Free/Public Events at the Zapateados Conference Our conference, Transatlantic Malagueñas and Zapateados in Music, Song, and Dance, begins this Thursday, April 6th, at UC Riverside. The entire conference is free and open to the public and we hope that friends in the area will join us, but there are several multimedia events in the program that may be of more general interest. The conference itself begins at 8:30 am in the CHASS Building South. You can view the whole program here. Each day has its own keynote address: Thursday, Constance Valis Hill (Hampshire College) will deliver her paper, “Zapateados: Tracing the Diaspora of African-derived Drum Dance Forms in the New World;” Friday, acclaimed musician Raúl Rodríguez will deliver his, “Razón de Son: Creative AntropoMúsica and Ida y Vuelta Afro-Flamenco.” Wednesday, 7:00 pm · Concert Speaking of Raúl, we are launching the proceedings with a pre-conference party: an Intimate Gathering & Benefit Performance with Raúl Rodríguez & Mario Mas. Tickets are $40 and directly benefit our conference presenters and their expenses. Thursday, 8:30 pm · Film Screening CHASS Interdisciplinary Building, South Screening Room, INTS Room 1128 To wrap up our first night, we will have a screening of Gurumbé: Canciones de tu Memoria Negra with director, anthropologist Miguel Ángel Rosales. Gurumbé is a feature-length documentary exploring the history and artistic contributions of Afro-Andalusians. Friday, 11:40 am · Film Screening CHASS South, INTS 1113 As a part of a session on “Resilience and Recontextualization in Diasporic Communities,” we will screen short film, Invisible Roots: Afro-Mexicans in Southern California, followed by a discussion with director Lizz Mullis and producer Tiffany Walton. Friday, 8:00 pm · Lecture Recitals and Gran Fandango / Open Jam Barbara and Art Culver Center of the Arts Concluding our conference is a collection of lecture performances. First up, pianist Adam Kent will present his talk, “From España to Iberia: returning the Malagueña to Málaga,” which will be illustrated as Anna de la Paz dances the Zapateado de María Cristina. Next, Melissa Moore and Fernando Barros will present “Island Life and Conservation of Culture,” with performances of flamenco guitar and song. Admission is free; tickets are required and may be reserved at the Culver Center website. For more program information, visit the above links. Last but not least, our final night of performances will culminate in an open Gran Fandango. All are welcome to attend this open dance, so wear your dancing shoes, bring your castanets or other instruments, and come ready to sing!
Benet Casablancas 60th Anniversary Our dear colleague, composer Benet Casablancas, recently celebrated his 60th birthday with a retrospective of his career in his hometown of Sabadell. The event at Teatre Principal included a round-table discussion moderated by conductor Santiago Serrate, followed by a monographic concert of works for large ensemble. The concert was recorded Catalunya Música for release (date TBD) on Columna Música. Unsurprisingly for one of Spain’s most beloved composers, the occasion has received dozens of reviews and notices, in both local and national media, including an interview with Jesús Ruiz Mantilla for the prestigious daily El País. Stay tuned for the release date of the concert recording. Until then, why not follow Casablancas on twitter? (PS You can follow us, too, @IberianMusic.)
“The Challenges of Transatlantic Sound Art:” Video Last week’s symposium and exhibition of Spanish sound art is now up in our YouTube channel! Thanks to our presenters and performers for their fascinating talks. The presentations were followed by a brief discussion on some of the issues and difficulties facing sound art and contemporary composition (including academia’s continued failure to promote study of electronic sound production). The concert consisted of portions of many new works (including those of our presenters), featuring Pau Vila, performing “Món per Pau,” and ending with Victor Aguado, performing “Samples from Richard Garet in Frequency Order.” Vila’s work is a provocative and interesting combination of pre-existing electronic works of his own, and by other composers, with his own live performance. He performs on a variety of percussion instruments, including found objects, which are placed throughout the stage area, creating kinetic and spatial components that are not often found in electroacoustic music.
Pre-conference Party with Grammy-nominated Guitarist, Raúl Rodríguez If you are attending our upcoming Zapateados conference at UC Riverside, or if you just happen to be a Spanish guitar fan who lives in or near Riverside, don’t miss this intimate pre-conference show with Raúl Rodríguez! Raúl Rodríguez is an extraordinary musician and storyteller who situates local traditions from southern Spain within the frames of popular music, transatlantic travels, and the African diaspora. He will be accompanied by Spanish guitarist Mario Mas, whose fusions of classical and folkloric styles are perceptive and honest. We will gather to be inspired by their artistry and vision up close in an intimate setting at a beautiful home in downtown Riverside. Rodríguez has been recognized with a Grammy nomination (2007), the “Best European Album” award from the BBC Radio World Music Awards (2008), and his recent solo album Razón de Son was recognized as one of the best albums of 2014 by a number of media outlets (including RockdeLux, Mondosonoro, Rolling Stone, Efeeme, El País, World Music Charts Europe, AireFlamenco, Betto Arcos, Diario Folk, DeFlamenco…). Tickets are $40. Come enjoy a great performance while getting to pretend that you’re nobility invited to chamber music at court and helping to support our international conference guests.
Great Reviews for “Escuchar Con Los Ojos” As we announced last fall, Foundation director Antoni Pizà contributed materials to Fundación Juan March’s recent exhibit, “Escuchar con los Ojos: Arte Sonoro en España (1961-2016),” including an essay in the exhibition catalog. The exhibit has received numerous accolades, but we would like to highlight a couple of radio programs featuring the exhibit. First, Catalunya Ràdio interviewed exhibit curator José Iges last October, and you can listen to the full program here. Second, Miguel Álvarez-Fernández, who has previously collaborated with the Foundation, reviewed the exhibit in the Christmas Special of his show Ars Sonora, on Radio Nacional de España (RNE). Álvarez-Fernández is a sound-artist himself and gave a lecture at the Graduate Center last year, entitled “A Historical Overview of Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art in Spain,” while in town for an exhibit at the Instituto Cervantes.
