Virgilio Centurión

Paraguayan flutist, violinist and composer. He was born in Acahay, on January 4, 1914, and his artistic inclinations towards music manifested themselves at a very early age, beginning to study flute at the age of 10 with the teacher Pedrito Flores. In Asunción he was also a student of great figures of Paraguayan music, such as Maestros Remberto Giménez and Gerardo Fernández Moreno, then continuing his studies in the Banda de Músicos de la Policía de la Capital, under the directions of italian masters Nicolino Pellegrini and Salvador Déntice, having as companions and teachers Leonardo Alarcón, Félix Fernández, Manuel Rivas, among others. At the end of the 1930s, together with Carlos Lara Bareiro, Aniceto Vera Ibarrola, Carlos Dos Santos, César Medina, Octavio Insfrán and Luciano Rivaldi, they founded the Association of Musicians of Paraguay, an entity that consecrated, among other achievements, the creation of the first symphonic Orchestra. Virgilio Centurión and Ramón Reyes joined as violinists, in 1940, a group made up of 5 musicians, under the direction of the maestro and bandoneonist Luis Cañete; At the same time, both violinists perfect their studies on harmony with Professor Juan Carlos Moreno González. In 1943 he decided to form his own orchestra, which was very popular in the mid-40s. The civil war of 1947 forced him to emigrate to Buenos Aires, where little by little he continued his career as a musician. There, Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo invited him to be part of his famous group "Ñande Kóga", a prominent Paraguayan music orchestra in Buenos Aires. In 1950 he returned to Paraguay and a year later joined the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción whose direction was in charge of his former teacher, maestro Remberto Giménez. He also alternates in the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Formosa (Argentina). At that time, Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo, author of the lyrics of two of his most famous works, “Irene” and “Rincón Guaraní”, now living in Paraguay again, invited him to join his prestigious group «Peru Rima», sharing with other greats such as the bandoneon players Carlos Bordón, César Medina Velázquez, Rodolfo Roa, and many other musicians. Virgilio Centurión passed away in 1996, at the age of 82, in the peace of his home in Lambaré, surrounded by his loved ones.