Alfonso Montecino (1924-2015) was a Chilean pianist, composer, and educator. Born in Osorno, Chile, he began his musical education at the Conservatorio Carolina Klagges. In 1938, he moved to Santiago, Chile to study piano with Alberto Simpkin at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música at the Universidad de Chile, ultimately graduating with distinction in 1945. The same year, he won the Premio Ortega Carvallo and was named Professor of Analysis and Music History at the Facultad de Bellas Artes. In 1947, he moved to New York to further his training in composition and piano, studying with Claudio Arrau, Randall Thompson, Edgard Varèse, Bohuslav Martinu, and Roger Sessions. In 1950, he debuted as a soloist at Carnegie Hall and married Siri Garson, a Norwegian-born mezzo-soprano. He was awarded the Bach Medal in London by the Harriet Cohen International Foundation in 1953 and went on tour performing the entirety of J.S. Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier. In 1963, he joined the piano faculty at the Indiana University School of Music, retiring as Professor Emeritus in 1988. In 1985, he was invited to join the board of directors of the Bach Society in Washington, D.C. due to his outstanding contributions to the interpretation of Bach. He continued to compose after his retirement, winning first prize for the Federación de Coros de Chile for the composition La madre triste in 1996. In 1997, he was named Honorary Professor at the Universidad de Chile. He passed away in 2015 in Bloomington, Indiana.