Rosa Briceño

Venezuelan conductor, pianist and teacher Rosa Briceño Ortiz was born in Caracas on 26 April 1957. She was Gonzalo Castellanos' first female pupil. She studied at the Accademia de Musicale Chigiana in Italy.

She was the first Venezuelan woman to conduct a symphony orchestra in Venezuela, when she directed the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in 1983.

A specialist in concert wind band repertoire, she was the first woman to lead the Banda Marcial Caracas in 1994, and she served on the board of the World Band Association. She taught at the Escuela de Música José Ángel Lama, and became its director.

Offered directorships of music groups in Brazil, Colombia and Argentina, in 2017 she was given the Emma Soler Award for services to culture.

Rosa Briceño had to give up work in 2016 when her right leg had to be amputated above the knee, as a result of medical complications. She died from leukaemia on 29 May 2018, aged sixty-one, after suffering a cerebral edema and undergoing emergency brain surgery.