Iris Burguet

Concert performer with refined technique.

From an early age she began her musical training at the Ramona Sicardo conservatory where she studied piano, theory and sight-singing and graduated in voice, which did not prevent her from simultaneously learning shorthand and typewriting and taking courses in voice production with maestro Lalo Elosegui.

She studied voice in Cuba at the Academia Filarmónica Italiana Farelli-Bovi and with maestro Juan Manuel Elósegui; in Europe and the United States with Simone Tilliard, Viorica Ursuleac and Karl Walter.

In 1937, at only fifteen years old, she made her debut as a vocal concert performer with the Symphony Orchestra conducted by maestro Gonzalo Roig at the Teatro Auditórium. Under the guidance of maestro Gonzalo Roig, she ventured into radio with the program La hora del encanto on the COCO station, performances that later were regularly conducted on RHC Cadena Azul and the CMQ Circuit. She also performed in concerts accompanied by maestro Ernesto Lecuona at various cultural societies of the era. Concluding the 1930s, she began studying Italian, French and Latin as indispensable tools for performing in the original language the music of the universal concert repertoire, which she incorporated into her repertory. She graduated from the Seminario de Arte Dramático at the Teatro Universitario and took courses in Musical Pedagogy, History of Music and Film.

In 1943, she was chosen as Queen of the Radio in a national contest sponsored by the newspaper Mañana, performing the musical piece Rayo de Sol, written specifically for her by maestro Rodrigo Prats. For seven consecutive years the radio and print critics selected her as the most outstanding singer in the country. During this period she also studied English and Portuguese. She performed live on Cuban radio, interpreting each work in its original language. On May 10, 1945 she performed on CBS Radio in the United States, where she accumulated a successful career that includes recordings from Radio Nacional de Francia, the BBC in London, Radio Ravat in Vienna, Deutschland Welle in Germany, Radio Moscow, Radio Sofia (Bulgaria) and in Brno, Czechoslovakia. In 1949 she performed at Círculo Medina (Mexico) and in New York.

In 1951 she competed, representing Cuba, in all three categories of the International Music Olympiad held at the Salzburg Festival, Austria, which allowed her in 1952 to undertake her first successful artistic tour of Europe.

In 1958 she was awarded a one-year scholarship at the Hochschule für Musik München, Germany, where she studied voice and perfected the language with professor Kart Water Smitt and received her diploma from the hands of the president of the Republic himself. In Vienna, Austria she worked with professor Viorica de Krauss on perfecting Strauss lieder and in Paris with Simona Tilliard, dedicated herself to refining the interpretation of French music. In 1961 she undertook an extensive tour of the Soviet Union.

In 1959, with the triumph of the Revolution, she abandoned an important contract at the German opera and returned to Cuba, joining the cultural work of the new social project.

On November 11 and 14, 1960, she performed at the inaugural performance of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, under the direction of Enrique González Mantici in a tribute to Alejandro García Caturla.

In 1961 she gave the first complete audition in Cuba of Los motivos de Son by Amadeo Roldán with the instrumental ensembles of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional and with maestro Alberto Merenson on the podium.

In 1963 she was appointed advisor to the Cuban Musical Technical Commission and undertook a national tour with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. On November 28, 1964, she was soloist at the tribute held at the Teatro Auditórium Amadeo Roldán, sponsored by the National Council of Culture, to Heitor Villalobos, who died in 1959. The program featured as guest conductor the Spanish Ernesto Xanco, and the scores were performed which the wife of the illustrious musician delivered to Alejo Carpentier, who in turn had them sent to the Casa de las Américas and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. In addition to the famous "Serestas," she performed "Tarde Azul" (sentimental melody), the composer's last work, at that time unknown in Cuba.

In 1974 she was a member of the international singing jury in Romania and two years later participated in the Berlin Opera Festival, Germany.

She served as a professor at the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldán in Havana from 1961 to 1968, where she created a methodology for music teaching.

She is counted among the founders of the Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba (UNEAC). Among other honors, she was awarded in 1982 the Distinction for National Culture.

During her artistic career, which spanned about four decades, she performed in recitals and concerts with Cuban symphony orchestras accompanied by the most prestigious pianists.

She participated in Cuban premieres of various works from the vocal symphonic repertoire and the operas L'enfant des sortilèges by M. Ravel and Jeanne d'Arc au boucher by A. Honneger.

In her career as a soloist with orchestra, Iris Burguet performed under the batons of conductors of the stature of Arthur Rodzinsky, Frieder Weissmann, Thomas Mayer, Heitor Villalobos, Blas Galindo and others. And in the operatic field, the late Cuban soprano performed the leading roles in the operas La traviata by Verdi and La bohème by Puccini.

She sang in six languages and made the lied her preferred specialty, as her technical preparation and natural musical ability allowed her to successfully tackle the most difficult vocal expressions.

Iris Burguet also premiered in our country important works by classical and contemporary composers, among which stand out El niño y los sortilegios by Ravel; Juana de arco by Honegger; Mahler's Second and Fourth Symphonies; Canto a Sevilla by Turina; the Bachianas, Serestas and Florestas do Amazonas by Villalobos; Motivos de son by Amadeo Roldán; Cantata a Juárez by Blas Galindo and song cycles by Schumann, Beethoven, Dvorak, Britten, Falla and Ricardo Strauss.

During her extensive and meritorious artistic career, Iris Burguet received recognition from the specialized critics of the numerous countries in which she performed, who offered her the highest praise for the technical and expressive quality of her interpretations.

Iris Burguet died in her native city on September 11, 1987. A national singing competition bears her name and awards young lyric artists every two years.