Guanajuato, Gto., August 31, 2018.- With the highest score and mention "Cum Laude", the professor of the Department of Music of the University of Guanajuato, Francisco García Ledesma finished his doctorate in artistic, literary and cultural studies at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, where he developed the research titled Salvador Contreras String Quartets: Evolution of style and formal treatment.

In an interview, the composer also mentioned that "the importance of this thesis goes beyond the historiography and analysis of Mexican music, since by forging new conceptual tools opens suggestive ways of reflection and analysis for the study of the chamber music of the twentieth century in Mexico. "

In addition to the analysis of the production of quartets of Salvador Contreras, the research developed by the now Dr. García Ledesma has allowed to bring to light a huge amount of documents, many of these unpublished so it covers a void of the historiography and the analytical works dedicated to the music of the post-revolutionary Mexican nationalism, to the "group of four", and very specifically to Salvador Contreras.

The professor at the University of Guanajuato highlighted that "the analysis of the musical form and the compositional style that develops in this work can be a reference for how many studies are related to the Mexican musical production of the twentieth century".

It is worth mentioning that Salvador Contreras was a composer who was born in Cuerámaro, Guanajuato, studied at the National Music Conservatory and was a member of the "Grupo de los Cuatro" and besides being a composer he was also a violinist and conductor.

The music department professor said that in order to carry out the investigation he rescued the scores of the Contreras quartets thanks to the composer's family and to the National Center for Information, Documentation and musical research "Carlos Chávez".

In the interview he emphasized that his thesis director was Dr. Yvan Nommick and his tutor, Dr. Begoña Lolo. The first is a renowned musicologist, piano interpreter, conductor and composer. He also holds the distinction of "Knight of the National Order of Arts and Letters of the French Republic".

For his part, Dr. Begoña Lolo is professor of history of music and Director of the Center for Research and Promotion of Music of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), from which directs the cycle of great authors and interpreters of music held at the "Auditorio Nacional" in Madrid, since the 2013-2014 season. The distinctions received include his appointment as a numbered scholar of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in San Fernando in 2016.

To conclude Dr. García Ledesma noted that in the future intends to publish a critical edition of the scores and make a recording of a disc. It is necessary to mention that this doctorate was done thanks to an agreement of academic collaboration between the University of Guanajuato and the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.