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Tier 3 · vertical & regionalfull biography
Roberto Sierra
Person · male · United States · Vega Baja · born 1953 · recording since 2013
Puerto Rican composer
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Also known as 罗伯托·西耶拉
Timeline
9 events▣ Album 6◦ Birth 1★ Debut release 1✦ Award 1
1950s
2010s
· Debut release
Debut release: Sinfonía no. 4 / Fandangos / Carnaval
First documented Album in the MusicBrainz discography.
source: musicbrainz
· Album
Album: Kandinsky / Clarinet Sonata / 33 Ways to look at the same object
Album
source: musicbrainz
2020s
· Album
Album: Symphony no. 6 / Sinfonietta for String Orchestra / Fandangos / Alegria
Album
source: musicbrainz
Biography
English biography865 words · 4 sectionssource: wikipedia-en · licence CC BY-SA 4.0 · revision 1370466247
Biography
Roberto Sierra (born 9 October 1953) is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music.
Life
Sierra was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. He studied composition at the Royal College of Music and at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg, Germany, notably with György Ligeti from (1979–1982). After his two-act opera El mensajero de plata, to a libretto by Myrna Casas, had premiered at the Interamerican Festival in San Juan on 9 October 1986, Sierra came to prominence in 1987 when his first major orchestral composition, Júbilo, was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. (Júbilo had been premiered in Puerto Rico in 1985 by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra conducted by Zdeněk Mácal; it was also performed in 1986 by the same forces conducted by Akira Endo.) For more than three decades his works have been part of the repertoire of many of the leading orchestras, ensembles and festivals in the USA and Europe. His Fandangos was performed at the opening night of the 2002 Proms, performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and televised throughout Europe.
Sierra is a retired professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, where he taught composition. See: List of music students by teacher: R to S#Roberto Sierra.
Music
On February 2, 2006 Sierra's Missa Latina, premiered at the Kennedy Center, in Washington, D.C., conducted by Leonard Slatkin to considerable acclaim. The Washington Times judged it "the most significant symphonic premiere in the District since the late Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was first performed in the Washington National Cathedral in the late 1960s." On March 3, 2007, the Missa Latina was performed at the 51st Casals Festival in Sierra's homeland, Puerto Rico, where it was equally well-received.
Sierra's Concierto Barroco takes its inspiration from a scene in Alejo Carpentier's novel of the same name in which Handel and Vivaldi jam with a Cuban slave during the Venice Carnival. Sierra was commissioned by guitarist Manuel Barrueco to write a concerto that tried to capture what that might have been like. In Soundboard magazine, Eladio Scharron wrote that, "Sierra achieved – masterfully – a synthesis of a tradition of five centuries old... This work is truly a masterwork..."
Other commissioned works include:
a Concerto for Orchestra for the centennial celebrations of the Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned by the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and the Philadelphia Orchestra;
a Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for James Carter;
Fandangos and Missa Latina, commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra;
Sinfonía No. 3 "La Salsa", commissioned by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra;
Danzas Concertantes for guitar and orchestra commissioned by the Orquesta de Castilla y León;
a Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, co-commissioned by the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Orchestras;
Bongo+, commissioned by the Juilliard School in celebration of the 100th anniversary;
Songs from the Diaspora, commissioned by Music Accord for Heidi Grant Murphy, Kevin Murphy and the St. Lawrence String Quartet;
Concierto para Violin y Orquesta a la memoria de una nina valiente commissioned by the Lydia Delfs Foundation and premiered by Juliana Athayde and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; and
Concierto de Cámara, co-commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest and Stanford Lively Arts.
Other ensembles who have commissioned Sierra include the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Mexico, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix, as well as the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, and the orchestras of Madrid, Galicia, and Barcelona.
Roberto Sierra's Music may be heard on CDs by Naxos, EMI, UMG’s EMARCY, New World Records, Albany Records, Koch, New Albion, Koss Classics, BMG, Fleur de Son and other labels. In 2011, UMG’s EMARCY label released Caribbean Rhapsody featuring the Concierto for Saxophones and Orchestra commissioned and premiered by the DSO with James Carter. In 2004, EMI Classics released his two guitar concertos Folias and Concierto Barroco with Manuel Barrueco as soloist (released on Koch in the USA in 2005). In 2010, Missa Latina's Naxos recording was nominated for a Grammy Award under best contemporary classical composition category, and his Sinfonia No. 4 was nominated in that same category in 2015.
