Modesta Bor’s Suite for Cello and Piano
In preparation for my recital this Thursday, April 3rd, I have decided to give some more information and context for the program I will be presenting with the help of my friends.
The first piece on the program is Modesta Bor’s Suite for Cello and Piano, composed in Moscow, Russia in 1961 for the Spanish cellist Luis García Renart. However, I first got my hands (and ears and heart) on this music thanks to my beloved teacher and mentor Germán Marcano, who happened to be –this being no small feat at all– the cellist who premiered this work in Venezuela in the presence of the composer in a concert in 1986.
It is an honor and a privilege to learn and talk about the artists behind the works I will be sharing on Thursday! Modesta Bor was born in Juangriego, on Margarita Island –o mejor dicho and put, La Isla de Margarita–, in Venezuela in 1926. A well-known music educator, composer, and choral conductor, Bor began studying composition in Caracas with Vicente Emilio Sojo and graduated from the Conservatorio José Angél Lamas in Caracas in 1959. In 1959, Bor received a master’s degree in composition with her graduation piece, the stunning Suite for Chamber Orchestra, just a year later winning the National Prize for her spectacular Viola Sonata. The same sonata won her a full scholarship to study with composer Aram Khachaturian at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow from 1960 to 1962.
Holding several appointments during her career, Modesta Bor occupied an important role in inspiring young artists in Venezuela. She founded a children’s choir at the Juan Manuel Oliveras School of Music, and from 1974, she served as Professor of Composition at the José Lorenzo Llamozas School of Music, where her students included composer and choir director Cesar Carrillo. Bor simultaneously maintained the Head of the Music Department position at the Central University of Venezuela. Composers Beatriz Bilbao and Sylvia Constantinidis were among those she taught. In 1990, she moved to Mérida, Venezuela, where she continued her creative and educational work, offering Children’s Choir Conducting classes and Harmony Workshops to the students of la Escuela de Música de la Universidad de Los Andes. Bor passed away in April of 1999.
References, pictures, and sources:
Caicedo, Patricia. “Modesta Bor (Venezuela, 1926–1998)” Mundo Arts, 27 July 2009. https://web.archive.org/web/20110714133024/http://www.mundoarts.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33:modestabor&catid=14:composers&Itemid=46&lang=en. Accessed on 31 March 2025.
Marcano, Germán. “Suite de Modesta Bor.” Germán Marcano, 2006. https://germanmarcano.com/germansite/en/suite-de-modesta-bor/. Accessed 31 March 2025.
Otilca Radio. “Modesta Bor, Premio Nacional de Música.” Accessed 31 March 2025.
De Brito, Elizabeth. “Composer of the Month – Modesta Bor (1926-1998)” Women’s Philharmonic Advocacy, 2 February 2023. https://wophil.org/cotm-modesta-bor/. Accessed 31 March 2025.
