Marina Heredia takes part next June 28 and 29 in the world premiere of En Libertad! El camino de los gitanos, for singer, percussion, flamenco guitar and orchestra. The piece was commissioned by the Duisburger Philharmoniker to José Quevedo ‘Bolita’ and Joan Albert Amargós as part of the artistic residency of the cantaora in the 2022/23 season of the orchestra, and the texts were written by Quevedo himself on an idea by Marina Heredia. Both Quevedo and Amargós will have an active participation in this premiere since the former, as Marina’s regular guitarist, will also perform as a soloist, along with Paquito González on the percussion; Amargós on his part will act as musical director.
Marina had already visited Duisburg in November 2022 as part of her artistic residence, offering two concerts with the orchestra and its principal conductor, Axel Kober, in which she sang El Amor Brujo by Manuel de Falla. This visit was closed with the show Garnata by Marina’s usual quintet, since the interest of the artistic direction goes beyond symphonic concerts and they have also programmed Marina Heredia’s flamenco company. In the same way, after this world premiere, Marina and her company, with the addition of several Duisburger musicians, will offer a concert with the repertoire of Marina’s latest album, Capricho. In addition, educational activities have also been programmed in schools, as well as conferences-concerts in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes.
After the recent presentation of the 2023/24 season of the Galician Symphony Orchestra, we can also announce that the Spanish premiere of En Libertad will take place in May 2024 with the same soloists, this time conducted by José Trigueros. Marina is definitely the most demanded singer internationally for this repertoire; only last year she could be seen in Germany at the Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie and the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin; the Laieszhalle of the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, or the Lausitz Festival in Görlitz, and she has sung with important orchestras such as Chicago Symphony or San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille or Orquestra Sinfônica da Casa da Música do Porto in Portugal.
Aarón Zapico opens the 72nd edition of the Granada International Music and Dance Festival at the Palace of Carlos V on Wednesday 21 and Thursday 22 June with a program on the figure of Don Quixote. The core piece will be Falla’s El Retablo de Maese Pedro, in commemoration of the centenary of its premiere on June 25, 1923 at the palace of the Princess of Polignac in Paris, almost exactly 100 years ago. Aarón will lead the Ciudad de Granada Orchestra with Alicia Amo, soprano (Trujamán), David Alegret, tenor (Maese Pedro), José Antonio López, baritone (Don Quixote), Juan Carlos Garvayo, harpsichord, and the Compañía Etcétera, with Enrique Lanz as stage director and responsible for the puppets, set design and projections. The program, entitled El retablo de Maese Pedro. Un tríptico sobre Don Quijote, also includes Burlesque de Quichotte, overture-suite in G major, TWV 55:G1 (1716) by Georg Philipp Telemann, and a selection from Don Quichotte chez la Duchesse, op. 97 (1743) by Joseph Bodin Boismortier.
As the festival explains, Manuel de Falla’s El retablo de Maese Pedro, one of the most unique and important stage works in the history of Spanish music, was premiered at the palace of the Princess of Polignac in Paris on June 25, 1923. Conceived as a brief chamber opera for puppets on an episode of Don Quixote, the work had already been heard in concert version in March of that same year at the Teatro San Fernando in Seville. For the Parisian premiere, Falla had the collaboration of professor, engraver and set designer Hermenegildo Lanz. In 2009, his grandson Enrique Lanz, director of the prestigious Compañía Etcétera, created giant puppets to present the play at the Teatro Real, and it is these puppets that will now arrive on the stage of the Alhambra, together with the OCG, Aarón Zapico, a group of select Spanish singers and a couple of Cervantine works from the Baroque period to complete the programme.
