Ramiro Cortés was born November 25, 1933, in Dallas, Texas, to Ramiro Cortés Sr. and Elvira Acosta Cortés, parents of Mexican origin. This marriage ended in divorce, when his father left the family in 1936. His brother, Arturo, was one year old. Ramiro began his piano studies at age eight and began composing at age eleven. When he was thirteen years old, his family moved to Denver, Colorado, where he continued his piano studies. He attended South High School where he composed many piano pieces, solo and choral works, and a musical show produced by his junior class. In 1950 he began theoretical studies with Joseph Iadone, a former student of Paul Hindemith. Cortés studied harmony, counterpoint, and twentieth century music with Iadone for two years.
In 1951 Cortés enrolled at the University of Denver where he received a full tuition scholarship. This enabled him to continue his studies with Iadone and begin a formal study of composition. Cortés submitted some of his compositions to the National Federation of Music Clubs' competition and was awarded the Charles Ives scholarship to study at the Indian Hill Music School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, during the summer of 1952.
In the fall of 1952 he enrolled at the Yale School of Music and in 1953 was the recipient of the John Day Jackson Prize for his composition Introduction and Fugue for string quartet. Later that year he enrolled at the University of Southern California, where he studied with Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl.
In 1954, Cortés received several awards for his works. Perhaps the most significant was the George Gershwin Memorial Award for Sinfonia Sacra which gave Cortés a great deal of national recognition.
Cortés was the recipient of the Steinway Centennial Award in 1955 for Piano Sonata and of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Prize for Yerma, A Symphonic Portrait. He received his bachelor of music degree from the University of Southern California that same year, and the following summer served as a fellow on the Huntington Hartford Foundation estate in Pacific Palisades.
During his year of graduate studies at the University of Southern California in 1956, Cortés continued his studies with Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to study composition with Goffredo Petrass in Rome. Later that year, he received first prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers competition.
Cortés received a renewal of the Fulbright scholarship and spent a second year in Rome. The summer of 1958 was spent at the Huntington Hartford Foundation, where he worked on three sacred compositions which had been commissioned by the Concorda Society of Princeton. He was awarded first prize in the Broadcast Music Inc. Student Composers competition. The money from this award was used to finance Cortés' studies in composition at Princeton with Roger Sessions during the fall semester. While at Princeton, he composed a score commissioned by the Pittsburgh Bicentennial Association for a film on the history of Pittsburgh. While at Princeton, he also wrote a song cycle on poems by Herman Melville which earned him the George Bolek Memorial Award of the National Federation of Music Clubs. Cortés again returned to the Huntington Hartford Foundation for the summer of 1959.
In New York during February of 1960, Cortés married Nancee Heimbecher Charles--Charles was her professional name--whom he had met in junior high school. During that year he received the John Hay Whitney Foundation Fellowship. The most important score he produced was Symphony in Three Movements for small orchestra. He submitted this composition to the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium International Competition, and was awarded the silver medal.
Cortés enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music in 1961 and held the Rodgers and Hammerstein Scholarship. He received two additional awards while attending Juilliard: the Alexandre Gretchaninoff Memorial Prize and the Benjamin Prize. He finished course requirements for his master's degree in 1962. That same year he received an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Cortés worked as a computer programmer for Systems Development Corporation from 1963 to 1966 when he was invited to be a visiting lecturer at the University of California at Los Angeles. The following year he was offered a faculty position at the University of Southern California, and in 1970 he was promoted to associate professor with tenure. In 1971 he and Nancee separated and were divorced a year later. In 1972-1973 he served as composer in residence at the University of Utah and the following year he joined the faculty as chair of theory and composition. He continued to teach at the University of Utah until his death in 1984. Cortés spent 1978-1979 in Los Angeles on sabbatical from the University of Utah. In the latter year, he and Nancee were remarried. He studied the works of Igor Stravinsky extensively, and presented fifty-five lectures on the music of Stravinsky for the Utah radio station KUER in 1982. Ramiro Cortés died of heart failure July 2, 1984, in Salt Lake City, Utah, at age fifty-one.
The Ramiro Cortés music recordings (1950s-1996) consists predominantly of audio recordings of musical compositions by Cortés, an internationally recognized American composer whose works were performed and recorded by noted musicians around the world. The collection also contains 2 videos of performances of Cortés' pieces, Cortés' personal collection of various works by other composers and a few unidentified 8mm and 16mm films, likely home movies taken by Cortés and his wife, dancer Nancee Charles.
The bulk of the materials are arranged by format.
