Biography
of
Biography
of
José Raúl Ramírez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1920. From the early age of 4 years José Raúl showed great interest in music and by playing well known melodies on the piano without any previous studies on the instrument. Coming from a musical family eminently musical this was to be expected. His father was a violinist and his mother had a beautiful soprano voice. At an early age his parents guided him towards the piano and the violin.
At 9 years of age he was organist at the church of the small town of Gurabo and 4 years later in the city of Humacao. José Raúl developed an extraordinary ability to transpose written music to the voice of church singers. At this time José Raúl participated in the presentations of the Teatro Versalles de Gurabo, executing melodies on the piano or the violin with the accompaniment of his younger brother Mario, with whom he alternated both instruments. José Raúl remembers with great clarity when at barely 8 years of age the director of the Banda de Gurabo would ask him to tune the band's instruments before rehearsals.
When the Ramirez family moved to Humacao, José Raúl received lessons for the trombone and the trumpet quickly becoming the main trumpetist in the recently organized town band organized by the well known musician Maestro Juan Peña Reyes. There he had the opportunity to share experiences with his lifetime musical friend, maestro Lito Peña, who was beginning to start his career as clarinetist and who was the son of Don Juan Peña Reyes. In 1935, when the Ramirez family moved to San Juan he started formal musical training at 15 years of age with pianist Profesor José Enrique Pedreira as a result of a scholarship from a relative. The teacher's jovial character and his friendly manner resulted in a teacher-student relationship that evolved into a personal friendship relationship. José Enrique Pedreira showed great confidence in the performance of José Raúl and invited him to premier many recently composed works.
While taking advanced studies with Pedreira, and in his desire to continually improve his musicianship, he took classes in theory, harmony, composition and orchestration, earning a bachelor degree at Liceo Musical de San Juan, then directed by Profesor Dr. Manuel Barasoain Julbe.
At the conclusion of his Post-Graduate piano studies with Maestro Pedreira, both student and teacher created the organ-piano DUO PEDREIRA-RAMÍREZ. This combination was of a new type and was very well received not only in Puerto Rico by in many prestigious concert halls in the United sates and the caribbean. For several years the presented the DUO PEDREIRA-RAMÍREZ in radio and television when this medium was started in Puerto Rico.
José Raúl Ramírez was the first person in Puerto Rico that took the organ to the concert hall. He was the first to dare play popular music on this instrument which was traditionally used for church music only.
The talent of José Raúl Ramírez was not limited to music, For many years he was an important figure in the entertainment industry. He was musical director ar radio station WIAC, at a time when radio presented important programs, before the existence of television . His interests in musical recordings started in 1947, when together with his then associates Tommy Muñiz and Edmundo Acuña they started their own recording and phonograph company. It was then that José Raúl started to use the organ for the first time as an important instrument in popular music recordings. Later on when the División de Educación de la Comunidad of the Departamento de Instrucción, José Raúl was recruited to compose soundtrack music for the documentary films and to be the sound engineer for nearly 20 years, a position that gave him ample experience in the art of cinematography. In the field of cinematography he was contracted to do the soundtrack for two full featured films, working alongside with prominent technicians and imported from Hollywood. This experience gave a base for the creation of PAKIRA FILM PRODUCTIONS, INC., in association with Paquito Cordero and José Enrique Pedreira Jr. His experience in the field of cinematography has enabled him to be executive produce to 7 full featured films. PAKIRA FILM PRODUCTIONS, INC. became on of the few movie making companies with a financial success history.
Beyond the field of music, José Raúl has had outstanding participation in several activities such as directing and competing in the firsts competition of airplane modeling in Puerto Rico. This activity led him to start taking flying lessons, eventually obtaining a muti-engine pilot's license and becoming certified for international instrument flights. His specialty of aerial navigation helped him to fly to great parts of South, Central and North America and in his own plane.
His enthusiasm for sports led him, in the 50's decade , to revive the almost forgotten sport of table tennis. The he organized and created along with some other players of Ping-Pong, the Federación Estatal de Tenis de Mesa de P.R., for a sport that hat remained dormant for nearly 20 years. This sport organization created by José Raúl, received the endorsement and official recognition of the puertorican government and under the directorship of Ramírez, celebrated island wide championships for several years. For this work, José Raúl was awarded a recognition by the government as initiatives of the great friend of sports, Emilio E. Huyke through the Comisión de Recreo y Deportes and its then director, Julio Enrique Monagas, in 1961.
For 12 consecutive years José Raúl was hired by the Director General y Presidente del FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE LA CANCION Y LA VOZ DE P.R. to coordinate this prestigious festival in which about 30 countries from Latin America and Europe participated. He organized the festival's Gran Orquesta and was its official musical director along with his friend, maestro Lito Peña.
