Panaji: Renowned music conductor, composer and research scholar, Santiago Lusardi Girelli, who was undergoing treatment for COVID-19 at a private hospital in Margao, passed away Wednesday morning.
He was 41 and is survived by wife Clara and two children.
Argentina-born Girelli was currently holding the Anthony Gonsalves Chair in Western Music at the Goa University under the Visiting Research Professorship Programme and working as lecturing professor and conductor of the Goa University Choir, the very first University choir of India.
He also collaborated as lecturer, composer and guest conductor with different universities and professional orchestras and choirs from South America, Africa, Europe and India for the last 20 years.
He studied orchestra, choir conduction, philosophy, theology and had a Ph D in Music and Philosophy.
Girelli had also published research papers on Buddhist phenomenology and Hindu ritualism and its links with Western music and art tradition. He was the co-founder and artistic director of the Ketevan Sacred Music Festival, regularly held in Goa.
The Goa University has condoled the death of Girelli, describing him as “a gifted, charismatic and beloved colleague.”
The Goa University message states that Girelli “enormously enriched our institutional life,” further adding, “He has left a void that we will struggle to fill.”
Leader of the Opposition Digambar Kamat has also condoled the death in a message.