FERNANDO RIVAS
Composer, Writer
Fernando M. Rivas graduated from the Juilliard School with a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition. He was introduced at Juilliard by his first composition teacher, Benjamin Lees, received a full scholarship and studied with National Arts Award recipient David Diamond and Vincent Persichetti among others. Mr. Rivas has won the Marion Freschl Prize for Vocal Composition, the Princess Grace Foundation Grant and the Princess Grace Foundation Special Project Grant for outstanding original work in musical theater, as well as two Emmys and one Grammy for subsequent work in children's music.
Mr. Rivas has written extensively for television, radio, film and theater composing background music and themes. He was Director of Continuity for WSKQ radio in New York. He has written identification jingles for Channel 41, WXTV and Channel 47, WNJU both in the tri-state area. He wrote, arranged, produced and recorded the campaign jingle for Telemundo's Channel 47. In 1995 CBS America chose Mr. Rivas' studio to record their national Spanish-language radio program HBO Espectaculares.
In addition to the commercial work, Mr. Rivas has also composed for the theater, writing and co-writing fourteen musicals as well as hundreds of songs. His work was featured by the Theater Communications Group when he collaborated with Maria Irene Fornes and Tito Puente in the musical work Lovers and Keepers. In 1990 he began to write for the Children's Television Workshop (Now Sesame Workshop) and has composed a number of songs for the show Sesame Street featuring singers as diverse as Celia Cruz, Gloria Estefan and Cindy Lauper. In 1995 and in 1996, along with the other writers and composers on Sesame Street Mr. Rivas was the recipient of 2 Emmys for his work on that show.
Mr. Rivas has worked as musical director with the Coconut Grove Playhouse in the show Miami Lights; with INTAR theater in New York in various productions; with the Puerto Rican Travelling Theater, for Lady Liberty. He has scored six full lengh feature films, most notably Ranger, produced by Alexandria Films and Carmelita Tropicana, (Your Kunst is Your Waffen) an independent short feature which was shown at the Lincoln Center Film Festival. He has worked with many latino artists of international fame such as Willie Colon, Iris Chacon, Paquito de Rivera, El Gran Combo and others as keyboardist, composer and arranger. And in 1993 he was called upon to program keyboards for a road production of the Broadway hit Will Rogers' Follies.
In 1997, Mr.Rivas and Luis Santeiro, were the recipients of the Richard Rodgers Theater Development Award for the musical-theater piece: Barrio Babies. A scene from the musical was featured in the Hispanic Heritage Awards which aired on NBC in the fall of 1998. Earlier in the same year, Gloria Estefan recorded Mr. Rivas' song Mambo I, I, I on the Grammy-winning Elmopalooza album for Sesame Street Productions.
In 1999, Barrio Babies was produced by the Denver Center Theatre Company. Earlier that year, Mr. Rivas collaborated with David Varquez on the children's musical El Bluebird at the University of Florida at Gainesville. Also, on March 21st, 2000 the world premiere of Selena, Forever, a musical Mr. Rivas composed based on the tragic life of the renown Tejano singer, took place in San Antonio to warm reviews and standing ovations. Selena, Forever embarked on a six city tour and returned in 2001 to open in Los Angeles.
In June of 2002 James Holland the principal cellist of the Charleston Symphony recorded Dialogues, a piece for cello and piano composed by Mr. Rivas who also played the piano on the recording. In September of the same year The Charleston Chamber Players performed Three Glimpses a piece for flute, oboe and cello.
In early 2003 Mr. Rivas completed the score for a documentary about the two-hundred year history of the Charleston Post & Courier.
In 2004 Mr. Rivas compositions and arrangements were heard during the Piccolo Spoleto Spotlight concert series as interpreted by the Chamber Music Society of Charleston and the Charleston Chamber Players. The piece 7 Perverse Variations for 8 Instruments was premiered in October by the Chamber Music Society of Charleston. Also, in October of 2004 Mr. Rivas was called upon to arrange three songs for Darius Rucker lead vocalist of Hootie and the Blowfish for the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. In 2005, after Mr. Rivas played the piano with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of famed clarinetist Carl Topilow he was again hired to arrange two songs for the bluegrass group The Lovell Sisters, winners of the Prairie Home Companion Teenage Talent Award. In late 2005 Mr. Rivas along with Rafael Diaz and Jake Holwegner founded a local latin band in Charleston, HAVANASON.
In April of 2006 Mr.Rivas played with famed member of Los Van Van, Israel Kantor and his group in Miami. Later in 2006 he was contracted by Playhouse Disney to compose the underscore for a new children's television series for the Disney Channel titled Handy Manny. The series about a Latino handyman and his talking, singing, mischievous tools, is produced by Nelvana and was nominated for an Emmy in 2009. Also in late 2006 Mr. Rivas scored a documentary for SCETV on the history of the South Carolina Air Guard. And in 2009 he scored four animation shorts profiling great Latino achievers for Nick Jr. through production company Alfalfa Studio in NY.
Mr. Rivas continues to write commercial and non-commercial music, poetry and fiction as well as to play the piano for concerts, shows and private and public engagements. He was a also a faculty member of the Fine Arts staff at the Porter-Gaud School from 2002-2009.