Biography

Irma Urteaga was born in San Nicholas, Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

. She began her studies in Paraná (Entre Ríos) and continued in Buenos Aires with Lucrecia María Madariaga Gilardi, Josefa Hernandorena and Jorge Fanelli for piano and Beatriz Gilardo Henandorena y Gilardi for harmony. She graduated in piano in 1959, and continued studying at the same school, graduating in composition in 1971. Her teachers for composition were Roberto Caamaño and Valdo Sciammarella, for instrumentation was Roberto García Morillo

Roberto Garcia Morillo

Roberto García Morillo was an Argentine composer, musicologist, music professor and music critic.-Biography:Morillo was born in Buenos Aires...

, and for history and aesthetics, Carlos Sufern and Alicia Terzian

Alicia Terzian

Alicia Terzian is an Argentine conductor, musicologist and composer of Armenian descent.-Biography:Alicia Terzian was born in Córdoba. She studied at the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires under Alberto Ginastera, Gilardo Gilardi, Roberto García Morillo and Floro Ugarte...

.

After ending her studies, Urteaga performed as a concert musician and taught harmony at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música Carlos López Buchardo and operatic repertoire, vocal negotiation analysis and opera at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón. She was Columbus Theatre International Master (1974–1977) and director of an Opera Workshop in 1984. She was hired by the Opera Foundation of Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 to organize the lyrics for performances in Quito

Quito

San Francisco de Quito, most often called Quito , is the capital city of Ecuador in northwestern South America. It is located in north-central Ecuador in the Guayllabamba river basin, on the eastern slopes of Pichincha, an active stratovolcano in the Andes mountains...

, Guayaquil

Guayaquil

Guayaquil , officially Santiago de Guayaquil , is the largest and the most populous city in Ecuador,with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly 3.1 million in the metropolitan area, as well as that nation's main port...

 and Cuenca

Cuenca, Spain

-History:When the Iberian peninsula was part of the Roman Empire there were several important settlements in the province, such as Segóbriga, Ercávica and Gran Valeria...

from 1986-1988.

Urteaga has been the recipient of a number of composition and achievement awards. She has been Deputy Secretary (1973–1980), Second Vice President (1997–2000) and First Vice President (2001–2003) of the Argentina Association of Composers, Registrar of the Argentine Council of Music (CAMU, 1985–1993 and an Active Member of the United Composers of Argentina (CUDA, 1986–2005). She also served as Vice President of the Argentine Forum of Composers (FADEC).

Works

Urteaga began composing as a student at the National Conservatory. Selected works include:

• Variations and Toccata (1968)
• Sonata (1968)
• String Quartet (1969)
• Fields (1970)
• Existential (1974)
• Expectation (1977), for soprano and mixed choir a capella
• Still, Canto I
• Already Yerma Dreams (1986–1987)
• The Maldol (1987–1990) opera, libretto by Alberto González Liliana *Dimant and Ledo
• The births (1992)
• Variations on a Theme of Beatrice Sosnik (1997)