Amelia Cabeza de Pelayo Patterson (16 July 1912 – 28 December 2019) was an Argentine composer, singer, poet, and teacher responsible for writing the anthem of the

Province of Salta A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provin ...

. She was very popular in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and much of her music received state approval from the Ministry of Education of Argentina.

Biography

Patterson was born in

San Miguel de Tucumán San Miguel de Tucumán (), usually called simply Tucumán, is the capital and largest city of Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth-largest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Argentin ...

Tucumán Province Tucumán () is the most densely populated, and the second-smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the province has the capital of San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neighb ...

, but at a young age her family moved to

's capital,

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. There, she learned how to play the violin and the piano, through private lessons. After finishing high school, Patterson attended the Clementi Music School and graduated three years later as a music teacher specializing in the violin, according to the diploma awarded her by Argentina's Ministry of Education. She went on to study classical singing with a private tutor for seven years. In 1946, Patterson found work as a music teacher at the Zorrilla, Alberdi and Peter Pan music schools, but resigned for personal reasons four years later. When she resigned from the Peter Pan school, she was given a gold medal for writing a version of ''The Adventures of Peter Pan'', which had been presented twice consecutively at the Victoria Theater in

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...

and at the Miter Theaters in

San Salvador de Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy (), commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital and largest city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. Also, it is the seat of the Doctor Manuel Belgrano Department. It lies near ...

and

. Over the next decade, she would herself become a private tutor for the piano, violin, guitar, and singing. She was the Director of the Polyphonic Choir of Salta, which in 1962 gave 14 public and radio recitals. She

turned 100 A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100. Because life expectancies at birth worldwide are well below 100, the term is invariably associated with longevity. The United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living centenarian ...

in July 2012. Patterson died on 28 December 2019 at the age of 107.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Amy 1912 births 2019 deaths Argentine composers Argentine educators Argentine women poets Argentine Roman Catholics Argentine people of Spanish descent Argentine women centenarians People from Salta Argentine women composers 20th-century Argentine women educators 20th-century Argentine educators 21st-century Argentine women educators 21st-century Argentine educators 20th-century Argentine women writers 20th-century Argentine writers 21st-century Argentine women writers 21st-century Argentine songwriters