Musician Ulpiano Duarte was honored last night for his famous marimba sounds during a ceremony at the National Auditorium in San José, where he received this year's award from the Association to Composers and Musical Authors (ACAM).

President Oscar Arias bestowed Duarte with the Ricardo “RECA” Mora award in recognition of his lifelong dedication to music and for works composed from November 2005 to October 2006, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial.

Duarte, from the northwestern province of Guanacaste, founded Marimba Diriá in 1969 and was declared National Marimba by an executive decree in 1974.

In 1975, he founded the country's first marimba school in Santa Cruz, Guanacaste, and he later worked as a professor of music at the University of Costa Rica (UCR), the statement said.

Among his most popular works are “Nostalgia en la Pampa,” “Contra el Bramadero,” “Gotas de Lluvia,” “Santa Cruz de Fiesta” and “Canto a Mi Tierra.”

During his address, Arias remarked that Duarte and other well-known national musicians often become political figures.

“Like it or not,” musicians are becoming “more public figures, more influential, more capable of modifying reality by their words,” the President said.

“That's why tonight and every night I celebrate the fact that national composers make Costa Rican not only a country full of music, but also a country full of life, peace, tolerance and freedom,” he said.