Among some of his important musical productions is one at the reputable CARNEGIE HALL in Nueva York that lasted one week, FIESTA PUERTO RICO. In this major event, José Raúl produced directly for the Executive Director of Carnegie Hall, contracted and moved to Nueva York for their participation a very select musical representation of over 150 performers, including the Ballet folklórico AREYTO de Puerto Rico and their director, Irene McLean, the CORO DE NIÑOS DE SAN JUAN, directed by EVY LUCIO, the voice quintet ALLEGRO, directed by TITO LARA and a Concert Orchestra of 30 musicians mostly of musicians from the Orquesta Panamericana of maestro Lito Peña, reinforced with 30 additional musicians from the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, under the alternated direction of maestro Lito Peña and José Raúl Ramírez. Special orchestra arrangements were prepared for the occasion. As the main attraction, singer RUTH FERNÁNDEZ, then a member of the Puerto Rico Senate, was presented. The interest and success of this production was so great in New York that the government of Puerto Rico made arrangements through its Tourism Department to have the program presented at Boston.
The premature death of his teacher maestro José Enrique Pedreira in january, 1959, who for many years was his partner in the Dúo Piano-Organo “Pedreira-Ramírez” and who was above all his dear friend, made José Raúl close his piano for 28 long years, a mistake he later regretted. After this very long inactive period on the piano, his foremost and most loved instrument, José Raúl Ramírez opened the piano for the first time on june of 1981, motivated by a television scene that made him rethink things in the sense that one's God given talents should be used for the enjoyment of everyone of our fellow human beings. Since the his piano has not been closed. He began to recapture his technical abilities, which at age 61 was no easy task. José Raúl started by making a making and then implementing a study plan that required 10 to 12 hours of daily studies, 7 days a week. After 30 months of intensive studies, he was invited by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña to prepare a concert to commemorate the 25th. anniversary of the death of JOSE ENRIQUE PEDREIRA, a concert that was given at Centro de Bellas Artes de San Juan with the Orquesta Sinfónica de P.R. directed by maestro Dr. Roselyn Pabón. For this concert the collaboration of soprano Olga Iglesias, then a faculty member of the Conservatorio de Música, was requested and obtained. Violinist Henry Hutchinson Negrón, who is today the First Concertino of our Orquesta Sinfónica also collaborated. In the concert, perhaps his last presentation in public, pianist maestro Jesús María Sanromá also participated by speaking about Pedreira and playing, as a special program act, the danza “Tus Caricias” by Pedreira. In this concert, José Raúl performed as principal soloist, playing the Concierto en Re Menor for Piano and Orquesta by Pedreira in a new orchestration by maestro Lito Peña of a version by Ramírez. Also for this occasion, José Raúl, personally made the orchestration of 6 important works by José Enrique Pedreira: FANTASIA y RITMO "Zapateado" which Ramirez performed as soloist with the Orquesta Sinfónica; a art song named CANCION CRIOLLA and AVE MARÍA, which were interpreted by soprano Olga Iglesias, and ELEGÍA INDIA y POEMA, works for violin, interpreted by Henry Hutchinson Negrón, all accompanied by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico.
Concluded this first phase, José Raúl dedicated himself to edit and catalog all materials left by Pedreira, with the collaboration of his dear friend, pianist and musicologist Dr. Esteban Moreno and the collaboration of Alicia Hutchinson Vda. de Pedreira. Several unfinished works by Pedreira were revised and completed by José Raúl. Says José Raúl: “The legacy which JOSÉ ENRIQUE PEDREIRA has left us is ample and varied and compares with the great works by the great international composers. There is great inspiration in his works. I have studied it with great care and endearment and because I believe in it I am dedicated to promoting it and to try to place it in the place where it belongs along with the music of the great international composers. José Enrique Pedreira is without doubt the most important composer from Puerto rico in his century.
José Raúl Ramírez has, with great effort and sacrifice, recorded the entire piano works by Pedreira, including some transcriptions for 2 Pianos by Ramírez himself and part of the repertoire for violin, cello, and some art songs, works that are found in the first 4 CD's published in 1992. Recently some musical works of Pedreira have been published, including his Ballet “El Jardín de Piedra”, one of the more important and inspired works by José Enrique Pedreira. The original manuscripts of these works were in a very bad state due to aging and it became necessary to have them restored professionally by a book restorer, in order to save them. After restoration, these were revised for their publication, a work finished in late 1998 when the entire works by Pedreira were published in 12 folios. Al the music by José Enrique Pedreira, José Raúl has revised and re-written on the computer. The money to finance these three great projects were provided by a generous grant from our legislature.
