Dolores Sendra

Dolores Sendra Bordes, Valencian composer, pianist and musicologist, with a solid musical and humanistic background, was born in Pego (Alicante), into a family of small local traders. 

At a very young age, she started her musical studies guided by the director of the Pego band at the time, José Oltra. Later, she also received, already during the Civil War, some indications from his brother Alfonso Oltra, who ran an adjacent business to that of the Sendra-Bordes family.

Once the Civil War was over, but within the context of the Great War and in the first stage of the dictatorship, the family economy had slightly recovered. At this time, Dolores was about fifteen years old, and her family decided that it was time to validate and continue her studies in an official way. 

Fortunately, she was accepted as a student by the Master Mr Manuel Palau i Boix, who reviewed all what she had learnt and guided her to do (this time in Valencia), all her training leading to the titles of composition and piano, which she obtained at the Conservatory with a final degree award.

From 1947 she began her professional career participating as a jury member in musical competitions; premiering and directing her works - such as the Himno a Pego- researching folklore, with a grant from the Alfonso el Magnánimo Institute of Musicology; and performing her Master's Concierto Dramático, under his direction, in Valencia's Teatro Principal.

During those intense years, in order to attend classes, rehearsals, concerts or radio programs with her Master, she was staying at the Convent of the Incarnation, located in Balmes Street in Valencia. In those brief and intermittent stays shared with the Carmelites, the austerity, spiritual retreat and discipline of religious life left a deep impression on her. 

As a result of the post-war period, her hard work and learning, a quarter of Dolores Sendra's musical production was made. This volume presents three of her eleven choral works: those brief ones, written for four mixed voices, with text in Latin and composed in 1950. These pieces were inspired by her experiences in the Convent: Popule Meus, Ave María and O Sacrum Convivium, her most famous choral piece.

All these compositions from her youth were revised at the time by Mr Manuel Palau, with whom she always maintained constant and fluid communication.

See works by Dolores Sendra