Jesús Li Cecilio

Jesús Li Cecilio was born in Madruga. He began singing as an amateur at the Municipal House of Culture.

He studied music at the National Opera of Cuba starting in 1971, where he worked as a tenor soloist performing leading roles in operas and zarzuelas.

In 1979 he obtained 7th place in the international singing competition in Sofia, Bulgaria, first place in the Latin American Singing Competition in Caracas, Venezuela in 1980, and in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1981. That year he graduated in singing from the Superior Institute of Art. He completed postgraduate studies at the Milan conservatory and participated in recitals and concerts.

In August 1983 he won the highest-ranking prize awarded in Europe (the Verdi Prize). Between 1984 and 1987 he carried out intense artistic work as principal soloist at the Zagreb Opera in Yugoslavia. In 1988 he became a full professor at ISA.

From 1989 to 1992 he completed important artistic projects in Italy with the International Operetta Company. Starting in 1995 he worked as a music professor at the University of Sonora (Mexico) where he created an unprecedented operatic movement.

He was struck by death there, victim of a domestic accident, on May 25, 2000.