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Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (April 11, 1916 – June 25, 1983) was an Argentinian composer of classical music. He is considered one of the most important Latin American classical composers.
He was born in Buenos Aires. He studied at the conservatory there, graduating in 1938. After a visit to the United States of America in 1945–47, where he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood, he returned to Buenos Aires and co-founded the League of Composers. He held a number of teaching posts. He moved back to the USA in 1968 and from 1970 lived in Europe. He died in Geneva.
Among his works are operas (Don Rodrigo (1964), Bomarzo (1967, banned for obscenity) and Beatrix Cenci (1971)), two concertos for piano, two for cello, one for violin and one for harp, other orchestral works, ballet music (including Panambí (1940)), chamber music and a number of pieces for piano. Ginastera grouped his music into three periods: "objective nationalism", "subjective nationalism", and "neo-expressionism".
Ginastera became known outside of modern classical music circles when the progressive rock group Emerson Lake and Palmer adapted the fourth movement of his first piano concerto and recorded it on their popular album Brain Salad Surgery under the title Toccata. They recorded the piece not only with Ginastera's permission, but with his endorsement. In 1973, when they were recording the album, the band met with Ginastera at his home in Switzerland and played a recording of their arrangement for him. Ginastera is reported to have said, "Diabolic! No one has been able to capture my music like that before! It's exactly the way I hear it myself!"
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