Audio-visual materials can be fragile and require specialized equipment to play back. For this reason, access to audio-visual materials is provided through digital copies, and it might take longer to provide access to items that are not yet digitized. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law, condition of the material, or by donor.
See also the Ramiro Cortés papers (Ms 513) and photograph collection (P0264).
Processed by Karin Hardy, Mark Jensen, Julie Reiser and Roy Webb in 1997.
Discs 1-12 are recordings of works by other composers and musicians. Music by Ramiro Cortés begins at disc 13.
Performed by Soulima Stravinsky, piano
Conductor: Igor Stravinsky
Performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Paul Hindesmith
Performed by Carlos Montoya, guitar and Pablo Miguel, piano
Performed by Miguel Herro accompanied by Paco Millet and Manuel Medina, guitar
Performed by Carlos Montoya
The Rio Grande performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus with Kyla Greenbaum, piano and Gladys Ripley, contralto
Conductor: Constant Lambert
Four Sea Interludes performed by the London Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Sir Malcolm Sargent
Performed by Orestes Mendez, tenor and Juan Martinez, guitar
Performed by Orestes Mendez, tenor and Carlos Montoya, guitar
Performed by the chorus of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra with Elisabeth Hoengen, mezzo soprano and Hans Braun, baritone
Conductor: Paul Hindemith
Second Piano Sonata performed by Dale Reubart, piano
The Falcon performed by Ramiro Cortés, piano and Virginia Bitar, soprano
Three Lyric Pieces performed by Celia Koch, cello and Ramiro Cortés, piano
Chamber Concerto performed by the Oberlin Wind Ensemblew with Peter Howard, violoncello
Conductor: Kenneth Moore, conductor
Variations for Orchestra performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Symphony
Conductor: Walter Ducloux
USC Diamond Jubilee Film performed by the University of Southern California Symphony
Conductor: Miklos Rozsa
Performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony
Conductor: Alfredo Antonini
The Westwood Wind Quintet Plays Music by Cortés, Chavéz, Revueltas, and Ginastera
Performed by the University of Southern California Concert Choir
Conductor: James H. Vail
Performed by the University of Southern California Concert Choir
Conductor: James H. Vail
Performed by the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble
Conductor: Arthur Weisberg, conductor
Works by Los Angeles Composers Ramiro Cortés, William Kraft, Robert Linn, Robert Rodriguez and Anthony Vazzana
Performed by the Goldman-Brown Duo
Performed by The Angelus Trio
Meditation for String Orchestra performed by the United States International Orchestra
Conductor: Phillip Lambro
Largo for String Quartet performed by the American Chamber Virtuosi
Performe by the Salt Lake Chamber Ensemble with Ricklen Nobis, harpsichord, and the Allegria Quintet
Performed by Harry Payne, piano, at Cortés' senior recital at the University of Southern California School of Music
Performd by the Trojan String Quartet and Ramiro Cortés, piano at the University of Southern California School of Music Festival of Contemporary Music
Performed by M. T. Klein and D. Baker
Performed by Lenora Teal, piano
Performed by Russell Harlow, clarinet, Mitchell Morrison, bassoon, Jane Morrison, flute, and Robert Stephenson, oboe
Performed by Ricklen Nobis, harpsichord
Performed by Eleanora Teal, piano
Recorded at Julliard Concert
Performed by the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall
Conductor: Dimitri Mitropoulos
Performed by N. Ross, violin, J. Kelly, cello, and Ramiro Cortés, piano
Conductor: Jorge Mester
Begins at Father's death
Performed by the Dorian Quintet
Duo Fantasy for Alto Flute and Oboe, Invention for English Horn and Flute, Elegy for Alto Flute, Recitative for English Horn, and Finale for Flute and Oboe
I. Oberlin School of Music
II. Julliard School of Music
Second Piano Sonata performed by Dale Reubart, piano
The Falcon performed by Ramiro Cortés, piano and Virginia Bitar, soprano
Three Lyric Pieces performed by Celia Koch, cello and Ramiro Cortés, piano
Performed by Forrester and Lewis
Conductor: Relner
Performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony in Princeton, New Jersey
Performed by the USC Symphony Orchestra
Starts late
Recorded at Bennington College
Recorded at UCLA
Performed by Eudice Shapiro, violin,
Conductor: Ramiro Cortés
Ramiro Cortés interviewed for radio in Norwalk, Connecticut
Composed in 1981
Performed by Lenora Ford Neal, piano
Performed by Lenora Neal, piano
