Previous events

Music of Carro, Vidales, Ibarra and Villa-Lobos

(MST, UTC-07) (MST, UTC-07)

Keller Hall, UNM, 203 Cornell NE, Albuquerque, NM

Pianist Fred Sturm will present music by three living composers - Mario Carro (Spain, 1979 - ), Jorge Vidales (Mexico, 1969 – ) and Federico Ibarra (Mexico, 1946 - ) as well as a suite by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959).

The concert will feature the world premier of Mario Carro’s Incertidumbre (Uncertainty, 2022), a piece inspired by a two-week retreat that brought together scientists and artists of several disciplines. The title refers to Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle,” and is mirrored in music as a juxtaposition of tonality and atonality, the consonance of triads and the chaos of twelve-tone rows. Other pieces by Carro will include his Rio de Cristal (Crystal River, 2019) and Impromptu (2010).

Federico Ibarra taught Jorge Vidales in the late 1990s. Ibarra’s Sonata 3 (1988) will be paired with Vidales’ Estudios Intervállicos (1997), written while he was studying with Ibarra, and his more recent 12 Preludes for Piano (2015). Also on the program will be Heitor Villa-Lobos’ A Próle do Bebé (1918), a suite of eight pieces that describe children’s dolls, including the famous O Policinelo, the clown doll. $20/12/5 general/senior and UNM employees/students

Villa-Lobos and More

Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale Blvd SE, Albuquerque, NM

Originally scheduled for the spring 2020 season when most concerts had to be cancelled due to the CoVid pandemic, this concert will feature Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ suite of sixteen Cirandas – a group of pieces based on Brazilian children’s songs which are set in a very colorful and rhythmic way. While they are widely considered to be Villa-Lobos’ best music for piano, they have only rarely been heard outside Brazil because they were published by a Brazilian firm with no international distribution, only recently becoming available. The concert will open with Mexican composer Federico Ibarra’s seventh sonata, completed in 2012 and dedicated to Sturm, who will release a recording of it later this year. It will be paired with a short piece that Ibarra completed in 2019, entitled Annihilation of a Dream. Rounding out the program will be Argentine composer Alejandro Rutty’s Qualia (2015), written in an extended tango style with layers of rhythm and accents.

$20 general, $15 Outpost members and students

Solo piano, music of Federico Ibarra, Alejandro Rutty, Heitor Villa-Lobos. Tickets $20/15 for members and students

Program includes: Sonata 7 (2012), by Federico Ibarra (dedicated to Fred Sturm) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYJn02Yq65e4pqe8cqM2EXZiIXLm6vc0O La Aniquilación de un Sueño (2019), by Federico Ibarra https://youtu.be/tPQ4-AAILq8 Qualia (2015) by Alejandro Rutty https://youtu.be/9ewQ6eGecHs Cirandas (complete, 1 - 16) (1926), by Heitor Villa-Lobos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4BCD18B34AE236AA

Mar3

Fred Sturm and Friends

Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale SE, Albuquerque, NM

The concert is built around Federico Ibarra Groth's Sonata for two celli and piano, in which Fred Sturm will be joined by cellists Ian Brody and Lisa Collins.

Also on the program:

Rodolfo Halffter, Onze Bagatelas (1950)

Jorge Vidales, Estudios Interválicos (1997)

Arturo Márquez, Días de Mar y Rio (1997)

Heitor Villa-Lobos, A Prole do Bebe, suite 1 (1918)

Both Jorge Vidales and Arturo Márquez were students of Ibarra. Halffter was a major musical figure in Mexico, teaching at the conservatory, founding Ediciones Mexicanas de Music (publisher of most of Ibarra's works), etc. 