Awards and honors
In 2003 he was awarded the Academy Award in Music by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The award states: "Roberto Sierra writes brilliant music, mixing fresh and personal melodic lines with sparkling harmonies and striking rhythms. . ." His Sinfonía No. 1, a work commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, won the 2004 Kenneth Davenport Competition for Orchestral Works. In 2007 the Serge and Olga Koussevitzky International Recording Award (KIRA) was awarded to Albany Records for the recording of his composition Sinfonía No. 3 “La Salsa”. Roberto Sierra has served as Composer-In-Residence with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra and New Mexico Symphony. In 2010 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2017, Sierra was awarded the Tomás Luis de Victoria Prize, the highest honor given in Spain to a composer of Spanish or Latin American origin, by the Society of Spanish Composers Foundation. In 2021, he won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition.
Discography & profile
Normalised profile
Percentiles are computed over every artist in the database, so a tier-3 artist can still sit in the 95th percentile on a single axis.
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 10 | 58.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 6 | 79.7th |
| Studio albums | 6 | 86.1th |
| Awards recorded | 1 | 89th |
| Timeline events | 9 | 85.5th |
| Recording span (years) | 12 | 30.2th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Percentiles are computed at render time; missing values mean the artist has no data on that axis.
Discography (6 release groups · 6 studio albums)
Albums · 6
Sinfonía no. 4 / Fandangos / Carnaval
2013 · studio album
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Tracklist · 10 tracks · 55:34
1Fandangos11:072Sinfonía no. 4: I. Moderadamente rápido6:533Sinfonía no. 4: II. Rápido6:134Sinfonía no. 4: III. Tiempo de bolero5:245Sinfonía no. 4: IV. Muy rápido y rítmico4:446Carnaval: Gargoyles3:547Carnaval: Sphinxes4:218Carnaval: Unicorns6:209Carnaval: Dragons3:0010Carnaval: The Phoenix3:38Kandinsky / Clarinet Sonata / 33 Ways to look at the same object
2018 · studio album
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Tracklist · 48 tracks · 1:03:47
1Kandinsky: I. Lyrisches1:432Kandinsky: II. Improvisation 191:083Kandinsky: III. Bild mit schwarzem Bogen1:154Kandinsky: IV. Improvisation 260:525Kandinsky: V. Kleine Freuden1:206Kandinsky: VI. Schwarze Striche I2:227Kandinsky: VII. Weisser Strich1:248Kandinsky: VIII. Kleine Welten III2:249Kandinsky: IX. Komposition VIII1:3610Kandinsky: X. Launisches2:5011Kandinsky: XI. Buntes Ensemble2:3712Clarinet Sonata: I. Salseado4:5013Clarinet Sonata: II. Delicado y expresivo5:2314Clarinet Sonata: III. Enérgico1:5115Clarinet Sonata: IV. Veloz (with swing)4:0116Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 11:5817Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 20:4718Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 31:0819Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 40:4220Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 50:3521Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 60:1622Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 70:3823Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 80:3624Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 90:1325Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 100:3826Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 110:5127Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 120:5328Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 131:0529Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 141:0430Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 151:2031Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 161:5732Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 170:5433Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 180:3034Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 190:3135Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 201:3536Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 210:5037Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 220:3638Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 230:3439Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 240:5240Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 250:4541Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 261:0442Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 270:1543Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 281:0744Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 290:3445Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 300:3146Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 310:3447Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 320:5548Treinta y tres formas de mirar un mismo objeto: No. 331:232019 · studio album
