The members of the Jury for the 1996 Prince of Asturias Award for Arts, Mr. José Luis Álvarez, Mr. Eduardo Bautista, Mr. Jorge Fernández Bustillo, Ms. Elvira Huelbes, Mr. Manuel Martín Ferrand, Mr. Luis Monreal Agustí, Mr. Miguel de Oriol e Ybarra, Mr. Alfonso Pérez Sánchez, Ms. Rosa Regás, Mr. Leopoldo Rodés Castañé, Mr. Emilio Sagi, Mr. Andrés Trapiello, Mr. Rodrigo Uría Meruéndano, gathered in Oviedo under the presidency of Mr. José Lladó y Fernández- Urrutia and with Mr. José Antonio Caicoya Cores acting as secretary, have agreed by majority to grant the 1996 Prince of Asturias Award for Arts to Mr. Joaquín Rodrigo, doyen of Spanish composers who has been proposed with the backing of two hundred and fifteen cultural and civic bodies from all over Spain. The Valencian maestro, Rodrigo, recognised and performed on an international level, is a part of the flourishing tradition which marks out, in terms of composition, 20th century Spanish music, from the already classic Falla, Granados or Albéniz, through to the present-day names which are growing in recognition. The Jury has valued most especially the maestro Rodrigo's definitive contribution to the process of dignifying and internationalizing the guitar as a concert instrument.