$20/15

Sep23

Fred Sturm and Priscilla Hallberg

Keller Hall, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Sonata in A Minor, opus 105 (1851)                                               Robert Schumann (1810-1856)

1 Mit Leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck

2 Allegretto

3 Lebhaft

 

Qualia (2015)                                                                                             Alejandro Rutty (1966 - )

 

Impromptu (2010)                                                                                          Mario Carro (1979 - )

 

Intermission

 

Graceful Ghost Rag: Concert Variation (1979)                                          William Bolcom (1938 - )

 

Sonata for Violin and Piano                                                                Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

1 Allegro vivo

2 Intermède: Fantasque et léger

3 Finale: Très animé

 

Three Spanish Dances                                                                     Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)

1 Caprice Basque op. 34 (1880) 

2 Romanza Andaluza op. 21 no. 1 (1898) 

3 Zapateado op. 23 no. 2 (1880) 

Oct28

Rhythmic Connections - Classical to Popular

Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale SE, Albuquerque, NM

A solo performance of recent works by three living composers from Argentina (Alejandro Rutty), Mexico (Arturo Márquez), and Spain (Mario Carro), all of whom use rhythm as a central component of their music. These new works will be paired with classic rags and Afro Cuban dances from the early twentieth century- pieces that lie on the border between popular and classical music, and that share an emphasis on rhythm.  

Qualia (2015) - Alejandro Rutty

¿Porque te vas?, La Conga de la Media Noche, Danza Negra, Y la Negra Bailaba, Danza de los Ñañigos, Danza Lucumi, La Comparsa - Ernesto Lecuona

En Clave (1988) - Arturo Marquez

Maple Leaf Rag, The Entertainer, Figleaf Rag - Scott Joplin

Grace and Beauty Rag, Ophelia Rag - James Scott

Impromptu - Mario Carro

$20/15 (Members, students)

May27

Fred Sturm, piano

Museu Nacional de Arte, Mexico City

Heitor Villa-Lobos, 16 Cirandas 

Federico Ibarra Groth, Sonata 5

Miguel del Águila, Sonata 2

Oct29

Alberto Ginastera 100th birthday concert

Outpost Performance Space, 210 Yale SE, Albuquerque, NM

Co-presented with the UNM Music from the Americas Concert Series 

Ginastera: Suite de Danzas Criollas, Tres Piezas, Doce Preludios Americanos (Alejandro Cremaschi, piano)

Ernesto Nazareth: Brejeiro

Heitor Villa-Lobos: Alma Brasileira, Saudades das Selvas Americanas

Miguel del Águila: Sonata 2 (Fred Sturm, piano)

Ginastera was a quintessentially nationalistic composer, trying to capture the essence of his native Argentina , with its rolling pampas and cultivated cities, its rough and wild folk dances and its sophisticated tangos.  His music is written in an exhilarating style, ranging from delicately seductive lyricism, though driving complex cross rhythms, to massive climaxes.  

Argentine pianist Alejandro Cremaschi will present a sampling of Ginastera’s masterful writing for piano, including three of his nationalistic piano sets: Suite of Creole Dances, Three Pieces, and Twelve American Preludes. Cremaschi’s new edition of Ginastera's 12 Preludios Americanos, which includes his recording of the set, will be released later this year by Fischer Publishing Company, and he will be presenting them to the College Music Society convention in Santa Fe on Sunday, October 30. 

Local pianist Fred Sturm will provide context for Ginastera’s very “Argentine” style of composition, by performing music of predecessors and successors from neighboring countries Brazil and Uruguay.  Heitor Villa-Lobos was a pioneer of nationalistic Latin American music, and a close friend of the younger Ginastera, whom Villa-Lobos referred to as his “spiritual heir.” Sturm will play Villa-Lobos’ Alma Brasileira and Saudades das Selvas Brasileiras. 

Ginastera in turn inspired later generations of composers, including Miguel del Águila of Uruguay (familiar to many in Albuquerque as the composer of the opera Time and Again Barelas, commissioned for the Albuquerque tricentennial). Sturm will perform Águila’s Sonata #2, inspired by popular Latin American styles. 

Pianist Alejandro Cremaschi, a native of Argentina, currently teaches at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His playing has been described as “pristine” and “passionate” by the Washington Post, and “polished” and “exemplary” by the Fanfare magazine. Praised as an intelligent and sensitive pianist, he has played in numerous cities worldwide, including Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Montreal, Pittsburgh, London, Washington, Kuala Lumpur and New York. Fred Sturm has specialized in Latin American music for the past 25 years, performing and recording a wide repertory, with a particular emphasis on Villa-Lobos and Mexican composer Federico Ibarra. Peter Burwasser wrote of Sturm’s recording of Ibarra’s works for piano solo, "He plays the music of Ibarra as if he were writing it on the spot. It is rare to hear a musician so inhabited by the material."

 

$20/15 (Members, students)