iCONEXIONES! at Esperanza
TUESDAY, MAY 5, 2020, 6:00 PM |
PAST PERFORMANCES: |
Stream ¡CONEXIONES! Mexico right here, anytime. Adjust resolution quality by clicking on the gear at the bottom of the YouTube video window. This video debuted as a Facebook Premiere on the new Esperanza Arts Center Facebook Page to connect our musicians to audiences during the Coronavirus pandemic.
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Esperanza Arts Center presents the streamed premiere of a new live audio recording featuring Orchestra 2001's iCONEXIONES! Mexico performance from Cinco de Mayo 2019 at Teatro Esperanza spotlighting the music of Mexican composers. This program includes the world premiere of Transcending Walls by Francisco Cortés-Álvarez.
PROGRAM:
Orchestra 2001
Mark Loria, Conductor
Carlos Chávez
Xochipilli, An Imagined Aztec Music (1940)
Silvestre Revueltas
Ocho por Radio (1933)
Gabriela Ortiz
Ríos: Papaloapan (2012)
Francisco Cortés-Álvarez
Trascendiendo Muros (Transcending Walls) (2019)
Premiere, Steven R. Gerber Composer Residency and Commission
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Serving as Assistant Conductor for Orchestra 2001, Mark Loria has conducted the ensemble in local concert series and at large festivals and venues on concert tours to China, Hong Kong, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. A conductor, pianist, and organist, he received his undergraduate degree in both music and pre-med from Swarthmore College where his piano teacher was Marcantonio Barone. Mr. Loria did graduate studies at Westminster Choir College as a sacred music major and was recently appointed as the new organist for the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. |
Coming of age at the close of the Mexican revolution and during a time of renewed cultural nationalism, Chávez's investigation of indigenous Indian cultures, native folk elements, and dance forms brought an unprecedented vigor and visibility to 20th-century Mexican music. His orchestration and use of native instruments was inimitable with poly-rhythms and syncopation. Xochipilli is the god of art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, and song in Aztec mythology. Commissioned by MoMA president Nelson Rockefeller, Chávez wrote the piece for an exhibit of Mexican art, with masterful modern orchestration simulating the sounds of traditional Aztec instruments. |
Revueltas conducted several of his orchestral works in Spain in 1937, lending support to the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War. In his last decade, he had been astonishingly productive, writing almost 40 works – including 6 for full orchestra and 8 film scores – in a mature, vitally individual voice. In Ocho por Radio (1933), he used his unique style that incorporates Mexican folk influences without using actual quotes. |