ROBERTO SIERRA  

Roberto Sierra (born 1953 in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico) received an unusually broad education at the National Conservatory in San Juan, the University of Puerto Rico, the Royal College of Music in London, the University of London, the Institute for Sonology in Utrecht, and the Musikhochschule in Hamburg, where his teacher György Ligeti credited Sierra with influencing his own music by introducing him to Afro-Caribbean drumming.

Returning to San Juan, he served as chancellor of the National Conservatory until an appointment as composer-in-residence at the Milwaukee Symphony brought him to the mainland in 1989 and launched his career. He was soon named professor of composition at Cornell University, where he is Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities.

Among his awards are the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Music (2003), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2010), and the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize 2017, Spain’s highest honor to a Spanish or Latin American composer. Sierra’s compositions, published primarily by Subito Music, are commissioned, performed, and recorded by major orchestras, ensembles, and soloists in the Americas and Europe.

For more information, visit www.robertosierra.com.