Fabio Armando Landa Calvet

Composer, cellist, guitarist and orchestra conductor.

He was born in Quemado de Güines, Las Villas. Author of several scores for the national stage. He was the musical director of the famous production of Fuenteovejuna directed by Vicente Revuelta in 1963. Founding member of the National Lyric Theater of Cuba, in 1962, for which he directed the first productions in collaboration with maestro Félix Guerrero: La viuda alegre, Luisa Fernanda, María la O, among others.

He began his studies in 1940 at the Municipal Conservatory of La Habana, and completed them with Ernesto Xancó and Adolfo Odnoposoff.

He was cellist of the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Habana, the Opera of Pro-Arte Musical, CMQ, and Symphonic; subsequently he was assistant conductor of the orchestra of the Gonzalo Roig Lyric Theater; at the García Lorca Theater (now Gran Teatro de La Habana), he conducted the National Concert Band and the orchestra of the National Ballet of Cuba.

He was at the head of the orchestras of Ploiesti, Romania; Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, and Thuringia, of the Leipzig Opera, German Democratic Republic.

He worked as a professor at the School of Music of the University of Oriente, 1959-1961, and at the Alejandro García Caturla Conservatory. In 1986, Leo Brouwer conducted his work, Pequeña suite cubana at BBC London, England.

He was a jury member of the Lyra Festival of Bratislava, Czechoslovakia, and won the Amadeo Roldán awards with Tres piezas cubanas, 1960, sponsored by the José Martí National Library, and Prize of the July 26 Contest, with Canto negro, 1972.

According to Edgardo Martín: "His music, limited in quantity, is defined by a Cuban quality delimited within somewhat post-impressionist features, but has moved toward the application also of recent composition techniques [...]. However, Landa considers himself a nationalist composer, while also venturing not only into concert music, but also into popular music, where he uses all available resources to achieve the work he is interested in creating.

He devoted much of his life to artistic teaching.

Works
Ballet
Desembarco glorioso, 1976, for symphonic orchestra.

Band
Himno para un artillero.

Cello solo
Suite, 1978.

Cello and piano
Canto negro, 1972; Sonata (for Bertha and Adolfo Odnoposoff), 1976-1978
Makerato, 1978

Double bass and piano
Temas y canon cubanos (for double bass in D, by commission of Karel Koprina, first double bassist of the Brno Opera, Czechoslovakia), 1979.

Chamber music
Pequeña suite cubana, 1950, for string orchestra
Tema y fugado, 1958; for wind quintet
Bachiana, for soprano, eight cellos and piano, 1975.

Symphonic orchestra
In Memoriam (To those who fell at the Moncada Barracks), 1976-1978.

Piano
Toccatta, 1960
Tres piezas cubanas, 1960
Preludio núm. 2, (To pianist Rosario Franco), 1981-1982.

Undated works
Andante dramático, for strings
Habanera en 4 X 4, for piano
Monólogo, for flute, B-flat clarinet and E-flat alto saxophone
Overture on themes by Adolfo Guzmán
Preludio sentimental
Suite de danzas, for wind quintet
Vocalise de la cueva, for soprano, two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, F horn and string quintet.