Instrumentalist

Lavilla Munarriz, Félix

Navarrese concert pianist and composer, born in Pamplona on 11 June 1928. Died in Madrid on 14 January 2013.

He studied with José María Iraola in San Sebastián, and furthered his studies in Madrid with José Cubiles. He began his career in 1951, and uninterruptedly toured Spain, France, Italy, England, Germany, Scandinavia, Portugal, North Africa, Israel, the United States, South America, etc. with solo piano recitals and accompanying singers and concert pianists. He collaborated with the singers Gloria Davi, Isabel Penagos, Lola Rodríguez Aragón, Ángeles Chamorro, Toñi Rosado and with the concert artists Elías Arizcure, Gaspar Cassadó and Maurice Geandron (cellists), Eduardo H. Asiain and Elsa Allodi (violinists), etc.

In 1957, Félix Lavilla married the soprano Teresa Berganza and, since then, he has accompanied her on the piano all over the world. He sometimes conducts the orchestras with which Berganza collaborates, among them the Hannover and Northern Simphonic orchestras. In December 1979 he accompanied Ana Higuera on the piano. His work is mainly made up of three songbooks for voice and piano, of a tonal and orthodox style, sometimes including popular melodies, sometimes reminiscent of Father Donostia and Falla, so that if the Basque melodies are closer to Impressionism, the Spanish ones are closer to percussive efectism. He is also the author of religious music for choir and instrumental accompaniment, works for choir, and various arrangements, realisations and adaptations of historical music.

ASA

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  • LARRAÑAGA, Patxi: "Lavilla Munárriz, Félix", en Casares, E. (dir.): Diccionario de la Música Española e Hispanoamericano. Madrid, Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 1999. T.6, pp. 799-800.
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