Raymond Torres-Santos (born June 19, 1958, in

Río Piedras, Puerto Rico Río Piedras () (Spanish language, Spanish for ''stones river'') is a highly urbanized commercial and residential district in San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan, the capital Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality of Puerto Rico. Adjacent to th ...

) is a classical and

film music A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

composer and

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

, pianist, arranger, and producer of both classical, film and popular music. Malena Kuss described him as the most versatile Puerto Rican composer active in the 21st century in her book, ''Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: an Encyclopedic History''.

Biography

Raymond Torres-Santos earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the

Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico The Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music () is a public conservatory in San Juan, Puerto Rico.Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto RicoSOBRE EL CONSERVATORIO DE MÚSICA DE PUERTO RICO: Información General del Conservatorio.Retrieved: February 14, 200 ...

and the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...

. He completed graduate studies at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

, earning M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in music composition and music theory. He carried out post-doctoral studies at the Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik, Darmstadt, Germany, and later at the University of Padua, Italy. He did further post-doctoral studies at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University, Eastman School of Music, and Harvard University. Torres-Santos started performing professionally while in elementary school. At college, he began his musical career as a pianist and arranger for the Puerto Rico Orchestra, Los Hispanos, and the Mario Ortiz Orchestra at the Caribe Hilton Hotel, where he accompanied performers including

Chita Rivera Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero (January 23, 1933 – January 30, 2024), known professionally as Chita Rivera, was an American actress, singer, and dancer. Rivera received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Drama Desk Awa ...

Robert Goulet Robert Gérard Goulet (November 26, 1933 October 30, 2007) was an American‐Canadian singer and actor of French-Canadian ancestry. Goulet was born and raised in Lawrence, Massachusetts, until age 13, and then spent his formative years in Canad ...

Diahann Carroll Diahann Carroll ( ; born Carol Diann Johnson; July 17, 1935 – October 4, 2019) was an American actress, singer, model, and activist. Carroll was the recipient of numerous nominations and awards for her stage and screen performances, incl ...

and

The Stylistics The Stylistics are an American Philadelphia soul group that achieved their greatest chart success in the 1970s. They formed in 1968, with a lineup of singers Russell Thompkins Jr., Herb Murrell, Airrion Love, James Smith, and James Dunn. All ...

. As an arranger, he has worked alongside many artists, including

Julio Iglesias Julio José Iglesias de la Cueva (; born 23 September 1943) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. Iglesias is recognized as the most commercially successful Spanish singer in the world and one of the top List of best-selling music artists, reco ...

Danny Rivera Danny Rivera (born 27 February 1945) is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter born in San Juan whose career spans nearly 50 years. He is well known in Puerto Rico for his political activism. In 2008, Rivera acquired Dominican Republic citizenship. ...

Ednita Nazario Edna María Nazario Figueroa (born April 11, 1955) is a Puerto Rican Latin pop singer who has achieved stardom both at home and abroad. She has been in the music business from a young age and has released twenty-three studio albums, seven live ...

Elvis Crespo Elvis Crespo Díaz (born July 30, 1971) is an American merengue singer. He has won multiple awards, including a Grammy and a Latin Grammy Award in merengue music. Early years Crespo was born in New York City and was named "Elvis" after Elvi ...

Plácido Domingo José Plácido Domingo Embil (born 21 January 1941) is a Spanish opera singer, conductor, and arts administrator. He has recorded over a hundred complete operas and is well known for his versatility, regularly performing in Italian, French, ...

, Andrea Bocelli, Deborah Voigt, Angela Gheorghiu, Ana Maria Martinez, Anita Rachvilishvili, Rafael Dávila, and Juan Luis Guerra. He was the first Puerto Rican to receive the

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

Award in jazz composing and arranging and also the Henry Mancini Award in film scoring in Los Angeles. Torres-Santos has received other awards from organizations, including

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

, BMI, Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum, and the American Music Center in New York. After completing his doctoral studies, Torres-Santos became a music professor at various colleges, including California State University, San Bernardino, and the University of Puerto Rico, where he was the Director of the Commercial Music Program and Chair of the Music Department, respectively. He was also appointed Chancellor of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. At the beginning of the 21st century, Torres-Santos was a professor at the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

, teaching at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

and

Hostos Community College Eugenio María de Hostos Community College of The City University of New York is a public community college in the South Bronx, New York City. It is part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system and was created by an act of the Board ...

for six years."Raymond Torres-Santos Named Dean of College of the Arts and Communication at William Patterson University"
''William Paterson University website'', June 5, 2008. Retrieved May 28, 2024. In June 2008, Torres-Santos was appointed Dean of the College of the Arts and Communication of William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey, and in 2011 was appointed Dean of the College of the Arts at California State University, Long Beach (in Los Angeles County), where he is currently a full professor and the director of the music composition program. He has traveled to perform as a musician and conductor and as a guest speaker at international events, such as the 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st International Conferences of the International Society for Music Education held in Bologna, Italy (July 2008), Beijing, China (July 2010), Thessaloniki, Greece (July 2012), and Glasgow, Scotland (July 2016) respectively. He is currently a Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC) and a voting member of the Grammys, for which he has acted as judge.

