Beyond Paradigms: Latinx and European Music side by side in the Symphonic Concert Hall

*Press Release in Process, Updating information constantly

On Tuesday, September 21 of 2021, Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez will conduct the IU Conductors Orchestra in a concert with works of Verdi, Strauss, and a worldwide premiere of "Montilla" Venezuelan traditional piece in a Symphonic setting. This event is also allowing communities to be involved in the art with Latinamerican percussion workshops dedicated to the community and pre-concert interviews about the pieces and artists involved.

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"Music is meant for the full humanity, and the concert hall has to be a welcoming place where people from all cultures can enjoy and create fellowship […]" starts with enthusiasm Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez when is asked about his September 21 (2021) concert at Bloomington (IN, USA) house of the prestigious Indiana University and its worldwide renown Music Program. "[…] from my perspective, create welcoming spaces for multiple cultures requires more than a marketing campaign or side projects. The concert hall has to allow the multiple voices that the world can offer to humanity to share who they are. This is a titanic job compare to perform the usual repertoire. Still, it is the necessary work that we have to do as artists if we really want to create fellowship between the orchestra and opera organizations and our communities, in this case, the Latin-American community and its Hispanic heritage month".

Listen to Latinamerican music performed by a Symphony Orchestra in a renowned concert hall outside Latinamerica is not common. From the international perspective, the standard European repertoire usually leads the programming decisions at Opera and Orchestra Companies. Music from the Americas, Asia or Africa are usually not performed and broadcasted. However, the "unexplored" repertoire is winning its place in the worldwide concert halls step by step. Perhaps it is the blend of sonorities and traditions or the unique and complex rhythmic structures with dancing flavors in the melodies in the case of Latin-American music, for example. Definitive answers should be left to the history. However, the musical world is currently more interested in learning and listening to the amazing music that other cultures could offer to the world. Now is the job of talented, hardworking, and entrepreneurship artists to make that possible.

On September 21, we will see a perfect example of an orchestral world welcoming communities into symphonic art. The concert starts with Verdi's La Forza del Destino "Force of Destiny" Overture (Italian), where the Colombian "Musical Genious" will lead the orchestra into a journey of sounds around the concept of destiny. The remarkable IU Conductors Orchestra will continue sharing how artists see the unique destiny that all humanity shares: death. They will explore, with sounds, the concept of the transfiguration that the soul, spirit, or entity suffers during death. All with the Strauss’ Tone Poem: Tod und Verklärung “Death and Transfiguration” (German). Finally, the concert will end with reflections about what could happen after death, in this case with "Montilla" a traditional Venezuelan piece in Golpe Tocuyano. It explores how a person that dedicates his/her/their life to a more significant cause will never die, becoming a living legend in the souls and memories of multiple people.

The three pieces are very different in their styles, but they all have deep artistic reflections about life and humanity. "The three pieces have for sure the same artistic value, and should be treated equally respecting their own characteristics […]" says Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez, "[…]however, being able to broadcast the Venezuelan piece side by side with the two other masterpieces is a titanic job[…]". The Colombian maestro describes that it starts with the job of multiple artistic leaders around the globe that have shown to the audiences during the last decades that Latinx music and culture have a lot to offer for humanity. "Their job allows us today to ask to include a Latinx work at a Symphonic concert to welcoming the Latinamerican community to the concert hall, even with the enormous difficulties that performing this music implies," says with pride maestro Barbosa-Vásquez.

The second element that makes this concert possible is that Barbosa-Vásquez has proved, during his international career, that he is a maestro in training international orchestras to perform Latinx repertoire with the same level of commitment, respect and stylistic accuracy as the usual commitment required for the European standard repertoire. See more news, Maestro's CV, and the Critiques and Quotes that the Colombian "Musical Genius" has received about his work as Opera and Orchestra Conductor.

His work with the World Music Symphony Orchestra at Los Ángeles California, and The Americas Chamber Orchestra at Bloomington, Indiana (Both in US) and his commitments as international guest conductor are highly appreciated with performances that broadcast the best of aspects of the standard European repertoire and the full American music (from Argentina to Canada). This proven success has allowed music Verdi, Strauss, and a Venezuelan piece to be listened to together by the audience of the concert on September 21, 2021.

The third element that makes this concert possible is the special commission that Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez requested to arrange the piece for this concert. The Colombian conductor selected Raul Ardila-Pineda as the arranger. Ardilla-Pineda is a brilliant Colombian composer developing a remarkable career as composer and arranger of Latinamerican music and was the winner of The Americas Chamber Orchestra 2020 - Call for Scores with his piece Un Mar de Fueguitos. The arrangement of Montilla will allow a symphonic orchestra to perform the piece with the standard symphonic orchestration plus a special percussion player in Venezuelan Maracas. Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez and the Composer Ardila-Pineda have worked tirelessly to leave an arrangement that any symphony orchestras around the world could play in the future. It is a remarkable contribution to the goal of welcoming communities of multiple backgrounds to the concert hall.

The fourth element that will make this an amazing event is the orchestra, the remarkable Indiana University Conductors Orchestra (Click here to watch for other works by the IU Conductors Orchestra led by Diego Barbosa-Vásquez). This is a paid orchestra reserved only for the graduate conductors of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. It is considered the most flexible and reliable orchestra because of its constant involvement with IU's highly trained and experienced orchestra and opera conductor students. This conducting studio includes winners of prime league international competitions, highly experienced professional conductors, and even already graduated students from other important worldwide universities and conservatories. All come to IU to continue their musical and artistic development at the highest level. The orchestra will be rehearsed by Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez on Sunday 19th and Monday 20th in two hours and a half rehearsals to prepare the three masterpieces for the audience.

Especially for the worldwide premiere led by Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez on September 21, the concert will have an amazing Maracas virtuoso player Andy Miller, Music Director in the Dance Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Doctorate Candidate in Percussion of Indiana University, and a brilliant percussionist who worked in Colombia learning about their Latinx percussion and dance traditions. "He not only will be a special percussion player of our concert, but he will also be doing Latinamerican percussion and Venezuelan maracas workshops at Indiana University and with the Bloomington Community." Says Maestro Barbosa-Vásquez, who has worked closely with the community leaders to make the Bloomington community the primary receivers of the benefits of the concert and the art.

"The final and most important element for the concert is the audience[…]" says with enthusiasm the Colombian maestro. "[…] the complete cycle of art is created when the audience is part of it […] art not only requires the music as the message, the performers as the issuers of the message, it also requires the audience as the receivers becoming generators of art[…]". That is why Maestro Barbosa-Vasquez has worked tireless in order to develop the Latin-American percussion workshops and pre-concert talks about the music and performers. Also, he is inviting all Hoosiers to come and be part of this amazing symphonic event where music will show that "humanity is bigger than the country borders and art has the power to broadcast it […] I am proud to be able to broadcast our Latinx music here, at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University, I hope many people can share this experience with us".

After the concert, a reception is being organized as a place where the community will be able to create fellowship after the seed that the art has sown. There, the concert audience is invited to share and connect with musicians to create the bridges where the music, the performers, and the audience become a single entity that creates art because of its fellowship.

When and Where:

Free Admission

Day: Tuesday - September 21st 2021

Hour: 8:00 pm (US - EDT)

Place: Auer Hall

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (Bloomington, Indiana, USA)

200 S Jordan Ave, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA

*Parking at Jordan Garage

Google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/uiVs3632UhR7RkQo6