'before and after'," one of his students has remarked. In addition to his work as a composer, de la Vega distinguished himself as poet, essayist and human rights advocate.
In 1959, the mature composer moved permanently to Los Angeles. The fall of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship had caught him in the middle of a U.S. lecture tour, after which he returned to Havana. But after a brief stay, the hostile context he found persuaded him to emigrate. In the U.S., once he had become a citizen, de la Vega became a vocal critic of the Castro regime, particularly its dismal record of human rights abuses and persecution of dissident artists and intellectuals, all of which had contributed to the destruction of a free Cuban culture. In reaction, de la Vega saw his ever-growing catalog and world-wide acclaim banned consistently in Cuba from all mention and performance, including air waves. Only in 2009, half a century after going into exile, as an overdue recognition of lifetime achievement, was Intrata (1972), one of his more ambitious works, performed publicly in Havana by the Cuban National Orchestra.
He asserted once: "I have always been intent on creating a self-sufficient music, the type of art that would be important enough to gift to your place of birth, to the culture where you grew up… My work is shaped like an arc with trunks, roots and leaves that will sprout in the future once I'm gone. The truth will be out then: I won't be there, but my work will be."
In his later years de la Vega received well-deserved homages and accolades. In 2014, a 90-minute documentary titled Aurelio: Rebel with a Cause, narrated by Cuban-born actor Andy García, was made by Los Angeles producer Camilo Vila. One year ago, to honor his 95th birthday, no less than two books on his life and works were published: Manuel Gayol's Aurelio de la Vega: Impresiones desde la distancia, and Enrico Mario Santí´s The Other Time: Aurelio de la Vega and Music.
De la Vega was preceded in death by his first wife, Sara Lequerica, in 2009. He is survived by his second wife, soprano and Verdi Chorus Artistic Director Anne-Marie Ketchum de la Vega, as well as many friends, students and admirers.
On Saturday, April 2 at 12:00p.m. there will be Music and Memories, with a Funeral Mass at 1 p.m., at Saint Andrew Catholic Church, 311 N. Raymond Avenue, Pasadena, California 91103.