Celebrating Hispanic Heritage: Marta García Renart (Piano '64)
Born to a musical family in Mexico City in 1942, distinguished pianist, composer, teacher, and Curtis alumna Marta García Renart (’64) has carved out an illustrious career. As a child, she took piano lessons with Francisco Agea and Baltasar Samper, and studied music theory with Pedro Michaca, later becoming a student of the prominent French pianist Bernard Flavigny. One of 82 pianists auditioning for Curtis in 1959, she won a spot, becoming a pupil of Eleanor Sokoloff (Piano ’38) and Rudolf Serkin, also serving as the accompanist to cello faculty members Orlando Cole (’34) and Leonard Rose (’39).
From 1963 to 1967, she continued her studies at Mannes College of Music in New York, focusing on direction, musical analysis, and composition as a student of Carl Schachter, performing numerous recitals with her brother: cellist Luis García Renart, a pupil of Pablo Casals and Mstislav Rostropovich.
A faculty member at the El Nicromante Cultural Center in San Miguel de Allende from 1986 to the present, Ms. Renart has performed acclaimed concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Tingüindín Temple, Michoacán, and across the U.S., Cuba, El Salvador, and almost every state in Mexico. She is a member of the Sagittarius Trio and has participated in numerous festivals, such as the Cervantino International Festival and the “Manuel Enriquez” New Music Festival.
She served as the director of the Massa Coral of the Orfeò Català of Mexico City from 1969 to 1980. In 1973, she joined the Liga de Compositores de Música de Concierto de México (League of Composers of Concert Music of Mexico), and her work as a composer, which includes a catalog of song cycles, music for chamber groups, opera, piano, and the theater, earned her the “Composer with a Career” scholarship from Conaculta Querétaro in 1993.
From 1985 to 2005, she was the resident pianist at the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival, playing with the Fine Arts, Manhattan, Lark, Ying, and Cuarteto Latinoamericano quartets. Additionally, Ms. Renart was the resident pianist at the Instrumenta International Festival of Puebla in 2003 and 2004 and at the Aguascalientes Chamber Music Festival in 2005 and 2006. Among other recognitions, Marta García Renart obtained the “1999 Excellence” award with the radio program Sobre Música, Músicos… y Algo Más…, which she hosted live from the City of Querétaro from April 1998 to March of 2002.
Among her students are the composer Georgina Derbez, the pianist and composer Jorge Isaac González Prieto, the violinist and composer Juan Ramón Meza, and the composer and pianist Luis Obregón.
Explore more Curtis history at the Curtis Institute of Music Open Archives and Recitals (CIMOAR) digital collections. Learn more about Curtis’s library and archives HERE.
Photo Credits: 1. & 5.) Portrait of Ms. Renart courtesy of Expresionen Movimiento. 2.) Courtesy of es.wikipedia.org. 3.) Image of Marta García Renart courtesy of Luzam. 4.) Ana Gerhard and Ms. Renard courtesy of Jornada; photo by José Antonio López. 6.) Image courtesy of Museo Escárcega.
