Pedro Ipuche Riva


Pedro Ipuche Riva was an Uruguayan composer of classical music. According to the catalogue by the Uruguayan musicologist Elsa Sabatés in Músicos de aquí, Vol 4 he wrote 150 compositions, including 6 symphonies and 2 operas.

Life and career

Ipuche Riva was born in Montevideo. His father was the Uruguayan poet Pedro Leandro Ipuche and his sister the writer Rolina Ipuche. He began his musical studies with the composers Carlos Giucci and Vicente Ascone, but dissatisfied with his first compositions, he destroyed them all and became a lawyer.
When Carlos Estrada created the Conservatorio Nacional de Música, Ipuche Riva completed the course in composition. Some of his fellow students were the future conductors José Serebrier and Hugo López Chirico, Antonio Mastrogiovanni and Beatriz Lockhart. After receiving his diploma he went to Paris to study with Jean Rivier and Noël Gallon at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique.
On his return to Uruguay, he tried to be more experimental while working independently from the avant-garde mainstream of his time. He called this his "obscure period".
He was appointed to several official posts including Artistic Director of the Uruguayan national broadcasting service SODRE, and director of the Conservatory, which he re-founded as "Conservatorio Universitario de Música". He held those positions for many years. After attending a congress in Jamaica about the relationship between classical and popular music he started his "Classic pop period".
After retiring from his official posts, he began an "introspective period" and devoted himself mainly to composing two operas.

Personal life

Ipuche Riva was married to the soprano Natalia Zimarioff. His son Gabriel Ipuche is a composer and pianist.

Main works