Alejandro Nunez Allauca

Biography

He was born in Moquegua, Peru, and performed on the radio in Cerro de Pasco as a soloist on accordion at the age of nine. In 1955, he moved to Lima, where he studied music theory under the organist Manuel Cabrera Guerra. He studied cello in the National Conservatory of Music and at the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires with Francisco Kröpfl, Gabriel Brncic and Gerardo Gandini. Between 1972 and 1973, he was a concert accordionist in the U.S. Since 1987, he has lived in Milan, Italy, and may be better known in Europe than in his own country. His 1995 piece, Sonrisa de Jesus, was performed at a Christmas concert in the Vatican.

His style was initially tonal, then moved toward pointillistic atonalism. Later, his work began to include ornamentation in a neo-Baroque style. His works exhibit a personal nationalism, incorporating elements of traditional Andean music as well as echoes of neo-Romanticism.

Works