Aarón has just returned from Mexico after conducting the Academia de Música Antigua of the Universidad Autónoma de México in three concerts in various venues of the Mexican capital. The program was made up exclusively of works by Spanish Baroque composers such as José Castel, Francisco Hernández Illana, Vicente Baset, Antonio Literes, Mateo Flecha, José de Nebra, Sebastián Durón or Juan de Navas, grouped under the generic title of Fuego: an imaginary zarzuela of the Hispanic Baroque. Among Aarón’s upcoming commitments are his debuts at the Teatro Real in Madrid to conduct La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina by Francesca Caccini, and at the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, where he will conduct Antonio Literes’s Los Elementos. He will also lead orchestras such as the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, the Cordoba Orchestra or the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra. Aarón Zapico is a frequent guest at the Granada Festival. He made his debut in 2011 with Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, which were recorded on an album produced by Winter & Winter. In 2019, Forma Antiqva, the group directed by Zapico, was resident ensemble of the festival. He has also been a teacher in the Manuel de Falla Courses. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, he returned as a teacher and head of the Festival’s Baroque Academy.
Pacho Flores returns to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra to continue his artistic residency. After his visit last December, when he took part in five extraordinary Christmas concerts, he will appear this time at a subscription concert that will take place on May 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, where he will perform Henri Tomasi’s concerto as well as Albares, his own concerto for flugelhorn, all under the baton of Domingo Hindoyan.
The next and last concert of this residency will take place in July with the UK premiere of Altar de Bronce, Gabriela Ortiz’s trumpet concerto that had its World premiere last April with the Galician Symphony Orchestra under Manuel Hernández-Silva, along with Salseando, by Roberto Sierra. That premiere in Galicia was actually also part of an artistic residency, since this season Pacho has been artist-in-residence of these two orchestras, after being last summer at the La Virée Classique festival of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Pacho has just arrived from North America, where he presented the continental premieres of the orchestral version of his own work Cantos y Revueltas with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Rafael Payare; and Historias de Flores y Tangos, by Daniel Freiberg, with the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra under José Luis Gómez. On his return from Liverpool, he will travel to Colombia to perform again Freiberg’s concerto together with Albares under the baton of Christian Vásquez, before facing an intense summer that includes, in addition to the aforementioned third visit to Liverpool, two important debuts in great summer seasons: at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, and at the Rady Shell of the San Diego Symphony with Rafael Payare, where he will perform Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez and Salseando by Roberto Sierra, respectively.
José Luis Gómez and Pacho Flores meet with the Walla Walla Symphony Orchestra for the US premiere of Historias de Flores y Tangos, new trumpet concerto by Daniel Freiberg, which will take place at Cordiner Hall next Tuesday, May 2 at 7 p.m. The concert was commissioned jointly by the WW Symphony, Oviedo Filarmonía, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería and Arctic Philharmonic of Norway. This US premiere closes the cycle of premieres reserved for the orchestras that participated in the shared commission, so that the work becomes now available for any orchestra that wishes to program it.
Gómez and Flores had already met at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, of which the former is principal conductor, for the US premiere in January 2019 of the Concierto de Otoño by Arturo Márquez, as the orchestra was part of the consortium of commissioners of this piece to the Mexican composer, together with the Nacional de México, the Hyogo PAC Orchestra of Japan and, once again, the Oviedo Filarmonía. Pacho returned to Tucson again as recently as last February, accompanied on this occasion by Manuel Hernández-Silva, with a program that again included a couple of US premieres: Salseando, trumpet concerto by Roberto Sierra, and Manuel Moreno Buendía’s Boceto Sinfónico.
Pacho will return to the US a couple of times in the upcoming months, first in June to perform Salseando by Sierra with the San Diego Symphony and Rafael Payare at the Rady Shell, and then in July for his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut with Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl, performing Márquez’s Concierto de Otoño. For his part, and with a contract still in force until 2024, José Luis Gómez was renewed last summer in his position as Music Director of the Tucson Symphony until 2027, and has recently conducted orchestras such as the Indianapolis Symphony or the US National Symphony Orchestra.
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.
