Pacho Flores’ latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, ESTIRPE (2022), with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto has been nominated to the Latin Grammy Awards 2023 in three categories: Best Classical Album; Best Classical Contemporary Composition (Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera) and Best Arrangement (Crónicas Latinoamericanas by Daniel Freiberg). In addition to the nominated works by Freiberg and D’Rivera, ESTIRPE also includes compositions by Arturo Márquez, Efraín Oscher and Pacho Flores himself.
Recorded between 3rd and 6th September 2019 at Churubusco Studios in México City with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería and producer Ingo Petri, ESTIRPE includes four new concertos for trumpet and orchestra written for Pacho and the wide collection of trumpets, cornets and flugelhorns expressly manufactured for him by STOMVI. For this recording, Pacho used at least a dozen different instruments. The concertos included in ESTIRPE are Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera, Crónicas Latinoamericanas by Daniel Freiberg, and Efraín Oscher’s Concierto Mestizo, as well as Morocota, a short piece by Pacho himself.
Crónicas Latinoamericanas competes as an arrangement since it was originally written for Paquito D’Rivera’s clarinet under the commission of the West Deutsche Rundfunk of Cologne, which Freiberg adapted for trumpet; Concerto Venezolano and Concierto de Otoño are the result of the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concerts that Pacho himself has been promoting; and Mestizo was commissioned by the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar in 2010. Mestizo was the first big concerto for trumpet and orchestra specially written for several instruments of the trumpet family, so that it can be considered the origin of all those new concerts that these composers, along with others such as Roberto Sierra, Christian Lindberg, Gabriela Ortiz, Igmar Alderete, Tuomas Turriago and a new one by Daniel Freiberg as well, have since written for Pacho and his arsenal of instruments in the last years.
This week Pacho Flores makes his debut with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra under Carlos Miguel Prieto, accompanied by Héctor Molina, interpreter of cuatro venezolano. The program consists of Haydn’s trumpet concerto and the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera. Concerts will take place at the Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 September at 20:00 hour
Pacho Flores launches ESTIRPE, his new record for Deutsche Grammophon label and the fifth on the yellow label, available from July, 29th on. Taking advantage of its presence in the summer season of the Minería Symphony Orchestra and Carlos Miguel Prieto for the American premiere of Historias de Flores y Tangos, by Daniel Freiberg, he presents this recording, which was made with the same protagonists in September 2019 at the Churubusco studios in the Mexican capital. This album features two outstanding guest artists, the Cuban clarinetist and saxophonist, Paquito D’Rivera, and the Argentine pianist, arranger, and composer, Daniel Freiberg, and already includes some of the concerts resulting from the project of shared commissions for new concerts for trumpet to outstanding composers that Pacho and his agency ACM Concerts have been managing in recent years and that has already added six new concerts to the repertoire and with a seventh in the process of composition.
The album opens with the Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, the first concerto of the project, premiered in September 2018 by the National Symphony of Mexico under the baton of Carlos Miguel Prieto. Along with the OSNM, the other orchestras participating in the commission were the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, which premiered it with its head José Luis Gómez; the Orchestra of the Performing Arts Center of Hyogo, Japan, with maestro Michiyoshi Inoue, and the Oviedo Filarmonía, with Lucas Macías. Next we find Crónicas Latinoamericanas, by Daniel Freiberg, a commission from the WDR Sinfonieorchester of Cologne, originally conceived for clarinet, which Freiberg adapted for trumpet as soon as he saw Pacho on stage.
The third concert on the album is the Concerto Venezolano by Paquito D’Rivera, also resulting from the project of shared commissions. In this case, it was the Minería Symphony Orchestra itself, again under the direction of Prieto, who starred in the Mexican premiere and participated in the commission together with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras, which premiered it with its current Music Director, Domingo Hindoyan, the Orchestra of Valencia, with Hernández-Silva, and the San Diego Symphony, with its head Rafael Payare. The last of the four concerts included on the album is Mestizo, by Efraín Oscher, which has a special meaning: Commissioned by the Children and Youth Orchestra System of Venezuela and premiered in Caracas in 2010 with the Simón Bolívar Orchestra and the direction of Domingo Hindoyan, it is the true antecedent of everything that came later with this project of shared commissions, as it was the very first concert composed for various instruments of the trumpet family, which later became a constant and a distinctive feature of Pacho Flores’s performances. The album ends with Morocota, a Venezuelan waltz by Pacho Flores originally composed for trumpet and guitar and included on ENTROPÍA, his second album for Deutsche Grammophon, with guitarist and cuatrista Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González, and later also orchestrated by Pacho himself.
