ALFREDO SANTOS BUENAVENTURA

Alfredo Santos Buenaventura was born in Sta. Maria, Bulacan on 14 October 1929. His
parents unconsciously provided him the musical atmosphere. At an early age in grade
school, he became a member of a band that marched the town because of his
fascination with trumpets and trombones. During the pre-war, he became one of the
twenty boy sopranos of Tiples at Sto. Domingo Church. They were given first class
musical training. At that time, he also wrote his first composition which was a
Danza. Bueneventura also had formal music lessons. At the age of 12 to 13, he
already arranged and conducted band in his hometown. He was an official organist of
the Manila Cathedral from 1960. He also became a member of the League of Filipino
Composers and received numerous outstanding awards in music industry such as the
Republic Cultural Heritage Awards that he won twice.
CONTRIBUTIONS He is among the few composers in the Philippines who composed five
full-length operas. He has his own set of ideas about music and composition. He
created a combination of contemporary and conventional, kept his melodies simple
and understandable but he used contemporary harmonies to suit the intellectuals.
Dr. Alfredo S. Buenaventura is an excellent musician, composer, conductor and music
education teacher.

His minor works which number over 50 are mostly religious songs and hymns for
specific celebrations such as the Sixteenth Centenary of St. Augustine, Mass for
the 400th Year of the Augustinian Recollect and the Philippine Music Festival. His
other creative musical works have been commissioned by the Cultural Center of the
Philippines, Metropolitan Theater and NAMCYA. ACHIEVEMENTS Buenaventura has
composed over 50 major works including operas, operettas and dance dramas,
cantatas, symphonies, concertos, ballets, overtures, prelude, fugues and chamber
music. His compositions and other creative works have penetrated territorial,
racial and language barriers as they have been played or performed in foreign lands
by international virtuosos and religious groups. Many of his compositions are based
on Filipino heroes, legends and epics. He uses native songs, both tribal and folk,
as themes and employs Filipino indigenous instruments. Some of his works include
operas entitled, Maria Makiling (1961), Diego Silang (1966), Prinsesa Urduha
(1969); cantatas such as Ang Ating Watawat (1965), Pasko ng Barangay (1964);
symphonies for instance, Dakilang Lahi (1971), Gomburza (1981), and Rizal, the
Great Malayan Antagonist (1990). TOFIL Awardee for Music, 1995