Film and Performance: “Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories” “Flamenco is synonymous with Spanish culture. Yet, since its inception, theorists have sidelined the fundamental contribution of Afro-Andalusians to this art form.” Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories, a feature-length documentary from anthropologist Miguel Ángel Rosales, explores the contribution of Afro-Andalusians to flamenco as the art form developed. Gurumbé (72 min, in Spanish with English subtitles) has won numerous awards in the festival circuit and it is currently premiering around the world. December 3rd, 2017, join us at La Nacional at 7 pm for a special screening and flamenco performance featuring dancer Yinka Ese Graves, who is featured in the film. There will also be a round table discussion with the performers and the director, moderated by our visiting scholar, K. Meira Goldberg. In addition to organizing numerous conferences and flamenco events with the Foundation for Iberian Music, Goldberg is the author of Flamenco on the Global Stage and Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco (forthcoming, Oxford Univ. Press). Advance tickets are available for a discount through Eventbrite: $15-20. You can also see Graves perform at Gibney Dance, November 30–December 2. Tickets for Gibney are on sale now.
CFP: “Iberian Musical Crossroads Through the Ages” (Barcelona) The Brook Center’s Research Center for Music Iconography (RCMI) is putting on a conference at Barcelona’s Societat Catalana de Musicologia in October of 2018. The conference, Iberian Musical Crossroads Through the Ages: Images of Music Making in their Trans-cultural Exchange “will examine visual sources documenting transborder and transcultural transmission of musical ideas between the peoples of the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of the world.” Spain’s many historical “explorations and migrations created a fertile framework for a rich exchange of musical ideas, sounds, forms, rhythms, dances, and instruments.” Paper proposals will be accepted through April 2, 2018. You may view the full CFP on the conference’s page. SOCIETAT CATALANA DE MUSICOLOGIA & INSTITUT D’ESTUDIS CATALANS Barcelona, 17–19 October 2018 ∗∗∗ In related news, RCMI’s director, Zdravko Blazekovic, will be presenting this coming October in Athens at Repertoire International d’Iconographie Musicale’s annual conference, which will be held Oct 5–7. View the program here.
Angel Gil-Ordoñez’s Homage to His Mentor In the September issue of Strings Magazine, our colleague Angel Gil-Ordoñez (principal guest conductor of the Foundation’s resident Perspectives Ensemble) pays tribute to his mentor and his mentor’s love of Bruckner: (click photo to view larger)
Flamenco Rosado: Gender & Sexual Identity in Flamenco The Graduate Center’s Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS) is holding a flamenco event at the Segal Theater on November 29. The event, “Flamenco Rosado: Gender & Sexual Identity in Flamenco,” is a flamenco performance and talk featuring members of Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana. They will explore intersections “queerness, gender performativity, identity, and social justice” in flamenco. Flamenco Vivo has collaborated with the Foundation for Iberian Music in some of its past flamenco-related events, such as with our 2015 fandango conference. Admission is free but space is limited; reservations are recommended. 7 pm Oct 29, 2017 Segal Theater, The Graduate Center Reservations
CFP Deadline: En ocasión de María del Carmen As a reminder, the deadline to submit papers to the upcoming conference En ocasión de María del Carmen: Enrique Granados y su época is September 15. See the full CFP here. The conference itself is also rapidly approaching, It will be held October 18–20 at the University of Murcia.
Conference: Music Criticism 1950-2000 (Barcelona) There is an upcoming conference that may be of interest to our friends and colleagues in Spain. Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini is holding a conference on Music Criticism since 1950. The conference is October 9–11 at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans. This is a multi-lingual conference and selected papers will be published, following the conference. It is the last in a series of conferences exploring music criticism. Last year’s conference explored criticism from 1900 to 1950, and the previous year kicked off the series with criticism in the 19th century. The Graduate Center community is being well represented at the conference. Current musicology student Erix Taxier will be presenting, along with faculty member Chadwick Jenkins and alumnus Emilio Ros-Fábregas, who is representing CSIC/Societat Catalana de Musicologia.
