Julio Alvarado Tricoche | |
---|---|
Birth name | Julio Alvarado Tricoche |
Born | 18 February 1886 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
Died | 24 September 1970 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
Genres | danzas, plenas, valls, polkas, boleros and danzones |
Occupation(s) | flutist, composer, and band director |
Years active | 1912-1970 |
Associated acts | Mingo and the Whoopee Kids |
Notable instruments | |
flute |
Julio Alvarado Tricoche (1886–1970) was a Puerto Rican flutist, composer, and director of the Banda Municipal de Ponce for seventeen years.
Julio Alvarado Tricoche was born on 18 February 1886 in Ponce, Puerto Rico. His father was Spaniard and his mother was Puerto Rican. Alvarado Tricoche was the first male baby born at the just-built Hospital Valentín Tricoche. As a young man he worked as a blacksmith and a tobacco salesperson before he dedicated the rest of his life to music.
In 1903 he started playing the guitar with music professor Clemente Acosta. He studied music theory and flute with Jesús R. Ramos Antonini and for his advanced music education Alvarado Tricoche was a student of Domingo Cruz (Cocolía) and Juan Ríos Ovalle.
Alvarado Tricoche started in the world of music from very young. He first performed with the flute.
In 1912, Domingo Cruz "Cocolía", then director of the Ponce Municipal Band contracted Julio Alvarado as flutist and conductor.
Alvarado Tricoche initiated his work as a composer in 1914, creating danzas, valses, pasodobles, pasillos, boleros and plenas. Among his favorite themes was love and womanhood. His romantic melodies continue to be played in modern Puerto Rico. Among his best known compositions are Ausencia (1920), Una Noche de Algodon (1926), Ambición (1938), Lejos de ti (1937) and Cenizas (1942).