Margarita Luna de Espaillat

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Margarita Luna de Espaillat (July 31, 1921 – 2016) was a Dominican composer, pianist, and organist. She was born in Santiago de los Caballeros and studied with several teachers, including Juan Francisco García; Manuel Antonio Rueda González (piano); Juan Urteaga (organ); and Manuel Simó (harmony, counterpoint and fugue). From 1964 to 1967 she studied with Hall Overton at the Juilliard School in New York. She later directed the National Conservatory of Music in the Dominican Republic for many years.

Luna de Espaillat wrote works for choir and orchestra, including the oratorio Vigilia eterna and Elegie for choir, narrator, and orchestra, as well as chamber music and piano pieces. She also taught music history and theory. Her piece Cambiantes (1969) is regarded as the first twelve-tone (dodecaphonic) composition by a Dominican composer.

She married businessman Víctor Espaillat Mera and they had three children: Víctor Manuel, Carmen, and Pilar Espaillat Luna. She died in Canada, where she had lived for more than twenty years.