Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983) was the leading Argentinian composer of the twentieth century. Born in Buenos Aires in 1916, he entered the National Conservatory of Music, where he studied composition with José Gil, Athos Palina, and José André. When he was 22 years old, Ginastera won first prize in a composition competition for his work Piezas infantiles. In 1942, Ginastera received the Guggenheim fellowship, but he had to wait until after the Second World War to travel to the United States. In 1946, he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, joining the teaching staff of the National Conservatory upon his return home. He was a very influential professor, with pupils like Astor Piazzolla and Jacqueline Nova.

Ginastera wrote extensively about his own music, dividing it in three main periods. He called his early works “Objective Nationalism”. This first period is characterized by the music of his home country. Folk-tunes, themes and rhythms are evident and treated in a very traditional fashion. He called his middle period “Subjective Nationalism”. The composer reworked the tradition in a more personal and innovative way. Ginastera’s late work was called “Neo-Expressionism”. The music embraces more abstraction and dissonance till all the folk-like gestures are obscured. In this late period, Ginastera adopted many 20^th century techniques, such as microtonality, serialism, and polytonality.

Alberto Ginastera wrote in all genres – operas, ballets, film music, orchestral, chamber and vocal pieces. His opera Don Rodrigo was a huge success in New York City in 1966. It was soon followed by two others, Bomarzo (1967) and Beatrix Cenci (1971).) Ginastera’s orchestral music includes Pampeana No. 3, Ollantay (Three symphonic movements), a Concerto for harp, two concertos for piano, and concertos for violin and for cello, and others.

In 1969, finding himself out of sympathy with the prevailing political climate in Argentina, Ginastera left the country, settling in Geneva. Late in life, he began to look again at his musical roots, returning to tonality and folk-music inflexions of his early output.