Career
He composed in several genres. This conservatory is currently part of the Instituto Departamental de Bellas Artes. Antonio Maria Valencia was born in Cali.
He received his first musical lessons from his father, Julio Valencia, and continued his pianistic studies with Honorio Alarcón at the Bogotá Conservatory.
Thanks to a scholarship he traveled in 1923 to France in order to study piano and composition at the Schola Cantorum with Paul Braud and Vincent d"Industry. In 1929 he returned to Colombia to teach at the conservatory, which had become part of the National University in Bogotá.
After resigning this position in 1931 he was put in charge of the recently founded conservatory of Cali (1933). In this institution he worked intensively as a teacher as well as choral and orchestra conductor.
The nationalistic style of his compositions became a model for his generation in Colombia.
He composed piano, chamber and choral pieces, using folk melodies and rhythms with impressionist harmonies.