Enric Madriguera

Enric R. Madriguera (Barcelona, 17 February 1904 – 7 September 1973)[1][2] was a violinist of Catalan origin who was playing concerts as a child before he studied at the Barcelona Conservatory. (The Castilian form of his name is Enrique, which he sometimes used on records.) Whilst still in his twenties he was lead violinist at Boston's and Symphony orchestras before becoming the conductor of the Cuban Philharmonic.[3]

Enric Madriguera in 1947

In the late 1920s Madriguera played in Ben Selvin's studio orchestra at Columbia Records in New York, and served briefly as that company's director of Latin music recording. In 1932 he began his own orchestra at the Biltmore Hotel, which recorded for Columbia until 1934. His music at this period was mostly Anglo-American dance or foxtrot, frequently jazz-inflected, although he had a modest hit with his rhumba rendition of Carioca (1934).

By the 1930s he was recording Latin American music almost exclusively. (His composition Adios became a national hit in 1931.) On his radio appearances, the band was billed as "Enric Madriguera and His Music of the Americas," and Adios was its theme song. It was said that the ambassadors from all the South American countries declared Madriguera to be the "Ambassador of Music to all the Americas". Madriguera appeared in a number of "musical shorts" including "Enric Madriguera and his Orchestra" (1946) where he performed a number of songs including the orchestra for his vocalist-wife Patricia Gilmore. A review of one of his appearances recorded how he "reflected the warmth of our neighbors to the south".[4]

He died in retirement in Danbury, Connecticut.[3] His sister was pianist Paquita Madriguera,[5] the second wife of Andres Segovia.