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Tracklist · 13 tracks · 1:12:53
1Prelude, Habanera & Perpetual Motion: I. Prelude4:132Prelude, Habanera & Perpetual Motion: II. Habanera4:223Prelude, Habanera & Perpetual Motion: III. Perpetual Motion5:224Etudes: No. 1, Scales3:115Etudes: No. 2, Glides6:066Etudes: No. 3, Arpeggios4:177Recorder Concerto: I. Toccata4:498Recorder Concerto: II. Devil's Dance3:309Recorder Concerto: III. Lament4:0310Recorder Concerto: IV. Furie3:2511A Pacifying Weapon: I. —8:2712A Pacifying Weapon: II. —8:2313A Pacifying Weapon: III. —12:45Cantares / Loíza / Triple Concierto
2020 · studio album
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Tracklist · 8 tracks · 1:02:30
1Cantares: I. Hanacpachap cussicuinin6:152Cantares: II. Canto lucumí5:443Cantares: III. Interludio3:534Cantares: IV. Suerte lamentosa7:435Loíza10:596Triple Concierto for Violin, Cello & Piano: I. Enérgico9:347Triple Concierto for Violin, Cello & Piano: II. Tiempo de bolero9:208Triple Concierto for Violin, Cello & Piano: III. Veloz, con aire de merengue9:02Symphony no. 6 / Sinfonietta for String Orchestra / Fandangos / Alegria
2023 · studio album
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Tracklist · 12 tracks · 1:04:46
1Alegria5:022Dos Piezas para Orquesta: Como un lamento5:453Dos Piezas para Orquesta: Animado5:254Sinfonietta for String Orchestra: Ritmitco4:465Sinfonietta for String Orchestra: Expresivo4:506Sinfonietta for String Orchestra: Vivo1:487Sinfonietta for String Orchestra: Rapido4:338Fandangos (Sierra)10:179Sinfonia no 6: Memoria Urbana6:5910Sinfonia no 6: De noche3:3711Sinfonia no 6: Huracán4:1512Sinfonia no 6: Final7:292025 · studio album
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Tracklist · 32 tracks · 1:13:53
16 Intervening Periods of Time: no. 1, Rápido1:3026 Intervening Periods of Time: no. 2, Lento1:1236 Intervening Periods of Time: no. 3, Veloz1:1346 Intervening Periods of Time: no. 4, Preciso1:2856 Intervening Periods of Time: no. 5, Moderado0:5566 Intervening Periods of Time: no. 6, Furioso2:247Piezas Cortas: no. 1,1:078Piezas Cortas: no. 2,1:069Piezas Cortas: no. 3,0:4510Piezas Cortas: no. 4,0:4911Piezas Cortas: no. 5,0:2912Piezas Cortas: no. 6,1:0613Piezas Cortas: no. 7,0:4814Violin Sonata: I. Expresivo4:4515Violin Sonata: II. Rápido2:4816Violin Sonata: III. Con gran expresión4:2717Violin Sonata: IV. Rítmico4:2318Piezas Íntimas: no. 1, Lento1:4319Piezas Íntimas: no. 2, Veloz1:1320Piezas Íntimas: no. 3, Rítmico1:0821Piezas Íntimas: no. 4, Brillante1:1822Piezas Íntimas: no. 5, Veloz0:5123Piezas Íntimas: no. 6, Misterioso1:1424Piezas Íntimas: no. 7, Lento1:3825Piezas Íntimas: no. 8, Vivo1:2626Viola Sonata no. 1: I. Ser. Lento - Rápido5:2627Viola Sonata no. 1: II. Devenir. Lento4:3228Viola Sonata no. 1: III. Memoria. Rápido3:4729Fuego de ángel: I. El ángel y las sombras. Moderado, pero muy expresivo4:1930Fuego de ángel: II. Misteriosa danza. Danzante4:0431Fuego de ángel: III. La visión del ángel. Expresivo5:3232Fuego de ángel: IV. Fuego. Con ritmo y pasión4:27
Stats & PK
Percentile within all 23,672 published artists.Put Roberto Sierra head-to-head →
| Metric | Value | Percentile |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia language versions | 10 | 58.3th |
| Spotify monthly listeners | — | no data |
| Release groups in DB | 6 | 79.7th |
| Studio albums | 6 | 86.1th |
| Awards recorded | 1 | 89th |
| Timeline events | 9 | 85.5th |
| Recording span (years) | 12 | 30.2th |
| Genres | 1 | 56th |
Awards & honours
| Year | Award | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Prize Tomás Luis de Victoria | won |
Where this record comes from
aliases/urls—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/b6399bc2-f06b-45d5-95ac-1693a72bd61bdiscography—musicbrainz · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://musicbrainz.org/artist/b6399bc2-f06b-45d5-95ac-1693a72bd61bcore—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1369108genre—wikidata · CC0 · retrieved 11 October 2026
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1369108seed-list—wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Sierrabiography—wikipedia-en · CC BY-SA 4.0 · retrieved 10 October 2026
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Sierra
Why this artist is in the database
- List of composers by name
Tier rule: curated genre/region list
Image: no portrait (not displayed: the licence credit is missing)
Wikidata: Q1369108 · MusicBrainz: b6399bc2-f06b-45d5-95ac-1693a72bd61b
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