October 30, 2004
Venezuelan Diego Silva wins Casa de Las Americas Composition Award 2004
(Prensa Latina agency, reproduced by Radio Nacional) - "The jury at the Casa de las Americas Composition Awards 2004, unanimously decided to give the first and only prize to the Venezuelan composer Diego Rafael Silva for his piece 'Custodias de la Luz' ('Custodies of the Light'), written for chamber orchestra (...)

The jury had to valuate 41 pieces presented by authors from Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic and Venezuela. The Casa de Las Americas Composition Awards has its background in the Musical Composition Competition celebrated in La Casa (La Havana) in 1966 and 1967, following the initiative of Harold Gramatges.

Regarding the composer Diego Rafael Silva, he has wide experience as an instrumentalist, composer and investigator. In Venezuela he founded the Caracas Renaissance Band and the Caracas Renaissance Camerata. From 1982 to 1989 he lived in Nicaragua where he was adviser to the National Investigations Department of the Ministry of Culture (...)

Since 1979 he has presented pieces that included symphonic music, for choirs and orchestra, for solo and orchestra; chamber music, as well as works done with electronic technology, computers and ethnical expressions recorded “in situ”. At the same time, he has recorded incidental music for dance and theatre, cinema and documentaries, nationally and internationally. His work has been interpreted in concerts in the United States, Cuba, England, Germany, Russia, Spain, France, Nicaragua, Mexico, peru, Canada, Bolivia and Syria (...)

In Venezuela he is considered a pioneer incorporating ethnical instruments to academic work. His repertoire includes more than one hundred titles (...)".