October 20, 2022
Alexandre Travassos writes about several recent performances of his music. On September 24th, his Rapsódia Sefaradi was performed by Marcos Sadao and the Banda da Fundação Carlos Gomes in Pará, Brazil. Eliezer Nascimento conducted the Banda Filarmônica de São Paulo in two performances, on October 7th and 9th, of his Role Playing Game and Rio das Pedras Soltas.
On October 15th, his newest work for concert band, Luz Imortal, was premiered by Dario Sotelo and the Banda Sinfônica Vale Música in Espírito Santo, Brazil.
Two of Daniel Cueto’s pieces were performed this month. One last week, and the other, yesterday.
Miguel Santaella’s Across was favorably reviewed in the Dutch newspaper NRC after it was performed on October 1st in Amsterdam: “Sensational and at the same time emotional is Across by composer Miguel Angel Santaella, which combines brilliant Caribbean sounds with the fathomless profundity of bass clarinet and baritone saxophone.” Miguel notes that this program will be repeated on October 29th at the LantarenVenster Theater in Rotterdam.
Additionally, Miguel informs us that his quartet, A, will be premiered on February 12, 2023, in Bellingham, Washington.
Harold Emert writes that he just returned from Vienna, where he realized his dream of performing his own Corner Waltz in the city of Johann Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and Schubert, among others. Also, his oboe, bassoon and piano trio performed on the 200th anniversary of Brazilian independence the works of Austrian composer Sigismund Neukomm, who resided in Rio de Janeiro from 1815 to 1821 and taught the Emperor Pedro I.
This past Saturday, the pre-premiere of the concert version of Federico Núñez’s chamber opera, Mexica otlatocaliztli, el caminar de los mexicas, was performed in Buenos Aires.
This past Sunday, Samuel Robles’ clarinet quartet, Recuerdos de Veraguas, was premiered by the Cuarteto Cerrud.
Jose Lezcano is happy to report some new academic appointments; a recent commission, world-premiere of a song cycle; and public concerts in the region as solo and collaborative guitarist.
Dr. Lezcano is thrilled to recently join the School of Music at the University of Southern Maine (Gorham) as the new Artist Lecturer in Guitar. He continues to serve as Professor Emeritus at Keene State College, directing & coordinating the nationally acclaimed and NASM accredited guitar program there. He was also hired recently as remote virtual guitar instructor at the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, where he will be providing some guitar lessons for college credit using Zoom.
Jose just completed serving as Coordinator of Cheshire County Classics. With a $10,000 grant from the Cheshire County Board of Commissioners, Jose curated, promoted, and hired distinguished local and regional performers to play 10 concerts in seven towns of Cheshire County. The concerts were held at iconic churches, town halls, and chapels, during June to September of 2022.
Jose’s new CD of original solo guitar pieces and iconic works from Spain and Latin America is now available for purchase on his website.
Jose also reports on three recent performances. First, on September 30, he gave a recital of Spanish and Latin American guitar music in Keene, New Hampshire. Second, he gave two concerts in Portsmouth, New Hampshire; and third, he was joined by the Cuban mezzo-soprano Zaray Rossi in the world premiere of his new song cycle, Songs of Freedom: Canciones de Libertad. Also on the same program in Manchester, New Hampshire, were guitar works by Cuban composers.
Two works for viola and piano by Armando Luis Ramírez, 6 Miniaturas and Sonata (the latter commissioned by Joel Pagán and the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) were included on a recently released CD, Encantos de mi tierra. (This audio is also available on Spotify).
Several months ago, Luis Ernesto Gómez’s 2005 second work for string quartet, which was premiered by the Inocente Carreño Quartet in Venezuela’s Teresa Carreño Theater; the performance was recently uploaded to YouTube.
On October 29th, Demian Galindo’s Capriccio for contrabass and strings will be premiered by Gergana Marinova and the Higinio Ruvalcaba Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Sergio Ramírez, in the Conjunto Santander de Artes Escénicas in Zapopan, Mexico.
Iván Salazar writes to let us know that pianist Marianela Arocha performed his Abuelo Tabaco during the the sixth edition of the “Piano ma non solo” festival that was held last week in Guayaquil, Ecuador. In addition, the Argentine vocalist and guitarist Emiliano Layna performed one of Iván’s songs, Recíbeme, on October 15th in Loja, Ecuador.
Finally, our president, John Walker, was invited to St. Louis this past weekend to witness the US re-premiere of Alberto Nepomuceno‘s 1904 work, O Garatuja, which was last heard in this country in 1959. (The Cayambis team recently finished a new and beautifully engraved set of score and parts, which will soon be made available through our rental catalog).
At the concert, John gave a pre-concert talk about this piece and its significance as part of the development of musical nationalism in Brazil. Not only that, but he also recorded two special remote episodes for Classic 107.3, the classical radio station in St. Louis. Though the first was broadcast this past Tuesday, the second will be live streamed on Tuesday, October 25 at 8pm (St. Louis time).
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