Eva de la O

Josephine Evangeline de la O, known as Eva de la O, (January 19, 1931 — May 4, 2019) was an American soprano singer and director of Música de Cámara. Her principal goal was to promote classical music of Puerto Rico, which she pursued with the foundation of Música de Cámara two years after her debut at Carnegie Recital Hall on May 6, 1977.

Biography Early life and start On January 19, 1931, she was born in East Harlem, Manhattan to Puerto Rican immigrants José de la O and Margot Melchor of Vega Alta. They were former teachers, but José became a bookkeeper and Melchor a seamstress before becoming the director of the Puerto Rico Water Resources Authority when José repatriated. She was raised in East Harlem during the Great Depression. Initially wanting to be a flamenco dancer, Melchor pressured her She then studied ethnomusicology at Hunter College, Two years later, she founded Música de Cámara to promote classical Hispanic, although primarily Puerto Rican, musicians, motivated by their underrepresentation. In a 1986 interview with Tim Page from The New York Times, she directly labeled the genre "tremendously eurocentric" and that "musical tradition in North and South America […] has been all but ignored."

In January 1987, she resided in Miami, Florida and was planning Música de Cámara's first performance there. By this time she had financial backing, but still lamented in 1989 the lack of government funding for the arts. In 1994, Música de Cámara's two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts increased. By October 1995, she was worked under Hollaender International Artists of Management and was making an opera arias CD for MGM Records in Europe. and El Diario La Prensa in 2008, she has received awards including: Vocal Award (1992) by the Latina Excellence Award (1995) by the magazine Hispanic