Carlos Chávez

Carlos Chávez was born near Mexico City in 1899 and became the central organizer of Mexican concert life in the twentieth century. In 1928 he founded the Orquesta Sinfónica de México and led it for twenty-one years, premiering new Mexican works and bringing in modern music from abroad. He also directed the national conservatory and, later, the country's fine arts institute.

As a composer he looked for a modern voice rooted in Mexico, sometimes borrowing melodies and percussion instruments from the country's Indigenous traditions, sometimes writing spare, driving music with no folklore in it at all.

His Symphony no. 2, the Sinfonía india, is the place to begin: a single-movement piece built on Indigenous Mexican melodies, bright, rhythmic, and about twelve minutes long.