Peruvian composer dedicates symphony inspired by San Agustín to Pope Leo XIV

The director of Choir and Orchestra, Composer and Peruvian Musicologist José Quezada Macchiavello has dedicated his new work, the “Symphony No. 3, Triptic Agustinian, Opus”, To Pope Leo XIV, the first Augustinian Pontiff in the history of the Catholic Church.

The symphony, inspired by the works of San Agustín, It will be released soon in ChiclayoPeruvian diocese where the then Mons. Robert Prevost was bishop between 2015 and 2023, as a tribute not only musical, but also spiritual and philosophical.

“I finished my secondary studies at the College of San Agustín,” he recalls in an interview with Ewtn News the Quezada Macchiavello, who has 50 years of artistic experience. It was there that Fr. Vicente Paniagua introduced it to the fundamental texts of the Holy of Hippo: the confessions and the city of God. “The truth, the truth, in many ways changed my optics to understand many things,” he says.

Over time, those first readings became a habit of deep reflection. “I have reread these two works, I no longer remember how many times,” he confesses.

Some time later, Quezada Macchiavello entered the Faculty of Pontifical and Civil Theology to elaborate a thesis on the aesthetics of St. Augustine, although this work did not become specified for personal reasons. “Then, since I could not write a thesis about San Agustín, I decided to write a symphony about San Agustín.”

The result was a deep work, loaded with symbolism and a musical treatment that seeks to capture the soul of Augustinian philosophy. “His particular meaning of interiority, above all, is an issue that I wanted to convey,” he explains.

In the symphony, the Augustinian conception of time also has a central role: “time only exists as a human becoming. The eternal transcends time,” says Quezada Macchiavello.

Composed between 2021 and 2023 – in full pandemic – the symphony was over the year in which the 120 years of the San Agustín de Lima school were held. While he thought it then, the circumstances prevented him.

“Things were dilated, it did not work. Then there was the symphony … waiting for providence to give the Church an Augustinian Pope. They gave me an Augustinian Pope. And here is the symphony,” he said.

It was his friend, Fr. Pablo Rarrán, who encouraged him to go further. “He told me: ‘You have to play in major leagues with the symphony. Dedicate it to his holiness,” he says. Thus, the work found its true recipient: Pope Leo XIV, whose choice was, for the musician, a providential gesture.

“He already knows this. He, as we all know, communicates permanently with Peru. He is very up to date on everything that happens here. And he feels Peruvian. That is not demagogic,” he said.

Symphony will be released Next November 22 in Chiclayointerpreted by a youth orchestra formed by musicians from Peru and neighboring countries.

“We are going to have a youth orchestra that will rehearse here in Lima. It will be in a theater built by the predecessor of Monsignor. It will be an excellent occasion to be able to approach the spirit of St. Augustine and also the Pope as a tribute to him from a Peruvian composer,” Quezada Macchiavello added.

In addition, the composer announced that the work will be subsequently performed in Lima, in a new opportunity for the Peruvian public.