During a music career that spanned half a century, he directed over a dozen choirs, composed over 200 works of music, founded music institutes and music festivals, directed numerous orchestras, presented concerts spanning the Western Hemisphere, and was president of the Puerto Rican Association of Choir Directors. Upon his retirement from active music life, he was honored by many artists, educators, and politicians, and was also honored by the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and the Ponce Municipal Government.
Early years
Colón Tarrats (center) with "The Casual Trio", circa 1965
Rubén Colón Tarrats was born on 9 March 1940 in New York, New York, while his parents, both Puerto Ricans, were visiting relatives in the Big Apple. His parents were Isaac Colón and Luz María Tarrats, both from Ponce. His family, including little Ruben Colón Tarrats, returned to Ponce before Colón Tarrats was a year old and he subsequently started his grade school in the public schools of the Ciudad Señorial.[1][2]
Training
Colón Tarrats studied music at Ponce's Escuela Libre de Música under Emilio Alvarado, Librado Net, and Rafael Franco. After graduating from Ponce High School, he entered Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico (UIA) where majored in music and learned music composition, choir conducting, and how to play the clarinet, among various other music studies. He joined the university choir and sang first bass in a group called Interamerican Concert Singers. He became associate director of said Singers group and toured the Caribbean, New England, and New York State. He graduated from UIA in 1963 with a Bachelor of Music and entered a Master's program in Music at Temple University, where he was a student of David L. Stone, founder of Temple University's Music College.[3] At Temple, he was a member of the Opera and Concert Choir. He graduated from Temple in 1965 with an M.Mus. degree.[4]
From 1983 to 1999 he was director of the Coral Polifónica de Ponce and while under his direction, Coral Polifónica competed at the Festival Coral America Canta in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in 1983 and, in 1999, at Carnegie Hall, in New York City. In 1993-1994 he was choir director of the Coro de la Universidad Interamericana in Ponce and from 1994 to 1995 he was president of the Puerto Rican Association of Choir Directors. In 1994, he joined the teaching staff at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Puerto Rico (PUCPR) and became the school's choir director. Under his leadership, the choir at the PUCPR recorded its first DVD of Christmas carols.
In 2006 he co-founded Festival Internacional de Coros “Descubre a Puerto Rico y su Música Coral”, and international musical festival that takes places yearly in Ponce.[7] In 2009, he created the Coral Municipal de Ponce for the Ponce Municipal Government, directing it until 2013. Also in 2009, he was a visiting professor of music at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic promoted by the United States Embassy in Santo Domingo.[8]
Colon Tarrats at the Festival Internacional de Coros “Descubre a Puerto Rico y su Música Coral” in March 2012
Honors and legacy
Upon his retirement as director of the Banda Municipal de Ponce and the Coral Municipal de Ponce in November 2013, the municipality of Ponce honored him with a commemorative celebration at Teatro La Perla, attended by over 1,000 guests.[9] The commemorative sketch for the occasion was a work by Wichie Torres.[10]
On 13 December 2013 Colón Tarrats was recognized by the Municipality of Ponce as one of its illustrious citizens.[11] He is recognized at the Ponce Tricentennial Park for his contributions to music.[12]
Colón Tarrats has authored nearly 200 chorals many of which are about Puerto Rican folklore, among which are several by Rafael Hernández Marín including El Cumbanchero, Silencio, Capullito de Alelí, Preciosa, Lamento Borincano, Romance, y Ahora Seremos Felices.
^Se despide Rubén Colón Tarrats. Reinaldo Millán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 32. Issue 1562. 6 November 2013. pp. 24-25. Accessed 10 March 2017.
^Se despide Rubén Colón Tarrats. Reinaldo Millán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. 6 November 2016. Weblink updated 1 March 2018.
^Se despide Rubén Colón Tarrats. Reinaldo Millán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 32. Issue 1562. 6 November 2013. pp. 24-25. Accessed 10 March 2017.
^Se despide Rubén Colón Tarrats. Reinaldo Millán. La Perla del Sur. Ponce, Puerto Rico. Year 32. Issue 1562. 6 November 2013. pp. 24-25. Accessed 1 March 2018.
Fay Fowlie de Flores. Ponce, Perla del Sur: Una Bibliográfica Anotada. Second Edition. 1997. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Universidad de Puerto Rico en Ponce. p. 276. Item 1381. LCCN92-75480
"Coral Polifónica de Ponce: su historia." Coral. Year 8 (1990) pp. 6-7. (PUCPR).
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