Juventino Rosas

From Wind Repertory Project
Juventino Rosas

Biography

José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January 1868, Santa Cruz, Guanajuato, Mexico – 9 July 1894, Surgidero de Batabanó, Cuba) was a Mexican composer and violinist.

Rosas began his musical career as a street musician, playing with dance music bands in Mexico City. In 1884-85 and 1888 he matriculated into the conservatory, both times leaving it without taking any examination.

In the late 1880s, Rosas is reported to be a member of a military band, and in 1891 he worked in Michoacán. In 1892–93 he was around Monterrey before joining an orchestra in 1893 for a tour through the USA. During this tour the group played also at the World Columbian Exposition World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1894 he went for a several-month tour to Cuba with an Italian-Mexican ensemble, where he came down with major health problems, having to stay behind in Surgidero de Batabanó. As a result of spinal myelitis, he died there at the age of 26. Fifteen years later, in 1909, his remains were brought back to Mexico.

Rosas was one of the best known Mexican composers of salon music, the composer with the highest number of editions abroad and of sound recordings, the first of them released in 1898. Rosas's best known work is "Sobre las Olas" or Over the Waves.


Works for Winds


Resources