The Lost Soundtrack of “Redes” In 1935, Mexico’s new progressive government commissioned a film and the result was Redes, written and directed by New York-born Paul Strand, with a score from Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. Though “one of the most beautifully photographed films ever made,” Redes has remained little known, owing in part to the poor quality of surviving prints. Revueltas’ score, too, is considered some of his finest work, but there has been no recording available, beyond the deteriorated film prints. When the film was recently restored by Martin Scorsese’s foundation, Angel Gil-Ordóñez’s PostClassical Ensemble was asked to re-record the score, at last filling the void. Gil is the director of both the PostClassical Ensemble and NYC’s Perspectives Ensemble, which in residence at the Foundation for Iberian Music and has collaborated to put on numerous concerts, including many world premieres. Under Gil’s direction, these ensembles do not present mere concerts, but always connect them in historical context. (As case in point, PostClassical Ensemble’s recent festival “Music Under Stalin: An Immersion Experience,” which is conducted in conjunction with the Washington Jewish Music Festival and the National Gallery, is just winding down.) The Ensemble’s new recording of Redes is available on Naxos. The restored film, complete with newly re-recorded score, is being shown May 4 at the Americas Society, where the Foundation’s director Antoni Pizà is a former board member. A performance of the film suite is in the works. You can learn more about the restoration and the Ensemble’s involvement through both Naxos and Criterion Collection, at the above link.
Zapateados Conference Program Now Online The full program for our upcoming conference at UC Riverside, Transatlantic Malagueñas and Zapateados in Music, Song, and Dance is now available! Click the preview below to view or save the PDF.
Sound Art Festival Next Week Next week, the AMEE’s (Asociación de Música Electroacústica y Arte Sonoro de España) sound art festival begins in NYC! The festival opens March 16 with a symposium and concert at the Graduate Center. At 6 pm, Foundation director Antoni Pizà, Daniel Neumann (artist), Jaime Oliver (NYU Waverly Lab), Ferrer-Molina (AMEE, president), and Douglas E. Geers will discuss “The Challenges of Transatlantic Sound Art.” A concert, with performances by Neumann, Oliver, and Ferrer-Molina, and Pau Vila will follow the discussion at 7 pm. Click here for the full program of the symposium and concert! Pizà, apart from being the director of the Foundation, helped to organize Sound v. Sense: Intersection, a sound art installation at the Instituto Cervantes, and contributed essays and material to an upcoming Sound Art exhibition at the Fundación Juan March in Madrid. Oliver is a professor of composition at NYU and co-directs the Waverly Labs for Computing and Music. Geers is co-director of Brooklyn College’s Center for Computer Music. This event is free. It will be held at the Graduate Center’s Proshansky Auditorium. The festival will conclude March 18th at Roulette at 8 pm. Tickets are $15 ($10 student/senior). (A previous version of this post listed the location of the March 18th concert as the Fridman Gallery; the venue has since changed.)
Film Screening, Lecture-Dance-Recital, and Gran Fandango Our upcoming 2-day conference April 6–7 at UC Riverside, Transatlantic Malagueñas and Zapateados in Music, Song, and Dance, will cap each day with a special multi-media presentation. ♦ The first day, April 6, will feature a screening of Gurumbé–Canciones de tu Memoria Negra, a film by Miguel Ángel Rosales (in Spanish and Portuguese, with English subtitles). Flamenco is synonymous with Spanish culture. Since its inception, theorists have sidelined the fundamental contribution of Afro-Andalusians. Commercial exploitation of the American colonies brought hundreds of Africans to Seville to be sold as slaves, forming a population who over time managed to gain space in a society wrought with racial prejudices. Music and dance were a fundamental part of their expression and the most important affirmation of their identity. As the black population began to disappear from Spain in the late 19th century, so too did their contribution to this extraordinary art form. In Gurumbé, their story is finally told. Rosales is an anthropologist and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. His short films La Maroma (2011) and Atrapados al vuelo (2012) have won several awards around the world, including Cortos for Caracoles (Spain), Bahía Blanca (Argentina), Latinoamerican Festival (Argentina) and Luz en los márgenes (2013). Gurumbé is Miguel’s first feature film. ♦ Day 2, April 7, will culminate in a series of lecture recitals and, to top off the conference, an open gran fandango for all willing participants. First, pianist Adam Kent will give a musical lecture, “From España to Iberia: returning the Malagueña to Málaga,” featuring dancer Anna de la Paz, who will perform the Zapateado de María Cristina. Second, Melissa Moore and singer Fernando Barros will present “Island Life and Conservation of Culture,” a lecture-recital on flamenco guitar and song. Finally, there will be an open gran fandango / footwork jam for all who would like to participate, so bring your dancing shoes and your castanets!
Granados Celebration in Albuquerque The Granados Celebration is heading to Albuquerque for an entire week of festivities! Join our good friends Douglas Riva and Walter A. Clark for a week of lectures and recitals, culminating in a performance of Cant de les estrelles at the Cathedral of St. John, with Polyphony: Voices of New Mexico and Riva. Cant de les estrelles was recently performed to great success in NYC by the Voices of Ascension. Cant de les estrelles tickets range from $10 to $35. Present a valid student ID for a FREE ticket. (Free!) All tickets include admission to the pre-concert lecture with Granados authority Walter A. Clark. and astro-physicist Patricia Henning. Most events are free and open to the public. See either festival webpage (linked above) for full details.