Press Buzz for the 2014 Composer’s Commission Our 2014 Composer’s Commission from Javier Arias had a great premiere last night, at the CUNY Graduate Center’s Segal Theater. The program, which featured all new works for the special Pronomos Flute by Spanish composers and live, interactive digital projections from artist Marta Verde, generated a lot of curiosity. Articles on the concert were run in several local and international Spanish cultural journals, including Nuvol, Forum Clásico, La Opinion, El Diario NY, and Doce Notas. We’d like to thank everyone who came out and who helps us to support new music. If you were unable to attend, check back soon with us for a video of the concert, and as always, we will be certain to share any rave reviews we come across.
Surinach series on Catalunya Radio Hi everyone! Don’t forget, Catalunya Radio’s program “Qui té por del segle XX?” is in the midst of a month-long series celebrating the centennial of Carlos Surinach. The Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, is on board as the series’ expert consultant and as a participant in the broadcasts. Episode 1 (June 7) features a lengthy interview with Pizà, and you can listen to it here. The remaining broadcasts offer a survey of Surinach’s work, including his collaborations with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Last week’s broadcast (June 14) is available in the program’s archive, and you can hear the remaining broadcasts Sunday nights in June, live online—or catch up later with the archive, at the link above, or in the Foundation’s own audio archive.
Tembembe with Viol Player Jordi Savall Mexican early and folk music ensemble Tembembe Ensamble Continuo will be appearing in the upcoming New York Early Music Celebration in October, with a performance workshop at the Graduate Center. We previously announced a workshop with Musica Temprana on October 16 and we are pleased to announce an additional workshop with Tembembe, sponsored by the Foundation for Iberian Music, on October 14 in room C197 at the Graduate Center (10 am – 1 pm). Readers in the New England area can catch Tembembe next week as a part of the Boston Early Music Festival. They will be performing in a concert featuring Grammy award-winning ensemble Hespérion XXI, under the direction of the renowned Jordi Savall, who will be playing viola da gamba. The concert is on June 8 at 8 pm, at the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. Click here for tickets.
Granados Centenary: New Board Member and Publication News The Granados Centenary steering committee is delighted to welcome Luisa Morales to the conference advisory board. Luisa Morales is a Spanish keyboardist and scholar who is internationally recognised as one of the most outstanding performers on Spanish keyboard music. As founder of FIMTE, she has developed a pioneering task presenting, yearly, recent advances in Spanish keyboard music scholarship. She has published numerous books and papers in various innovative fields of research and regularly gives concerts, lectures and teaches courses on topics covering different aspects of Spanish music and dance. Mrs. Morales has performed around the world in several venues and festivals including Harmoniques-Lausanne (Stein vis-à-vis combined instrument, 1777), St. Cecilia’s Hall-Georgian Society, Edinburgh (harpsichord Falkener, 1773), National Music Museum (Vermillion USA, harpsichord Kirckman, 1798), American Instrument Society (harpsichord Calisto, 1780), Goya’s Encounters (UCLA University Riverside), Duke University, Ballarat Festival (Victoria, Australia), Melbourne Recital Hall, Sydney University, Utrecht Oude Muziek, FIMTE Almería, Toronto, Barcelona, Costa Rica, Chili, Mexico, Rabat, Tánger, etc. Upcoming engagements include Toronto, Melbourne (Recital Hall and Melba Hall), and Bogotá. She is contributor to the New Grove’s Dictionary of Musical Instruments (Oxford University Press), the New Haydn Encyclopedia (Cambridge University Press) and has been reviewer of the series Currents in Latin American and Iberian Music (Oxford University Press). Luisa is a Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Secondly, we are excited to announce that Editorial Boileau (Barcelona) has several forthcoming publications in conjunction with the centenary—including a piano score app for iPad! First, there is a Spanish translation of Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano, by Walter Aaron Clark. This will be a newly revised edition of the two prior editions published by Oxford University Press. Second, Ed. Boileau will be issuing the first ever publication of the Complete Correspondence of Enrique Granados, prepared by Miriam Perandones. This will be an essential source of new information about Granados and the basis for future research into his life and works. Lastly, Ed. Boileau has also created an app for iPad with the 254 piano works by Granados that are included in the Complete Piano Works of Enrique Granados (directed by Alicia de Larrocha and Douglas Riva). This app (coming soon to the App Store) will make individual scores of the complete works available instantly throughout the world.
