Born in Puerto Rico, Sierra studied at the Conservatory of Music and the University of Puerto Rico. Upon graduation, he travelled to Europe to further his training, first at the Royal College of Music and the University of London, and later at the Institute for Sonology in Utrecht. Between 1979 and 1982, he completed advanced work in composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Hamburg under the renowned György Ligeti. In 1982, Sierra returned to Puerto Rico to occupy administrative posts as a Directonr of the Cultural Activities Department at the University of Puerto Rico and as Chancellor of the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music. Throughout this period, he was vigorously engaged as a composer on the international scene. In 1989, Roberto Sierra became Composer-in-Residence of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra -- a position he held for three years. In the autumn of 1992, Sierra joined the composition faculty at Cornell University, assuming a position made available by the retirement of Karel Husa.
In recent years, Roberto Sierra's colorful and rhythmic music has attracted a growing audience both in North America and Europe. Acclaimed as one of Latin America's most active contemporary composers, Sierra came to prominence in 1987 when his first major orchestral composition, Júbilo, premiered at Carnegie Hall with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Since then, his works have been performed by the orchestras of San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, San Antonio, and Phoenix, by the American Composers Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Kronos Quartet, Continuum, England's BBC Symphony, and at Wolf Trap, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Festival Casals, France's Festival de Lille, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and Germany's Neue Musik Bonn.
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