Arturo Pantaleón

Arturo Pantaleón is an active and talented composer and hornplayer of the new generation of classical music in Latin America, Mexico and Europe. In recent years his most important work has been to make Germany – his current home – acquainted with the music of Latin America. This idea resulted from his confidence in the strengths of Latin American music and his personal commitment. He is strongly interested in developing this music further and in making it known more widely. Arturo Pantaleón’s compositions belong to the style called "Latinist", represented by, among others, the Mexican and Latin American composers José Rolón, Silvestre Revueltas, Jose Pablo Moncayo, Arturo Márquez, Alberto Ginastera, Heitor Villa-Lobos and Emilio Atehortúa.

He was born on 18 March 1965 and began his musical career at a young age at the Music Conservatory of Mexico City, where his father, Ezequiel Mendoza Hernández, was a well-known and respected professor for the French Horn. He continued his studies at the University of the Arts in Berlin, studying primarily under Professor Gerd Seifert, former First Horn of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Afterwards he deepened his practice by studying at the Hanns-Eisler University Berlin with the outstanding professor for Horn, Kurt Palm. His studies in composition were with Gernot Reetz and Nikolai Badinski.

Arturo Pantaleón has played as soloist in various orchestras in Europe and Latin America. Currently he regularly plays chamber music in different groupings, playing among other things, his own compositions. As an orchestral musician he has played with a number of well-known German orchestras: these include the Deutsches Sinfonie Orchestra (Conductor: Ricardo Chailly), the Deutsches Kammerorchester and recordings for television and radio. Among these were a live broadcast of the Hollywood composer Lalo Schifrin and the jazz trumpeter John Faddis.

Arturo Pantaleón played solo horn in the National Orchestra of Mexico City for the Conductor Enrique Arturo Diemecke, in the Philharmonia of Acapulco under Eduardo Álvarez and in Berlin for some years at the Theater des Westens.

Currently he plays solo horn for the New Chamber Orchestra of Potsdam (www.nkop.de) and in the well-known Wind Quintet Musagetes (www.musagetes quintett.de). He conducts Workshops and solo concerts together with Gerd Seifert (former First Horn of the Berliner Philharmonic Orchestra) in Latin America.

Like the Mexican composer Arturo Marquéz, Arturo Pantaleón uses Latin American rhythms such as the Cumbia, the Son, the Jarabe, amerindian rhythms and other genres and combines these elements into concert music.

His most recent songs from 2004 "Lamentos Indígenas" op. 21 contain amerindian languages of the Zapotecas and Mixtecas from the Federal State Oaxáca, Mexico. His works include "Macuilxochitl" op. 14 (1998) for the Wind Quintet Musagetes, and "Cuicatlán" op. 15 (2000), a commission from the Bass Group of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. His most recent success were "Concierto Rui Estoláno" op. 17 (2004), a double-bass concerto played by the Youth Philharmonia of Venezuela (Solo: Edicson Ruíz from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Conductor: Gustavo Dudamel) and a commission from the Horn Group of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra "El ritual de Tezcatlipóca" op. 20 (2004). Other works were: "Remembrances of Youth" for Violocello and piano (1989), performed by Cuban Professor Douglas Vistel Colombie, a romance for horn and orchestra "Sentimientos" op. 5 (1989), played by the composer personally and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Montevideo, Uruguay.

Further studies were dedicated to conducting and orchestration with the American conductor William Michael Costello (www.williamcostello.de). Arturo Pantaleón made his conducting debut with the "Ensemble Cosmopolitano Berlin" in 2000. This was followed by conducting assignments for ensembles and orchestras from Germany, Mexico and Venezuela. In1999 he founded the Mexican-German Forum of Contemporary Arts and the House of the Cultures of Latin America (www.casalatinoamericana.de) with the goal making Latin American more popular to the German public.

The works of Arturo Pantaleon were greeted enthusiastically by the public. The various commissions from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra helped to make his work known in Japan, Europe and in Latin America. Some of the compositions have been published by the Gebr. Stark Music Publishing House Leipzig (www.stark-music.com) and CDs have appeared from “one world music records” (www.one-world-music.de). His compositions contain the entire spectrum of the musical wealth of Latin America, whereby his own personal style remains unmistakable.