After so an exciting summer that took him to Mexico with Alondra de la Parra’s Impossible Orchestra, to the Brass Festival Stuttgart, the Italian Brass Week, to Montreal as resident artist of La Virée Classique, where he played and conducted his own and other repertoire in three concerts with different formations; back to Mexico to Freiberg’s and to present ESTIRPE, Pacho Flores kicks off a sensational season with the Singapore Symphony with concerts by Haydn and Arturo Márquez. A 2022/23 season that brings important debuts for Pacho with orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, with Carlos Miguel Prieto; Los Angeles Philharmonic, with Gustavo Dudamel; Galicia Symphony, with Manuel Hernández-Silva; National Symphony of Colombia with Christian Vásquez; Quebec Symphony, with Anu Talli; Buffalo Philharmonic, with JoAnn Falletta, National of Cyprus, with Hernández-Silva; Belgrade Philharmonic, with Felix Mildenberger; as well as his return to the San Diego Symphony, with Rafael Payare; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, with Domingo Hindoyan; or Tucson Symphony and Arctic Philharmonic, in both again with Hernández-Silva. In Liverpool and Galicia Flores will be artist-in-residence. He also continues with his project of commissions and premieres of new trumpet concertos, with the completion of the series of premieres by Daniel Freiberg with Arctic and with the Walla Walla Symphony; and the beginning of a new cycle with Altar de Bronce, by Gabriela Ortiz, which will premiere the orchestras of Galicia and Liverpool and whose premieres will continue in the 2023/24 season. In Liverpool he will also record a new album that will include, among others, the concerts Salseando, by Roberto Sierra, and the aforementioned Altar de Bronce by Gabriela Ortiz. He will also return to the Bogotá Philharmonic, National Philharmonic of Chile, and will maintain his presence in metal forums and meetings all over the world, as well as his didactic and pedagogical activities, among which his participation stands out, within their respective residences, with the Youth Orchestra of the Galician Symphony, and with the In Harmony program of the Liverpool Philharmonic.
Pacho Flores makes his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel on July 18 at the Hollywood Bowl, where he will perform Arturo Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño. The Márquez’s Concerto is part of a program that includes the premiere of La Serpiente de Colores, by Cortés-Álvarez, commissioned by the orchestra, and Estancia, de Ginastera in its complete ballet version. Pacho, who has just closed his residency with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, with which he offered the British premiere of Altar de Bronce by Gabriela Ortiz, thus puts the finishing touch to a season that has taken him to Mexico, Singapore, Cyprus, Germany, Venezuela, Great Britain, Serbia, Norway, Spain, Colombia, and twice to Canada —Quebec and Montreal—, as well as several times to the US, including his debut with the San Francisco Symphony, his returns to Tucson and San Diego, where he is a frequent guest, and new visits to Dartmouth College or the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra.
This season, he has also closed the premiere cycle of Historias de Flores y Tangos by Daniel Freiberg and began the one for Altar de Bronce by Gabriela Ortiz with the Galicia Symphony conducted by Hernández-Silva. Pacho has also released his latest recording, ESTIRPE, with Deutsche Grammophon. Dudamel closes a list of conductors with whom Pacho has worked this season and which includes Manuel Hernández-Silva, José Luis Gómez, Christian Vásquez, Domingo Hindoyan, Rafael Payare, Carlos Miguel Prieto, Felix Mildenberger, Anu Tali and Alondra de la Parra.
