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Works for Cello

Estudio N.1 (1985), for cello and viola.

Estudio N.2 (1985), for cello and viola.

Intermezzo (1986), for cello and harp.

Scherzo (1986), for cello and flute.

Sources:

• Furman Schleifer, M., and Galván, G (2016). Latin American Classical Composers, A Biographical Dictionary. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

• Onepointfm. About Cynthia Valenzuela. Onepointfm. https://www.onepointfm.com/en/cynthiavalenzuela

Cynthia Valenzuela

Mexican composer and harpist, born August 23, 1963.

Born in Mexico City, Cynthia Valenzuela’s musical journey began with her learning piano. At age 17, she gave a recital of Paderewsky’s Minuet in G and Gershwin’s Promenade at Sala Chopin in Mexico City. As a teenager, Valenzuela started learning classical harp at the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico, where she received a full scholarship for singing soprano in the Conservatory Choir. Valenzuela moved to the USA when she was accepted at The University of Texas at Austin’s Composition and Harp programs on full scholarship. She then moved to California to study with Mel Powell, Leonard Stein, and Susan Allen at CalArts (California Institute of the Arts), where she received her Master’s Degree in Music Composition. 

By age 24, she had won the prestigious New York BMI Award for Young Composers, the SESAC Composition Award at the Society of Composers Inc, Second Prize at the National Jazz Harp Festival, and an MTV Short Film award for writing the music for the best short film of 1990. Valenzuela recorded Vermillion Sea with EMI Records of New York and The Versatile Celtic Harp with WoldSong Records. After returning to Mexico City, she recorded four more albums under Urtext Digital Classics. 

Valenzuela’s work has been endorsed by at least 10 different foundations from the United States and Mexico; she has earned three Awards for Young Composers. Besides performing and composing, Cynthia has played an important role in the advancement of harps that use new technologies. For example, she co-created both the first aquatic harp in the world and the Guinness World Record winning Biggest Harp in the world with Juan Manuel González Vera.