Obituary for Dr. José-Luis Maúrtua
José-Luis Maúrtua was born in Trujillo, Perú on December 13, 1964 and passed away in Mount Pleasant, Michigan on May 7, 2022. He joined the faculty of Central Michigan University in 1999 where he served as Director of Orchestral Studies and Professor of Composition. He was an impeccable gentleman, a good-natured joker, a gifted and generous musician, and a consummate educator. Dr. Maúrtua was always kind. Memory of his guidance and his example will long inspire his friends, family and students. He was deeply loved.
Surviving him are his wife Ana Maria Mejía, his mother Alicia Fonseca de Maúrtua, his father Carlos Ernesto Maúrtua, his sister Marita Peebles and her husband Jimmy Peebles, his nieces Astrid Saldana and Allison Mieses, and his nephew Tico Mieses.
Dr. Maúrtua was a living cultural bridge between South America and North America. He studied harmony, counterpoint, and composition at the Carlos Valderrama Conservatory in Perú with Segundo Sandoval and David Martínez, and in the U.S. with Scott Martin and Czech composer Ladislav Kubik. He held both a D.M.A. in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University and a D.M. in Composition from Florida State University.
His chamber and orchestral music were performed in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentina, Perú, Czech Republic, Italy, England, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Spain. His musical reconstruction of the children’s show “The Fireflies,” originally staged at the Terezín concentration camp during World War II, was performed in the Czech Republic, Denmark, and three U.S. states. He arranged Himno a Trujillo (Trujillo City Anthem) as a commission for the Violines de Trujillo String Orchestra; along with the waltz El Dueño Ausente (The Absent Patriarch) it was premiered and recorded in 2020.
Dr. Maúrtua studied conducting with Carlota Mestanza in Perú and with James Croft, Paul Vermel, Leon Gregorian, and Raphael Jiménez in the U.S. He had his conducting debut at age 22 with the Trujillo Symphony Orchestra (Perú, 1987) and returned as guest conductor with the TSO in 1990 and 1995-2012, with the National Symphony Orchestra (Lima, 2003-2009), the Trujillo Bach Festival (1998-2010), the Carlos Valderrama Conservatory, and the Trujillo youth orchestras. He invited musicians and faculty soloists from the U.S., Latin America, and Europe to perform with the Trujillo Symphony Orchestra (1995-2010).
In 2001, Dr. Maúrtua invited students from CMU and other U.S. music schools to perform with the Chamber Orchestra of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico in Toluca. In Michigan, he was guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra (2014 and 2015) and the Youth Arts Honors Orchestra (2018).
In 2018, Dr. Maúrtua’s role as a cultural bridge extended to China as he conducted an all-Bernstein concert with the Shaanxi Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in Xi’an, China. In 2019, he led the SSO in a concert tour with performances at the Tonhalle-Maag in Zürich with Swiss violinist Elea Nick, and at the famous Musikverein in Vienna, Austria with Chinese virtuoso violinist Bin Huang.
Visitation at 2 PM Wednesday, May 11, Clark Family Funeral Chapel, with Memorial Service to follow at 3 PM. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the José-Luis Maúrtua Orchestral Strings Scholarship Fund at
https://gofund.me/1d6b6bc0
Surviving him are his wife Ana Maria Mejía, his mother Alicia Fonseca de Maúrtua, his father Carlos Ernesto Maúrtua, his sister Marita Peebles and her husband Jimmy Peebles, his nieces Astrid Saldana and Allison Mieses, and his nephew Tico Mieses.
Dr. Maúrtua was a living cultural bridge between South America and North America. He studied harmony, counterpoint, and composition at the Carlos Valderrama Conservatory in Perú with Segundo Sandoval and David Martínez, and in the U.S. with Scott Martin and Czech composer Ladislav Kubik. He held both a D.M.A. in Orchestral Conducting from Michigan State University and a D.M. in Composition from Florida State University.
His chamber and orchestral music were performed in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Argentina, Perú, Czech Republic, Italy, England, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Spain. His musical reconstruction of the children’s show “The Fireflies,” originally staged at the Terezín concentration camp during World War II, was performed in the Czech Republic, Denmark, and three U.S. states. He arranged Himno a Trujillo (Trujillo City Anthem) as a commission for the Violines de Trujillo String Orchestra; along with the waltz El Dueño Ausente (The Absent Patriarch) it was premiered and recorded in 2020.
Dr. Maúrtua studied conducting with Carlota Mestanza in Perú and with James Croft, Paul Vermel, Leon Gregorian, and Raphael Jiménez in the U.S. He had his conducting debut at age 22 with the Trujillo Symphony Orchestra (Perú, 1987) and returned as guest conductor with the TSO in 1990 and 1995-2012, with the National Symphony Orchestra (Lima, 2003-2009), the Trujillo Bach Festival (1998-2010), the Carlos Valderrama Conservatory, and the Trujillo youth orchestras. He invited musicians and faculty soloists from the U.S., Latin America, and Europe to perform with the Trujillo Symphony Orchestra (1995-2010).
In 2001, Dr. Maúrtua invited students from CMU and other U.S. music schools to perform with the Chamber Orchestra of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico in Toluca. In Michigan, he was guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra (2014 and 2015) and the Youth Arts Honors Orchestra (2018).
In 2018, Dr. Maúrtua’s role as a cultural bridge extended to China as he conducted an all-Bernstein concert with the Shaanxi Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in Xi’an, China. In 2019, he led the SSO in a concert tour with performances at the Tonhalle-Maag in Zürich with Swiss violinist Elea Nick, and at the famous Musikverein in Vienna, Austria with Chinese virtuoso violinist Bin Huang.
Visitation at 2 PM Wednesday, May 11, Clark Family Funeral Chapel, with Memorial Service to follow at 3 PM. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the José-Luis Maúrtua Orchestral Strings Scholarship Fund at
https://gofund.me/1d6b6bc0