Ode to the Promised Land
CD#: 2 - Track#: 14
COMPOSER
Paquito D'Rivera In addition to Paquito D’Rivera’s performing career as an instrumentalist, he has gained a dynamic as a composer. His compositions have earned him honors such as a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, a 2007-2008 appointment as composer-in-residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and a Latin GRAMMY for “Best Classical Contemporary Composition” in 2011 for his Panamericana Suite. The recent premiere of D’Rivera’s Cape Cod Concerto with the Silicon Valley Symphony was lauded as “sassy and brash, a big work of imagination and humor that arrives like a birthday cake with exploding candles” by the San Jose Mercury News. His new ballet, Ladies in White, was just performed by the José Limón Dance Company at the Central Park SummerStage to a capacity crowd, with more performances to follow. His works reveal his widespread and eclectic musical interests, ranging from Afro-Cuban rhythms and melodies, including influences encountered in his many travels, and back to his classical origins. D’Rivera’s music is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes. (Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes.)
LYRICIST
Alexis Romay Alexis Romay received a M.A. in Spanish language and literature from the City University of New York. His novel, Salidas de emergencia, was published in Spain and in Italy; his book of poetry, Los culpables, was published in Spain. His essays have appeared in the quarterlies Encuentro de la Cultura Cubana, Caleta, Replicante and Letras Libres. He has translated into Spanish Ana Veciana-Suarez’s novel Flight to Freedom and Margarita Engle’s Newbery Award-winning book of poetry The Surrender Tree, and, into English, Miguel Correa Mujica’s novel Al norte del infierno. He has written lyrics for Paquito D’Rivera’s operetta Cecilio Valdés, Rey de La Habana. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, his son, his dogs and a few books, and writes about Cuba, literature and other tropical diseases in his blogs: Belascoaín y Neptuno and Mixing Memory and Desire.
VOCALIST
Brenda Feliciano Soprano Brenda Feliciano has travelled extensively and performed as soloist with many symphony orchestras, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico, Costa Rican Symphony Orchestra and Orquesta Filarmonica de Buenos Aires, among others. Most recently, she has been working with pianist Pablo Zinger on Latin American repertoire, including the Argentinian composer Carlos Guastavino, and Paquito D’Rivera, with whom she has collaborated and won several GRAMMYs in the classical and jazz categories.
PIANIST
Pablo Zinger
Uruguayan-born New Yorker Pablo Zinger is widely known as a conductor, pianist, writer, composer, arranger and lecturer, specializing in the music of Piazzolla, tango, Spanish and Latin American music. He has performed throughout five continents. He has accompanied Plácido Domingo at Constitution Hall, conducted the closing of Paquito D'Rivera's Carnegie Hall 50th Anniversary Concert, played and conducted the Moscow premiere of Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires and narrated Piazzolla’s Pueblo Joven at Tokyo’s Opera City.
|
GET THE MUSIC
GET THE SCORE
|