Next season, which will again begin in Mexico, will see Pacho’s debut with new US orchestras such as the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony or the New World Symphony, as well as his return to San Diego to close the cycle of premieres of Gabriela Ortiz and to Ohio for the premiere of Christian Lindberg’s Magical Horses. He will also appear at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico and the Bravo Veil! Festival in Colorado, and will perform in Sweden, Germany, Poland, Finland and again Singapore and Norway, as well as in many Spanish orchestras such as the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada and the Orquesta Simfónica del Vallès, with which he will make his debut, the Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Region of Murcia or the Orquesta de Córdoba.The 23/24 season will also see the premiere of Pacho’s clarinet concerto, written for Juan Ferrer and commissioned by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, the Orquesta de Extremadura and the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Region of Murcia.
Pacho Flores ends his artistic residence with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with a concert that will take place next Saturday, July 8 at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, again under the baton its principal conductor, Domingo Hindoyan. This concert will host the British premiere of Altar de Bronce, a trumpet concerto by Gabriela Ortiz. This piece is the latest in the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concertos to prominent composers such as Arturo Márquez, Roberto Sierra, Paquito D’Rivera, Daniel Freiberg, Efraín Oscher, Christian Lindberg and Ortiz herself.
This will be the second premiere of the cycle, after the Spanish premiere last April by the Galician Symphony Orchestra under Manuel Hernández-Silva, in whose season Pacho was also artist-in-residence. The next premieres will take place in Mexico this summer, with the Orquesta de Minería and Carlos Miguel Prieto, and throughout the 2023/24 season in the US, with the New World Symphony and Prieto, and the San Diego Symphony under Rafael Payare. The program of this concert also includes Roberto Sierra’s Salseando, in whose shared commission the British orchestra also participated. This piece was premiered by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic in January 2020, together with the orchestras of Murcia and Bordeaux, in both cases conducted by Hernández-Silva, and the orchestra of São Paulo led by Prieto.
Ortiz closes for now this project of commissions that has resulted in seven new concerts for the solo trumpet and orchestra repertoire. These pieces are being incorporated into Pacho’s discography on Deutsche Grammophon, such as his most recent album, Estirpe, which was released in the summer of 2022 and contains Concierto de Otoño, by Arturo Márquez, and Concerto Venezolano, by Paquito D’Rivera, together with Crónicas Latinoamericanas by Daniel Freiberg and Efraín Oscher’s Concierto Mestizo, which aren’t part of this project but were also written for Pacho.
Pacho Flores returns to the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Rafael Payare after his great success last summer as resident artist of La Virée Classique, the summer festival organized by the Canadian orchestra, where he performed three different programs in his triple facet of trumpeter, composer and conductor. In this next concert, which will take place at the Maison Symphonique on Saturday, April 29 at 9 p.m., they will perform the American premiere of the full orchestra version of Cantos y revueltas, by Pacho Flores himself, whose world premiere took place a month ago with the Arctic Philharmonic of Norway under Manuel Hernández-Silva. On this occasion, Pacho will be accompanied by the cuatrista Héctor Molina and the maraquero Edgardo Jair Acosta.
Pacho Flores has just obtained an enormous success in his debut with the Galician Symphony Orchestra, where he has been a resident artist this season, offering up to three different programs: two symphonic programs, both conducted by Manuel Hernández-Silva, and a chamber music concert with the guitarist and cuatro player Jesús “Pingüino” González. This season Pacho is also an artist in residence at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, to which he will shortly pay his second visit this year for the UK premiere of Altar de Bronce, by Gabriela Ortiz, whose world premiere took place ago two weeks ago with the Galician Symphony, as both orchestras are part of the commissioning consortium for this new trumpet concert by the Mexican composer, together with the Orquesta de Minería de México, the New World Symphony and the San Diego Symphony.
After this concert with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Pacho will travel to the state of Washington, in the USA, for the last premiere of Daniel Freiberg’s Historias de Flores y Tangos with the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra under the baton of José Luis Gómez. This Freiberg concert had its first premiere in Spain with the Oviedo Filarmonía, then with the Orquesta de Minería in Mexico and more recently in Norway with Manuel Hernández-Silva, as afore mentioned.