AAC auditorium (possibly Academy of Art College, San Francisco)
Two trumpets, three trombones
Performed by the University of Utah Symphonic Band
Variations for Chamber Orchestra performed at the University of Southern California 1956 Festival of Contemporary Music
Los Angeles Chamber Symphony conducted by Walter Ducloux
Xochitl performed at the University of Utah Composers Symposium in Salt Lake City, Utah, April 1956
University of Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ramiro Cortés
Performed by the New Music Ensemble
Conducted by Jordan Tang
Performed by Tom Hall, violinist
Performed by the University of Utah Symphony Band
Conducted by Gregg Hanson
This tape is labeled "Blank" on the front of the box
Music for a Pantomime recorded at Juilliard recording sessions
Conducted by Jorge Mester
119 Six Lyric Pieces, Ramiro Cortés Juilliard Orchestra Jorge Mester, Conductor
Performed by the Juilliard Orchestra
Conducted by Jorge Mester
Perfored by the University of Utah Men's Chorus and Ramiro Cortés, piano
Conducted by John Marlowe Nielson
Performed by the Utah Symphony
Conducted by Robert Henderson
Composed in 1979
Performed by the Utah Symphony
Conduected by Robert Henderson
Composed in 1979
Performed by the Utah Symphony
Conduected by Robert Henderson
Ramiro Cortés: Trio in One Movement
Halsey Stevens: Siete Canciones
Performed at the University of Southern California School of Music Hancock Auditorium
NOVA Series
Conducted by Robert Henderson
World Premier
Composed in 1971-1972
Performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Malcolm Hamilton, solo
Conducted by Neville Marriner
Performed at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, Utah
Utah Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ramiro Cortés
Performed by the Strings of University of Utah Symphony with Reve Parisien and Naomi Farr
Recorded by Stephen Markham at the Hancock Auditorium, Hollywood for University of Southern California Drama Department
University of Southern California Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ramiro Cortés
Handel: Concerto no. 11
Ramiro Cortés: Music for Strings premier
Arthur Foote: A Night Piece
Haydn: Symphony no. 7
Composed in 1975
Performed by Michael Sells, tenor at the University of Southern California
Performed by Michael Sells, tenor at the University of Utah
Conducted by JoAnn Ottley
University of Utah performance
Germany performance
Performed by the Utah Symphony
Conducted by Ramiro Cortés
Performed by the Utah Symphony with Sally Peterson, soloist
Conducted by the Ramiro Cortés
Performed by the Utah Symphony with Sally Peterson, soloist
Conducted by the Ramiro Cortés
Performed by Michael Sells, tenor and Ramiro Cortés, piano
First half, Nelson
Piano
Ode to Nightingale performed by JoAnn Ottley, Reve Parisien and Naomi Farr
Sonata for Violin and Piano performed by Oscar Chausow and Lowell Farr
Trio in One Movement for Violin, Cello and Piano
Composed in 1959
Performed by Ross-Kelley and Ramiro Cortés, piano
Capriccio for Woodwind Quartet
Composed in 1971
Ode to a Nightingale
Composed 1970-1971
Performed by Michael Sells, tenor and Ramiro Cortés, piano
Two Songs on Poems by Ben Jonson
Performed by the University of Southern Califormia concert choir
Conducted by James Vail
The Eternal Return for Orchestra
Composed 1963-1966
Performed by the University of Southern California Symphony
Conducted by Ingolf Dahl
Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra
Composed 1964-1965
Performed by Eudace Shapiro, violin
Conducted by Ramiro Cortés
Meditation for String Orchestra
Composed in 1961
Performed by the United States International Orchestra
Conducted by Phillip Lambro
Selected incidental music from Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer
Performed by the Oliver Goldsmith Chamber Orchestra
Conducted by Ramiro Cortés
Variations for Orchestra
Composed in 1959
Conducted by Walter Ducloux
Performed by the Julliard Orchestra
Conducted by Jorge Mester
Recorded in New York concert
Theme: Kay's Suite for Strings, 2nd movement
Variations, 1, 6
Performed by Ingolf Dahl and Ramiro Cortés, pianist
Congress of Strings
Recorded at Bennington College
Ramiro Cortés: Trio
Composed in 1981
Performed by R. Harlow, T. King and J. Jensen
Brahms: Opus 115
Performed by R. Harlow, M. Ramos, P. Rosenthal, L. Blackburn and S. Balderston
Composed for the Muir Quartet
Ramiro Cortés conducting student orchestra
Scowcroft, Slalkind, and Cortés
Recorded Live at the Park City Community Church and the Clockroom at Deer Valley Resort
Produced by Leslie Harlow and Russell Harlow of the Park City International Music Festival
There are three extra CD copies of this same program in the Archives