Vicente Zarzo Pitarch

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Zarzo and the second or maternal family name is Pitarch.

Vicente Zarzo Pitarch (born 6 May 1938) is a Spanish horn player who has played as a soloist in several European and North American orchestras. He is also the author of several books on the history and technique of the horn.

Life and career

Zarzo was born in Benaguasil, in the Spanish province of Valencia and studied the horn at the Conservatorio Superior de Música Joaquín Rodrigo in Valencia. He later studied with Hans Noeth in Munich, Germany.

For 25 years he was the horn soloist in the Residentie Orkest in the Hague and was first horn with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. He has also played as the horn soloist for the Valencia Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in Reykjavík, the American Wind Symphony Orchestra in Pittsburgh, and the National Orchestra of Mexico.

Recognition

In 2004 he was given the Giovanni Punto Award by the International Horn Society and named an "Insigne de la Música Valenciana" by the Academia Valenciana de la Música. The Calle Músico Vicente Zarzo, a street in central Granada is named in his honour.

Works composed for Vicente Zarzo

• Quaterni II by Jan van Vlijmen (premiered by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra)
• Sinfónica No. 3 for wind orchestra by Eduardo Mata (premiered by the University of Mexico Orchestra)
• Confronti horn concerto by Wim Laman (premiered at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague)

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

• 70 Estudios Convencionales En Cuatro Volúmenes op. 5 Para Trompa, Piles, Editorial de Música, S.A. 1 January 1998.