Julián Orbón

Julián Orbón (August 7, 1925, Avilés, Spain – May 21, 1991, Miami, Florida) was a Cuban composer who lived and composed in Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States of America. Aaron Copland referred to Orbón as "Cuba's most gifted composer of the new generation."

Julián Orbón was born on August 7, 1925, in Avilés, Spain, to Benjamín Orbón. Julián Orbón was exposed to music at a very early age because his father, Benjamín, was a composer and pianist. In 1932, Julián Orbón began taking piano lessons and basic music lessons from his father. At the age of ten, Julián Orbón attended the Oviedo Conservatory, where he received his first formal training.

In 1938, the Orbón family moved to Havana, Cuba. Here Orbón continued his musical training in piano under his father and his training in composition under José Ardévol, a Cuban composer and conductor. While teaching at the Havana Conservatory, Ardévol co-founded a Cuban school of composers with Orbón, called Grupo de renovación musical, including many of Ardévol's students. The members of this group included musicians Serafín Pro, Edgardo Martín, Argeliers León, Harold Gramatges, Hilario González, Dolores Torres Barrós, and Juan Antonio Cámara. This group was established to promote new Cuban music. While in Havana, Orbón's father also co-founded the Orbón Conservatory.

When his father died in 1944, Julián Orbón took over as director of the Orbón Conservatory. A year later, he won a scholarship to study composition with Aaron Copland at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts. After studying with Copland for about a year, Orbón returned to Havana to continue his position as director at the Orbón Conservatory. He did not stay long, however, because the Cuban Revolution began in 1953. In the wake of this revolution, Orbón permanently left Cuba and moved to Mexico City in 1960.

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