Humberto Hernández Medrano (1941) was born in Chihuahua, the capital of the state of the same name located in northern Mexico, in 1941. He started playing the piano at the age of five. In 1952 he entered the National Conservatory of Music in Mexico City, studying piano with Amelia Torres, theory and analysis of music with Rodolfo Halffter, instrumentation with José Pablo Moncayo and composition with Carlos Chávez, being one of his most outstanding students of his composition workshop.
At the beginning of the 1960s Chávez organized a composition workshop at the aforementioned Conservatory, obtaining scholarships and after a selection examination Leonardo Velásquez, Jorge Daher, Jesús Villaseñor, Héctor Quintanar, Eduardo Mata and Humberto Hernández Medrano entered this study.
Chávez received his friend Aarón Copland in 1962, who worked with his students, among whom was Hernández Medrano.
The "Symphony No. 1" (Academic Symphony) premiered at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in the Mexican capital, performed by the Opera Orchestra conducted by its own composer on March 24, 1962. Copland supervised its instrumentation. We do not have the material to make an assessment of his work, nor do we know if he has composed more symphonies.
As with many composers, it is currently very difficult to make recordings of their works, as it is considered a minority material that does not generate profits for record producers. It would need grants from the administration, which it considers to have other more important interests or motivations of a particular nature.
Hernández Medrano received a scholarship from the Mexican government to continue his studies at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, where he studied piano with Sviatoslav Richter, orchestration with Dmitri Shostakovich and counterpoint with Dmitri Kabalevsky.
When he returned to Mexico in 1973, he founded the Taller de Estudios Polifónicos in Mexico City, one of the best private composition schools in all of Latin America. Important composers such as Samuel Zyman, orchestra conductors such as Enrique Barrios, Alfonso Mejía-Arias and Juan Carlos Lomónaco have come from this school.
In 1975 he directed the premiere of his "Serial Symphonic Fuga" at the head of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Polytechnic Institute.
His best known work, "1962: Homenaje a Copland" (Symphonic Fugue in a Movement) premiered in Guanajuato on October 13, 2007, performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Mexico City conducted by Enrique Barrios, within the International Cervantino Festival. . A fugue with the character of a concert for orchestra, by the intervention of the soloist piano and episodes presented by wood and metal. The work has been performed by the most important orchestras in Mexico, the United States, China and Argentina.Tribute to Copland
In it he recalls the help provided by the American teacher who in 1962 revised his symphony. A time that was unforgettable for him.
At the XXº Morelia International Music Festival, on November 27, 2008 "Plegaria y Profecía" was premiered , a religious cantata for tenor soloist, mixed choir and orchestra, performed by the Aguascalientes Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Enrique Barrios at the Teatro Morelos. During this concert the "Mexico Symphony" by Bernal Jiménez was also performed.
For his contributions to the musical work of Mexico, Hernández Medrano has been recognized in 1978 with the Águila de Tlatelolco medal awarded by the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Lira de Oro in 1983, awarded by the Musicians Union, and the Mozart Medal awarded by the Austrian Embassy in Mexico, on February 13, 2009.
Some of last disciples spent time with Humberto Hernández Medrano. Diego Sierra Pous was one of his disciple. Here are some Symphonies of Diego Sierra Pous, which are inspired by Humberto Hernández Medrano.
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