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Enrique Arias dead at 63

December 6, 2004
Ars Musica Chicago

Dr. Enrique Alberto Arias, 63, musicologist, Associate Professor at DePaul University's School of New Learning, and President of Ars Musica Chicago, died last Wednesday, December 1st, at Weiss Memorial Hospital, Chicago. He is survived by close friends and colleagues; there are no immediate family survivors.



The son of Enrique (the Consul General of Panama in Chicago) and Jeanne Arias, Dr. Arias was born April 26, 1941 in Chicago. He received a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from the DePaul University School of Music, a Master of Arts in Musicology from the University of Chicago, and in 1971, a PhD. in Music History and Literature from Northwestern University. A generous and popular teacher, Dr. Arias was a faculty member, and President, of the Chicago Conservatory of Music. He then served as chairman of Humanities and Graduate Studies at the American Conservatory of Music, and in 1993 began his tenure at DePaul. Arias was also a member of the American Musicological Society, and throughout his career, he was a keynote speaker at numerous conferences on Latin American music.


Dr. Arias was a diligent and prolific researcher and writer, traveling yearly to churches, archives and libraries around the world. His many publications include “The Masses of Sebastian de Vivanco (circa 1550-1622): A Study of Polyphonic Settings of the Ordinary in Late Renaissance Spain (University Microfilms, 1971), Alexander Tcherepnin: A Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press, 1989), and Comedy in Music: A Historical Bibliographical Resource Guide (Greenwood Press, 2001). Dr. Arias was one of four editors of Essays in Honor of John F. Ohl: A Compendium of American Musicology (Northwestern University Press, 2001), and one of his most significant publications was the edition of Three Masses by Sebastian de Vivanco (A-R Editions, circa 1978). Arias also had numerous articles published in major music journals, including Music Review, Tempo, Perspectives of New Music, Anuario Musical, Lituanus (The Luthuanian Quarterly), and the Latin American Music Review. His final two articles were "Maps and Music: How the Bounding Confidence of the Elizabethan Age was Celebrated in a Madrigal by Weelkes" (published in the winter 2003-04 edition of Early Music America), and “Jules Massenet, French Cantatas for a Martyr, and Vincentian Composers” (published in the September 2004 edition of the Diapason).



As a pianist, Arias was most active in the 1970s and 1980s, performing regionally at many venues including Preston Bradley Hall, and internationally with the late soprano Dahlia Kucenas at concert halls throughout Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, and South America.


Perhaps his fondest activity was as president of Ars Musica Chicago, one of the country’s leading early music ensembles, a position he held since 1988. The organization grew in large part because Dr. Arias had a passion for imaginative programming, a special knack for fundraising, and a talent for bringing to light a rarefied era of music.


A memorial service is scheduled for Sunday, December 12, 1:30 PM at St. Vincent de Paul Church, 1010 West Webster, Chicago. A reception is to follow. Additionally, a concert will be given in his memory on January 9th, 2005, at 7:00 PM, also at St. Vincent de Paul Church.



Contributions may be made in his memory to Ars Musica Chicago, P.O. Box A-3279, Chicago, IL 60690.