Carlo Curti
Carlo Curti (6 May 1859 – 8 May 1922), also known as Carlos Curti, was an Italian musician, composer and bandleader. He moved to the United States whose most lasting contribution to American society was popularizing the mandolin in American music by starting a national "grass-roots mandolin orchestra craze" (that lasted from 1880 until the 1920s).[3][4][5][6][7]
This article is about the mandolinist, composer and bandleader in the US and Mexico. For the composer for cello and piano in Italy, see Carlo Curti (Bolognese composer).
Carlo Curti
May 6, 1859
Italian
He also contributed to Mexican society in 1884 by creating one of Mexico's oldest orchestras, the Mexican Typical Orchestra. The orchestra under his leadership represented Mexico at the New Orleans Cotton Exhibition.[8]
As with his Spanish Students, Curti dressed his Mexican band in costumes, choosing the charro cowboy outfit.[8][9] The patriotic value of having Mexico represented on the international stage gave a boost to mariachi bands (which had normally been repressed by social elites); the mariachis began using charro outfits as Curti's orchestra had done, expressing pride in being Mexican.[9][10] Curti's Orquestra Típica Mexicana has been called the "predecessor of the Mariachi bands."[11]
He was an orchestra leader, composer, educator at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexican National Conservatory of Music), xylophonist, violinist, mandolinist and author of a mandolin method. He directed the orchestra at the New York's Waldorf-Astoria hotel in his later career.[12]
Also known as a composer of zarzuelas and dance music, among his most noted tunes are "La Tipica" and "Flower of Mexico".[13] His brother was harpist Giovanni (Juan or John) Curti, who also was a member of his orchestra.[5][6]
Last years[edit]
After fourteen years in Mexico, Curti returned to New York in 1897.[26] At the beginning of the 1900s, he was conductor of the Waldorf–Astoria Orchestra for several years. He also formed another group called "Orquesta Mexicana Curti" with whom made recordings for Columbia Records in 1905, 1906 and 1912. His later life was marked by tragic events: he suffered financial difficulties and his wife Carmen shot herself on January 28, 1914, after he had lost his job at the Waldorf-Astoria.[13] Then Curti came back to Mexico City, where he committed suicide in 1922.[13]