Pacho Flores and Hernández-Silva meet again for a joint debut and a double program with the Galician Symphony Orchestra, where Pacho is artist in residence this season. The first program will be part of the Easter workshop of the Galician Youth Symphony Orchestra and include Concierto de Otoño, by Arturo Márquez, and Albares, a concert for flugelhorn by Pacho himself, together with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. This concert will take place at the Palacio de la Ópera de Coruña on April 9. The second program, a subscription concert, will feature Kalinnikov’s Symphony No. 1, Paquito de Rivera’s Concerto Venezolano and the world premiere of Altar de Bronce, a trumpet concerto by Gabriela Ortiz dedicated to Pacho and jointly commissioned by the OSG with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Minería Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony and the San Diego Symphony. These concerts will take place at the Ferrol Auditorium and the Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña on April 13 and 14, respectively. A few days later, on April 18, Pacho will offer a chamber recital with the guitarist Jesús ‘Pingüino’ González within the season of the Philharmonic Society of A Coruña as part of his artistic residence with the OSG, performing the repertoire of his album ENTROPÍA. González will also participate as a cuatrista in D’Rivera’s work the previous week.
Gabriela Ortiz is one of the most prominent composers of today. She has received commissions from soloists and orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Britain, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Galician Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta de Minería, Kroumata and Amadinda Percussion Ensembles, Kronos Quartet, Latin American Quartet, Southwest Chamber Music, Tambuco Percussion Quartet, Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, etc. Ortiz has been distinguished with the National Prize for Arts and Literature of Mexico, the Mexican Academy of Arts, the First Prize in the Silvestre Revueltas National Chamber Music Contest and the Alicia Urreta Composition Contest, or the Mozart Medal Award, among others.
Pacho Flores with Vicente Honorato, CEO of STOMVI
Altar de Bronce is the seventh trumpet concerto to emerge from the project of shared commissions for new trumpet concertos by prominent composers such as Arturo Márquez, Paquito D’Rivera, Roberto Sierra, Efraín Oscher, Christian Lindberg, Daniel Freiberg and Gabriela Ortiz. A unique peculiarity of Pacho Flores’ concerts is the amount of instruments that he uses. In close collaboration with the R+D department of the STOMVI company, they have jointly developed new prototypes in various keys, all of them with four pistons. If the fourth piston alone manages to widen the tessitura of the instrument, the sum of several of these instruments with low, medium and high registers in each work multiplies both the range as well as the timbre and color in an extraordinary way, since he combines cornets, trumpets and flugelhorn. For these concerts with OSG, Pacho will use up to 10 different trumpets: C cornet, D cornet, soprano F cornet, soprano G cornet; Bb, C, A and D flugelhorns, C trumpet and D trumpet, distributed as follows: Arturo Márquez, C trumpet, Bb flugelhorn, soprano F cornet; Pacho Flores, C flugelhorn, low A flugelhorn and soprano D flugelhorn, (all of them new prototypes made specifically for this concert); Paquito D’Rivera, C cornet, C trumpet, soprano G cornet, Bb flugelhorn, soprano F cornet; Gabriela Ortiz, D cornet, Bb flugelhorn, C and D trumpets.
This is the list of orchestras that have participated in the project, with the names of the conductors and dates of premieres, either already performed or planned, and all of them, naturally, by Pacho Flores.
Arturo Márquez – Concierto de Otoño
National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, September 7 and 9, 2018; Tucson Symphony Orchestra (USA), José Luis Gómez, January 25 and 27, 2019; Hyogo PAC Orchestra (Japan), Michiyoshi Inoue, May 24, 25 and 26, 2019; Oviedo Filarmonía (Spain), Lucas Macías, August 14, 2019.
Paquito D’Rivera – Concerto Venezolano
Minería Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, September 1, 2019; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (United Kingdom), Domingo Hindoyan, November 11 and 14, 2021; Valencia Orchestra (Spain), Hernández-Silva, February 3, 2022; San Diego Symphony (USA), Rafael Payare, February 25, 26 and March 2, 2022.