Recent and Upcoming Literes Events Antonio Literes was one of the most popular composers of the Baroque period in Spain. His name waned with the passage of time, but fortunately, he is enjoying something of a revival in the 21st century. As we previously announced, the New York City Opera performed Literes’s opera Los Elementos this year. The production was advised by the Foundation for Iberian Music’s director, Antoni Pizà, who is the author of the only monograph available on Literes. Los Elementos was also performed this spring at Paschaliskerk in the Hague (Netherlands), by La Academia de los Nocturnos. In 2018, the Fundación Juan March will sponsor a production of Los Elementos at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela. Performances will be held the 9th–16th of April. (And don’t forget, Fundación Juan March will unveil its 2017-2018 season on September 19th, with a live stream on their website.) More than just Los Elementos has received attention. Two other works were performed at the Festival de Música Renacentista y Barroca de Vélez Blanco, on July 25: Miserere, recently edited and published by Antoni Pons, and the villancico Mortales, gozad. This villancico (a Spanish form of cantata) was unearthed in Guatemala Cathedral by none other than Antoni Pizà. It was performed at Iglesia Parroquial de Santiago by El Parnaso Español with coro Tomás Luis de Victoria. The ensemble Forma Antiqua recently performanced another cantata, Déjame, tirano dios, twice in Spain, first in Oviedo (on April 4) and then in Leon (May 5). An edition of all of Literes’s cantatas will soon be available. Further performances of these cantatas are expected in Australia, with additional performances TBD. Stay posted for details.
Granados Piano Sheet Music Now Available on Mobile There is some exciting news from Barcelona’s Editorial Boileau, which publishes Douglas Riva’s Granados editions. This past spring, they finally released their long-awaited Granados sheet music app, available for iPad, which makes available the complete piano works of Enrique Granados. Users may purchase individual pieces or the entire collection in-app. It’s a great app that allows you to make annotations directly on the digital scores and is compatible with Bluetooth devices for hands-free page turning. Every piece includes editorial notes, indicates a difficulty level, and has an audio preview available. Have a look at Editorial Boileau’s short video guide, which is available in English, Spanish, or Catalan.
Granados Conference Papers Published in Diagonal In a special issue dedicated to the Granados centennial celebration, Diagonal, the journal of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music at the University of California, Riverside, has published selected papers from last year’s Granados conference (held March 10, 2016, at the Graduate Center). The issue (Vol. 2, no. 1, 2016) includes: “A la cubana: Enrique Granados’s Cuban Connection” de la Torre, Ricardo “Un Manuscrito Inédito con Cinco Marchas Militares de Enrique Granados” Curbelo González, Óliver; Martín Sanz, Cristina “Granados’s Piano Trio: Harbinger of Masterworks to Come” Kent, Adam “¿Granados no es un gran maestro? Análisis del discurso historiográfico sobre el compositor y el canon nacionalista español” Perandones, Miriam “Enrique Granados y el drama rural de Feliú y Codina en dos obras para escena en castellano: Miel de la Alcarria (1897) y María del Carmen (1898)” Quijano Axle, Mario Roger “New Approaches to Enrique Granados’ Pedagogical Methods and Pianistic Tradition: A Case Study of Valses poéticos op.43” Estrada Bascuñana, Carolina “Innovaciones pedagógicas en los métodos para el uso del pedal de Enrique Granados” Curbelo González, Óliver
Upcoming Gig from Resident Artist This Sunday, the 20th—the day before the solar eclipse!—Samuel Torjman Thomas will perform with Alon Nechustan at the City Winery, for their Klezmer Brunch. Their duo is called Traveling in Pairs. Brunch begins at 11 am; admission is $10. Samuel Torjman Thomas is the artistic director of our resident New York Andalus Ensemble. Asefa Music represents Thomas’s work apart from the full Andalus Ensemble, encompassing his lectures, publications, and other performances.