CFP Deadline: En ocasión de María del Carmen As a reminder, the deadline to submit papers to the upcoming conference En ocasión de María del Carmen: Enrique Granados y su época is September 15. See the full CFP here. The conference itself is also rapidly approaching, It will be held October 18–20 at the University of Murcia.
Conference: Music Criticism 1950-2000 (Barcelona) There is an upcoming conference that may be of interest to our friends and colleagues in Spain. Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini is holding a conference on Music Criticism since 1950. The conference is October 9–11 at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. This is a multi-lingual conference and selected papers will be published, following the conference. It is the last in a series of conferences exploring music criticism. Last year’s conference explored criticism from 1900 to 1950, and the previous year kicked off the series with criticism in the 19th century. The Graduate Center community is being well represented at the conference. Current musicology student Erix Taxier will be presenting, along with faculty member Chadwick Jenkins and alumnus Emilio Ros-Fábregas, who is representing CSIC/Societat Catalana de Musicologia.
Recent and Upcoming Literes Events Antonio Literes was one of the most popular composers of the Baroque period in Spain. His name waned with the passage of time, but fortunately, he is enjoying something of a revival in the 21st century. As we previously announced, the New York City Opera performed Literes’s opera Los Elementos this year. The production was advised by the Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, who is the author of the only monograph available on Literes. Los Elementos was also performed this spring at Paschaliskerk in the Hague (Netherlands), by La Academia de los Nocturnos. In 2018, the Fundación Juan March will sponsor a production of Los Elementos at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela. Performances will be held the 9th–16th of April. (And don’t forget, Fundación Juan March will unveil its 2017-2018 season on September 19th, with a live stream on their website.) More than just Los Elementos has received attention. Two other works were performed at the Festival de Música Renacentista y Barroca de Vélez Blanco, on July 25: Miserere, recently edited and published by Antoni Pons, and the villancico Mortales, gozad. This villancico (a Spanish form of cantata) was unearthed in Guatemala Cathedral by none other than Antoni Pizà. It was performed at Iglesia Parroquial de Santiago by El Parnaso Español with coro Tomás Luis de Victoria. The ensemble Forma Antiqua recently performanced another cantata, Déjame, tirano dios, twice in Spain, first in Oviedo (on April 4) and then in Leon (May 5). An edition of all of Literes’s cantatas will soon be available. Further performances of these cantatas are expected in Australia, with additional performances TBD. Stay posted for details.
Upcoming Gig from Resident Artist This Sunday, the 20th—the day before the solar eclipse!—Samuel Torjman Thomas will perform with Alon Nechustan at the City Winery, for their Klezmer Brunch. Their duo is called Traveling in Pairs. Brunch begins at 11 am; admission is $10. Samuel Torjman Thomas is the artistic director of our resident New York Andalus Ensemble. Asefa Music represents Thomas’s work apart from the full Andalus Ensemble, encompassing his lectures, publications, and other performances.
Fundacion Juan March Live Stream, Sep 19 September 19th, Fundación Juan March Madrid will unveil its new season of events. This presentation will be live streamed on the Fundación website at 12 pm (Madrid time). One of the new events to be announced is the premiere of a re-discovered musical work by Tomás Bretón (Salamanca, 29 December 1850–Madrid, 2 December 1923), the Quinteto en sol mayor. It will be performed by Cuarteto Breton at Fundación March Madrid on February 21, 2018. The critical edition of this magnificent chamber piece is by María Luisa Martínez, a researcher at the Foundation for Iberian Music, and Antoni Pizà, the Foundation director.
Pollença Festival, August 2017 Mallorca’s Pollença Festival will soon begin is 56th year! The festival occurs each August in the town of Pollença and features a wide variety of classical performances at the beautiful cloister of the Convent of Santo Domingo. This international festival features symphonies, chamber ensembles, and early music consorts throughout the month of August. The Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, has written program notes for many of this year’s concerts. You can view the program and purchase tickets at the festival website. Tickets range from 20-35 euros. (Photo credit: Festival Pollença)
Experimental Flamenco At La Nacional in June K. Meira Goldberg, flamencologist at the Foundation for Iberian Music and director of our “Spaniards, Natives, Africans, and Gypsies” conference series, will be performing Sundays in June at La Nacional! With her director Rafael Abolafia (researcher at the Graduate Center’s Segal Theater) and fellow dancer/guitarist José Moreno, she has created an experimental flamenco work called Raíz. Raíz seeks to create a ceremony of perforation and immersion in the rites of flamenco. The piece is fractal in its conception, jagged in its edges. It emerges from the poetic and transgressive realism of arte povera: a return to simple objects and messages, a stage where traces of nature and industry become alive. The Crone embodies the strength of instability. She enacts rejection and rebellion, memory and faith, feasting and solitude. Her pilgrimage maps a homeland containing many forces in tension. We wish to generate a contemporary quejío, to open spaces and sensations where our wings may find ground and our roots take flight. Raíz will have four performances, beginning June 4. Tickets are $20 and available through Eventbrite.
“The Soul of the Spanish Violin” Release and Residency Recent Graduate Center graduate Eva León is celebrating the release of her album The Soul of the Spanish Violin (Naxos) this Wednesday at National Sawdust in Williamsburg. León completed her Doctor of Music with a dissertation on Joaquín Rodrigo, advised by Antoni Pizà. Her new album is all works by Rodrigo, performed with pianist Olga Vinokur, who is also joining León for the release concert. León and her chamber ensemble will be joining the resident ensembles of the Foundation for Iberian Music in Fall 2017, and will be performing with our other acclaimed residents, Perspectives Ensemble and New York Andalus Ensemble. Tickets are $29 ($34 at door). National Sawdust is a non-profit venue whose programming is guided by local artists. It offers several educational initiatives and a non-profit recording studio.
María del Carmen Conference Website We previously announced a new conference upcoming at the University of Murcia (Spain), celebrating Granados and his opera María del Carmen. This conference now has a website, so please bookmark it for future updates. An English version of the site is forthcoming. Paper proposals are being accepted through September 15, 2017.