Compositions

Torres-Santos has composed orchestral, electronic, and vocal music for concert hall, ballet, film, theater, television, and radio. He received commissions to compose many of his works, such as the "1898 Overture" commissioned by the Puerto Rico Government's 1998 Centennial Commission; "Conversations with Silence," commissioned for the

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

Chamber Music Society; "Jersey Polyphony," commissioned by the American Composer Forum Continental Harmony Project; "Danza" (Variation on a Theme by Mozart) commissioned by the Casals Festival; "La cancion de las Antillas," commissioned by the Puerto Rico Symphony; and "Juris Oratorio," commissioned by the

. Other orchestral works include: "El Pais de los Cuatro Pisos," a symphonic poem, and "Sinfonia del Milenio," a symphonic tour of history from creation to present times in an audiovisual format. In 2014, "Symphonia: Resonantia Luminosa Infinita" for brass and orchestra was commissioned by the Casals Festival.

Performances

Torres-Santos' works have been performed or commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra; National Chinese Orchestra; Warsaw Conservatory of Music Chorus and Orchestra; Pacific Symphony; Reading Orchestra; Queens Symphony; North Massachusetts Philharmonic, Soria Symphony (Spain); the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra; the (national) symphony orchestras of London, Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto, Taipei, Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic; Youth Symphony of the Americas;

American Youth Symphony The American Youth Symphony (AYS) was an orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States, It was founded in 1964. History AYS was founded in 1964 by conductor Mehli Mehta (father of Zubin Mehta and Zarin Mehta), then Director of the O ...

; Bronx Arts Ensemble; Continuum; New Jersey Chamber Music Society; West Point Woodwind Quintet; Newark Boys Choir; North Jersey Philharmonic Glee Club; North/South Consonance;

Quintet of the Americas Quintet of the Americas is a wind quintet, established in Bogotá in 1976 and based in New York City since 1979. They have performed concerts throughout the Americas and Eastern Europe, and have recorded eight CDs. Members * Karla Moe, Flute * ...

; Voix-Touche; and many other independent groups in the US, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Argentina. His music has been played at the Casals Festival, World Fair in Seville, Venice Biennale, and Op Sail 2000. It has been used for television and radio programs and choreographed by dance companies.

Recordings

Among recordings of his works are ''La Canción de las Antillas'', recorded by the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra in 1990; ''Requiem'', released by RTS Music Records in 1997 and featuring mezzo-soprano Ilca Lopez and baritone Rafael Cotto; ''Fantasia Caribeña'', recorded by the San Juan Pops Orchestra in 2000; and ''Jubilum'' in 2017, ''Aureola'' in 2019, Satellites, Drones and Planes in 2021 and Guakia Baba in 2022 under the RTS Music label. His music arrangements have been recorded by Sony Music (classical and pop). In 2014 he also produced under RTS Music, ''Antillano'', as a jazz pianist.

Piano

As a studio and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

pianist in Los Angeles, he worked with the

Maynard Ferguson Walter Maynard Ferguson CM (May 4, 1928 – August 23, 2006) was a Canadian jazz trumpeter and bandleader. He came to prominence in Stan Kenton's orchestra before forming his own big band in 1957. He was noted for his bands, which often served ...

Freddie Hubbard Frederick Dewayne Hubbard (April 7, 1938 – December 29, 2008) was an American jazz trumpeter. He played bebop, hard bop, and post-bop styles from the early 1960s onwards. His unmistakable and influential tone contributed to new perspectives fo ...

, Bobby Shaw, and

Tito Puente Ernest Anthony Puente Jr. (April 20, 1923 – May 31, 2000), commonly known as Tito Puente, was an American musician, songwriter, bandleader, timbalero, and record producer. He composed dance-oriented mambo and Latin jazz music. He was also k ...

and has been featured in film scores.

Conducting

He has conducted the London Session Orchestra, Taipei Philharmonic, Cosmopolitan Symphony Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony and Philharmonic Orchestras, Dominican Republic National Orchestra, Queens Symphony Orchestra, Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Bronx Arts Ensemble Orchestra, and Hollywood Studio Orchestras in concerts and recordings. He was the music director for pop and jazz singers: Vikki Carr and Dianne Schuur.

Scholarly work

He has written articles in peer-reviewed journals from Hofstra University and CUNY, as well as the Cambridge Scholar Publishing and Almenara Press. He is the general editor of ''Music Education in the Caribbean and Latin America'', published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishing in conjunction with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).

References

External links

Scholar Biography - Dr. Raymond Torres-Santos, Chair of the Music Department, University of Puerto Rico
at prdream.com
Biography from Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular
{{DEFAULTSORT:Torres-Santos, Raymond 1958 births Living people Puerto Rican composers Puerto Rican male composers People from Río Piedras, Puerto Rico University of California, Los Angeles alumni University of Puerto Rico faculty Hunter College faculty Hostos Community College faculty William Paterson University faculty