Moisés Simons

From Wind Repertory Project
Moisés Simons

Biography

Moisés Simón Rodríguez (24 August 1889 Havana, Cuba – 28 June 1945 Madrid, Spain) was a leading Cuban composer, pianist, and orchestra leader.

The son of a Basque musician, Simon started studying music with his father, Leandro Simón Guergué. By the age of nine, he was the organist at his local church in the barrio of Jesús María and choirmaster of the Pilar church. At 15, he undertook advanced studies under various maestros in composition, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and instrumentation.

Later, Simons became a concert pianist and musical director of lyric theater companies. He worked at the Teatro Martí where musical comedies by Ernesto Lecuona were performed. He then moved to the Teatro Payret under contract to the Spanish composer, Vicente Lleó, who directed a zarzuela company with whom he toured throughout Latin American including Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Central America.

In 1924, Simons founded a jazz band which played on the roof garden of the Plaza Hotel in Havana. Simons did research into the history of Cuban music publishing his articles in newspapers and magazines. He wrote the scores for stage shows and even several films. He was president of the Association of Musical Solidarity and the technical director of the Society of Wind Orchestras.

Simons was renowned as a composer during the era of afrocubanismo, the time between World War I and World War II when the contributions of Afro-Cubans to Cuban culture were finally gaining recognition.

For much of the 1930s, Simons lived and worked in France, mostly in Paris, and was still there when World War II broke out. He was finally able to return to Cuba in 1942. He then moved to the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife and later to Madrid, Spain, where he signed a contract to provide music for the film Bambú, which included his last known composition, Hoy Como Ayer.


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