While José Raúl worked on the music of Pedreira, he began experimenting by recording symphonic and piano compositions by international composers, with arrangements that he himself made for 2 pianos, where he performed both instruments. This technique of recording 2 and then 3 and 4 pianos has been perfected gradually by Ramirez and he is using it in his recording project of puertorican DANZAS.
An important project was realized in1995, when José Raúl published and dusted a group of danzas which has won competitions of Cultura Puertorriqueña beginning in 1973 but which had not been widely known. This project took nearly 4 years to complete and resulted in the publication of 4 CD's, "Escogido de Danzas Premiadas”, that José Raúl dedicated to deceased competition wining composers that did not get a chance to enjoy in life their creation.
One of the last accomplishments has been the recording and publication of beautiful popular themes that identify us a a people, the CD titled “UN TRIBUTO A PUERTO RICO”. This recording is of music related to our dear Puerto Rico and is by puertorican composers such as Rafael Hernández, Noel Estrada, Bobby Capó, Don Felo, and many other past and present composers whose music has touched the hearts of our people. The success of this first CD motivated José Raúl to work and publish a second volume, which was completed and published in late 1996.
The puertorican danza has been one of José Raúl's favorite musical form. He leaned to love the danza at an early age. José Raúl remembers that his father, who was musically very sensitive, was very demanding with the danza. This love for this musical form has motivated him to try to elevate it from it's traditional humble place, with his very personal style, to where it belongs, a higher level at concert halls. With great dedication and sacrifice, José Raúl has been able to revise and to record the entire repertoire of danzas that is the legacy of the immortal Juan Morel Campos, including the unpublished danzas. This ambitious project includes all the danzas that have been researched and fount to the present. The repertoire of all the known danzas of our Juan Morel Campos has just been published in 12 CD's recorded on solo piano, 2 pianos and with symphony orchestra with the piano as solo instrument, some never done before.
It should be noted that all the danzas recorded by José Raúl, and a great part of concert material he has used has been revised by Ramírez himself, before being recorded. In this general category de danzas , José Raúl has the purpose of recording the entire works of Manuel Gregorio Tavárez, Juan Ríos Ovalle, José Ignacio Quintón, Braulio Dueño Colón, Luis R. Miranda, Arturo Pasarell and of other important composers of the past. José Raúl has also recorded the danzas of contemporary composers such as Narciso Figueroa, Raúl Pomales, Guillermo Venegas, Víctor Rafael Meléndez among others. To all these danzas, José Raúl Ramírez a very personal. Up to now José Raúl has recorded over 600 danzas.
The advent of the new computerized technologies for recording and the acquisition of new and more sophisticated equipment has inspired José Raúl to revise much of the music already recorded with Solo Piano and 2 Pianos. José Raúl has begun to prepare symphonic arrangements using a technology that can reproduce the authentic sounds of the instruments of a symphony orchestra in combination with other electronic sounds in his private studio. On august 1997 the first CD using these new sophisticated technologies and equipment was presented to the public: "MIS FAVORITAS", a recording of international popular musical themes.
The preparation and publication of the entire repertoire of José Enrique Pedreira, the publication of the last 3 CD's of the symphonic works of Pedreira, and the publication of the danzas of Juan Morel Campos, make up the more recent and ambitious cultural projects and were completed in january, 1999. Says José Raúl: "This work constitutes my humble contribution for the benefit of our culture and, I hope, future generations."
In his great concern for promoting the reputation of our danza, José Raúl has offered numerous illustrated conferences about the interpretation of our danza throughout diverse cultural centers in Puerto Rico.
The catalog of recordings by José Raúl Ramírez up to now, includes, in addition to puertorican danzas, concert compositions by local and international composers. This repertoire exceeds 700 works and can be heard in his weekly radio program “UNA HORA CON JOSÉ RAÚL RAMÍREZ”, broadcast thorough the governments radio station, WIPR-FM every Sunday at 12:30 P.M. and on Wednesdays at 7:00 in the evening.
It is important to mention that the professional recording with 2 pianos and more recently with Symphony Orchestra could not have been realized without José Raúl's approximate 25 years of experiences as sound engineer. This combination of Sound engineer and Pianist has made possible these ambitious and prohibitively costly cultural projects.
José Raúl Ramírez frequently says that the puertorican danzas is the finest form of all the native musical forms of spanish speaking America. To interpret it correctly you must know it well. It is very delicate and it must receive the right treatment from the performer. These recordings are part of the commitment that José Raúl has imposed on himself, in reply to the mandate from his conscience and meeting a moral and spiritual obligation that all artists have so that their talent is for the benefit and enjoyment of their fellow beings.
(Notes revised and updated on september, 1999. Traduced to english in March, 2001.)
