MODARELLI, SEBASTIÁN (b. 1972)

Composer Sebastián Modarelli was born October 16, 1972 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he later studied piano at the National Conservatory of Music with Graciela Beretervide (Claudio Arraus student) earning his degree as salutatorian of his class.  In 1998 he was awarded the highest prize at the National Composers’ Competition Promociones Musicales and, a year later, he won the First Prize in the triennial Composers’ Contest of the National Academy of Arts in Argentina. His wide success led to a scholarship from the Argentinean Mozarteum and in 2001 he was offered a scholarship from the Italian government to study and compose at the conservatory “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan for three years. Besides earning an additional degree in Composition, Europe gave him the opportunity to participate in seminars and master classes with composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luis de Pablo and Marco Stroppa.

 

As an organist, he studied in Argentina at the National Conservatory of Music with Luis Caparra and Jesus Segade, Karl Richter’s frequent collaborator in Argentina.  He held the position of Organist and Music Professor at the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, guided by then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis).  He also founded and conducted Scholae Canctorum and choirs in both Buenos Aires and Milan. 

 

As many other young students, his first steps in music composition were completely drawn into the baroque and romantic styles. Serialism and atonality would later take the preeminent place in Modarelli’s works and studies, although later on his interest would reach neoclassical composers such as Igor Stravinsky or Dmitri Shostakovich. 

 

In the last years, Modarelli experienced a profound change as a contemporary composer, since the current European “axioms” for writing music didn't fit the deep emotions that he still had when listening to his favorite composers from his youth. It also didn't fit his desire to continue writing music for the same reason he had started writing when he was 12 years old: the listening for the Infinite Beauty. When he came to the United States, he found the “land of freedom” he was looking for. An openness rarely found elsewhere persuaded him to pursue his original path, trying to humbly learn from Russian composers like Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Prokofiev. In particular, Prokofiev’s harmonic language has fascinated Modarelli in the past years, and it seems to him an endless fountain of inspiration. At the same time, Argentine folk music has had a growing influence in his recent works. 

 

In 2005 Modarelli moved to Rochester, Minnesota after being offered the position of Music Director and Organist at St. John the Evangelist Church. His music has been performed and broadcast in different countries, including on NPR in the United States. Some of his noteworthy latest premieres include Born in Buenos Aires, commissioned and premiered by the Metro Chamber Orchestra in New York City in 2010, and performed later in its full orchestra version by the Rochester Symphony Orchestra in 2012, Variations on Picardy for Oboe and Organ, dedicated to renowned organist Jeff Davis in 2011, William Shakespeare for Choir and Organ, commissioned by the Albert Lea Cantori and the Duet for Cello and Organ, premiered by the Svyati Duo (UK) in 2012. In November 2013, the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, under the direction of Philip Brunelle, premiered What I Have Seen and Heard, an hour long a cappella work entirely based on St. John’s Gospel, and commissioned on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Church of St. John the Evangelist (Rochester, Minnesota). 

 

Besides his ongoing organ performances, he has been involved in other numerous professional commitments. He has served as Dean of the Southeastern Minnesota Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, and he has recently been appointed as a member of the Liturgical Commission of the Diocese of Winona. In 2009, Alliance Publications contracted with him to begin publishing his work in the United States.