More Benet Casablancas Premieres Benet Casablancas is having a busy year, and the Foundation is happy to announce yet another upcoming premiere! This summer will be the North American premiere of his Festival Overture at the Colorado Music Festival, which will also include a performance of his symphonic arrangement of his 2012 commission, Song, Dance, and Celebration. This will be the first time the Overture has been heard outside of Spain! The new orchestration of Song, Dance, and Celebration premiered earlier this year in Toronto. The score for Festival Overture is also available now from Music Sales Classical.
Early Music Workshop with Musica Temprana in October As organization partner and participant of Early Music Foundation’s citywide “New York Early Music Celebration 2015: El Nuevo Mundo,” the Foundation for Iberian Music is most pleased to host a lecture/workshop conducted by the Netherlands-based ensemble Musica Temprana. The workshop will be a great opportunity for CUNY’s graduate student body, scholars with particular interests in Hispanic culture, local early music aficionados, connoisseurs, and amateurs, as well as a diverse cross-section of Celebration (festival) attendees. The subject of Musica Temprana’s workshop will be background research and the application of historically informed performance practices, relating to Musica Temprana’s upcoming concert program, presented by Music Before 1800 as a part of the NY Early Music Celebration festival. The concert will be October 18, 2015. (Details below.) The workshop itself is October 16, 10 am -1 pm, at the Graduate Center’s Segal Theater. Musica Temprana’s concert program, “Bailes, Tonadas & Cachuas,” features 18th century songs and dances ‘from the streets’ from Trujillo, Peru. A recording of these works, from the Codex Trujillo, is available from Cobra Records. Workshop: October 16, 2015 10 am – 1 pm The Segal Theater The Graduate Center, CUNY 365 Fifth Ave New York, NY 10016 Concert: October 18, 2015 time TBA Corpus Christi Church 529 W. 121st Street New York, NY 10027
Antoni Pizà on Catalunya Radio in June Our fearless director here at the Foundation for Iberian Music, Antoni Pizà, will be appearing in June on Catalunya Radio‘s program “Who’s Afraid of the 20th Century?” (Qui té por del segle XX?), so mark your calendars! The program airs Sundays, 11 am – 12 pm, and Pizà will be appearing each Sunday in June in celebration of Carlos Surinach’s centennial. For those of you not in Spain, the program will be broadcast live online and will also be available later in the program’s podcast archive.
Great Review of the Fandango Conference We are pleased and grateful for the glowing review that the Center for Studies on 18th Century Spain (Centro Studi sul Settecento Spagnolo) of the University of Bologna has posted on last week’s fandango conference. They write that the 2 day conference was “excellently organized” by our tireless hosts, Antoni Pizà and Meira Goldberg, and that the conference was original and the overall experience was very positive. Read the full post here, in Spanish or Italian.
The Pronomos Flute and 2014 Composer’s Commission: Coming Soon to NY! We announced previously that the recipient of this year’s commission from the Foundation of Iberian Music is Javier Arias Bal, who will be writing a work for the special Pronomos flute. Julián Elvira, the flute’s inventor, spokesperson, and virtuoso performer, has issued a press statement about the upcoming concert. (Leer en español más abajo.) The Pronomos flute itself is a modified form of the modern flute, which dates back to the late 19th century design of Theobald Boehm. The Pronomos’ innovations allow a greater array of extended techniques, facilitating a fresh new body of work for flutists and a new concert experience for audiences. The 2014 Composer’s Commission concert, to be held June 22nd at the Graduate Center’s Segal Theater, will be the first time the Pronomos flute has been heard in New York. Elvira has assembled a program featuring works for the Pronomos by Spanish composers in New York—culminating, of course, in the premiere of Arias’ new work. This multi-media concert will feature the work of Julián Ávila, Eduardo Costa, Alexandra Gardner, Pedro Gómez, Alberto Posadas, Julián Elvira himself, and the Graduate Center’s own Ines Thiebaut, with specially created backing video projections. View the complete program here. (download PDF)