Roberto Sierra – Salseando
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), Domingo Hindoyan, January 9, 2020; Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia (Spain), Hernández-Silva, December 17, 2020; Symphony Orchestra of the State of São Paulo (Brazil), Carlos Miguel Prieto, March 31, April 1 and 2, 2022; Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine (France), Hernández-Silva, June 3, 2022.
Daniel Freiberg – Historias de Flores y Tangos
Oviedo Filarmonía (Spain), Lucas Macías, October 23, 2021; Minería Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, August 20 and 21, 2022; Arctic Philharmonic (Norway), Hernández-Silva, March 16 and 17, 2023; Walla Walla Symphony (USA), Yaacob Bergman, May 2, 2023.
Efraín Oscher – Danzas Latinas
Royal Philharmonic of Galicia (Spain), Hernández-Silva; November 21 and 22, 2019.
Gabriela Ortiz – Altar de Bronce
Galician Symphony Orchestra (Spain), Hernández-Silva; April 14 and 15, 2023; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (United Kingdom), D. Hindoyan; July 8, 2023; Minería Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), Carlos Miguel Prieto, August 19 and 20, 2023; New World Symphony (USA), Carlos M. Prieto; February 9 and 10, 2024; San Diego Symphony (USA), Rafael Payare, February 16 and 17, 2024.
Christian Lindberg – Caballos Mágicos
Royal Philharmonia of Galicia (Spain), Paul Daniel, May 27 and 28, 2021; Swedish Chamber Orchestra (Sweden), Christian Lindberg, September 30, 2021; Central Ohio Symphony (USA), Jaime Morales, March 17, 2024; Bilkent Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), Christian Lindberg, 2024/25 season.
D. Freiberg, A. Márquez, P. D’Rivera, P. Flores and C. M. Prieto during the recording of ESTIRPE for Deutsche Grammophon
In addition, throughout this period Pacho Flores has also premiered other concerts that some composers have written for him on their own initiative or that have been commissioned by other orchestras in parallel to this project: Pacho Flores: Cantos y revueltas (11/12/13 January 2018, Real Filharmonía de Galicia, Hernández-Silva); Giancarlo Castro: Stunning Trumpet (February 23, 2018, Ulster Orchestra, Rafael Payare); Alain Trudel: Preach, pour trumpette et orchestre (March 14, 2018, Orchester Symphonique de Laval, Alain Trudel); Efraín Oscher: Apex, Double concerto for clarinet and trumpet (August 31, 2018, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Markus Bosch); Daniel Freiberg: Latin American Chronicles (4/5/6 January 2019, Het Gelders Orkest, Christian Vásquez); Christian Lindberg: Un sueño morisco, double concerto for trumpet and trombone (March 21/22, 2019, RTVE Orchestra, Christian Lindberg); Arturo Sandoval: Trumpet Concerto (July 11, 2019, Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra, Enrique Diemecke); Eleanor Alberga: Invocation (20 September 2021, London Schools Symphony Orchestra, Peter Ash); Pacho Flores: Heterónimos, concertino for trumpet (April 24, 2022, Symphony of the Region of Murcia, Flores; Albares, concert for flugelhorn, April 29, 2022, Tenerife Symphony, Christian Vásquez); Igmar Alderete: Mambí, Concerto for trumpet and orchestra (June 16 and 17, 2022, Orquesta de Córdoba, Carlos Domínguez-Nieto); Sonia Morales: Divertimento Caribeño, No. 6 (March 17, 2024, Central Ohio Symphony, Jaime Morales); Tuomas Turriago: Trumpet Concerto (April 5, 2024, Tampere Philharmonia, Christian Vásquez). Other concerts are currently being created by composers such as Alonso Toro, Mauricio González Brito or Igmar Alderete.
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