Morella Muñoz

Morella Muñoz
Background information
Born	July 29, 1935(1935-07-29) Caracas, Venezuela
Died	July 15, 1995(1995-07-15) (aged 59) Caracas, Venezuela
Genres	Venezuelan folk music, Classical Music
Occupations	Musician, singer
Associated acts	Quinteto Contrapunto
Website	Morella Muñoz Foundation

Morella Muñoz (July 29, 1935 – July 15, 1995), was a celebrated Venezuelan mezzosoprano.

Early life and career

The young Morella Muñoz, on the cover of the biography by Ildemaro Torres

She received primary education at the Venezuela Ricardo Zuloaga Experimental school, and the San José de Tarbes school. In 1946 she was admitted to the Andrés Bello grammar school, immediately joining its choir, directed by Lorenzo Spinal Figallo, and also becoming a member of the Choir of the Central University of Venezuela created and directed by Antonio Estévez, who insisted on her applying to join this institution.

During the selection process, Morella was discovered by professor Lidia Butturini de Panaro, who from that moment would become a determining person in her artistic base and future formation. Already in 1948, she was singing with in the pseudonym of Morella Kenton at the Radiodifusora Venezuela station, entering soon in television, in the program of the famous entertainer Víctor Saume. In 1953, at the request of professor Panaro, Morella entered the Superior School of Music, studying singing. Her teachers were Inocente Carreño and Raimundo Pereira in music theory, Vicente Emilio Sojo in harmony, and Juan Bautista Plaza in music history, musical aesthetics and comedy. In this period, she staged her first classic concert together with the Orfeón Lamas choral ensemble.

In 1957, after graduating from school, she traveled to Tanglewood, (England) to participate in the Berkshire Music Center summer course. In 1958 she traveled again to Europe, where she studied chamber music interpretation at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, under the direction of Giorgio Favaretto while simultaneously attending Italian courses in the Dante Alighieri Institute.

After this, she moved on to the Vienna School of Music & Arts where she completed her singing education. Also, during this period she visited Quekhoven (Netherlands), where she followed singing and interpretation courses with Noemí Perugia.

Professional career

Morella Muñoz and the Quinteto Contrapunto

The albums Six Venezuelan Songs Of Antonio Estévez and American Songs circulated in the Venezuelan market, with a selection of spirituals and compositions sung in March 1957 in a concert featuring Pan-American music at the Museo de Bellas Artes of Caracas. In 1961 Muñoz sang at the Palazzo Forte of Verona, under the auspices of the Musical Culture Academy of this city. She earned the Spring Prize of the Prague International Contest for singers of academic formation. That same year she married Pedro Alvarez Ibarra, and they had two children.

After returning to Caracas, she joined the Quinteto Contrapunto, whose first album of a series of five was recorded in 1962. Soon she returned to Europe and in London she took private classes with Rozna Side, as part of an advanced vocal technique course. At her return to Venezuela her album Venezuelan Children's Songs produced in England was released. In 1967 the album Alirio and Morella songs was released, composed of Venezuelan folk music and Christmas songs, sung by Morella and accompanied by guitarist Alirio Diaz. Also around this time she produced a series of LP albums dedicated to traditional Christmas songs, with the participation of several artists.

In addition to her numerous presentations across the country, either individually or along with figures like Ignacio Figueredo and Fredy Reyna, Muñoz participated in several tours, singing in various capitals and other important cities of Europe and the Americas. As a recognition to her talent, she was the only South American singer to be included among the new values of the 20th century in the Encyclopedia of Music (Germany 1959/Spain 1970, directed by Fred Hamel and Martín Hürdimann).

She had a vast repertoire that included folkloric music, traditional indigenous, religious and popular songs, and contemporary urban compositions. In the academic field her repertoire included concerts, masses, oratorios, requiems and operas. She was considered by many to be the best Latin American interpreter of Brahms. Also, she specialized in the vocal music of Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Bach, Handel and Mahler.

Later years

Morella sang along with the Chamber Orchestra of the UCV, the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra, the Caracas Philarmonic Orchestra and the Simón Bolivar National Orchestra, singing as soloist in Mozart's Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Vivaldi's Gloria and Beethoven's Ninth symphony. In 1982 she released an anthological edition of 12 albums, accompanied by a testimonial book by Carlos González Vegas. In 1988, she was the inaugural voice of the First Caracas Christmas proclamation, celebrated in the Plaza Bolívar of Caracas. Between 1989 and 1992, she worked as a consultant to the Culture Ministry. In 1994 the Disco Club Venezolano published a CD and a book in her honor, Morella Muñoz, Our Voice. Throughout her artistic life she received numerous awards, among them the National Music Prize in 1992.

Trivia

• In 2006 Ildemaro Torres published a biography of Morella Muñoz, for the Biblioteca Biográfica Venezolana, with the seal of El Nacional.
• She was a close friend of fellow musician Aldemaro Romero.

External links

• Morella Muñoz Discography (with the Quinteto Contrapunto)
• Songs of Pilón by Morella Muñoz
• Cantos indígenas by Morella Muñoz
• Luna Decembrina by Morella Muñoz

Persondata
Name	Munoz, Morella
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 29, 1935
Place of birth
Date of death	July 15, 1995
Place of death