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At the age of
two Orlando
Otey was placed at the piano by his mother. It was 1927 and she had
always hoped to have a son who would become a concert pianist. This
young pianist went on to give his first concert at the age of four at
the
Teatro Iris1 in his native Mexico City.
By the age of five he
had toured Mexico and by seven he had toured Europe. He also began
composing at an early age, and when he was just 14 he composed his
first piano concerto, already having completed a list of other
compositions.
In 1940 at the age of 15
while on tour in Mexico giving programs of his own compositions that
included several mazurkas, nocturnes and etudes, Otey was heralded as
The Chopin of Mexico by critics and the
press.
Not only was his playing of Romantic music remarkable, his own works
were taken by many to be compositions of Chopin, some critics quipping
they were works that Chopin forgot to
write.
Aside from performing
throughout his teen years Otey became a faculty member at the
University of Mexico School of Music by age 17. He thereafter came to
the U.S. and pursued piano and composition studies at The Curtis
Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 1945.
Otey studied with Gian-Carlo Menotti and Vladimir Sokoloff.
In 1949 Otey was one of 3 pianists
selected to compete in the Chopin Centennial Piano Competition in
Warsaw, Poland (see New
York Times clipping here).
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