Harman Center: The Mexican Odyssey

Date: November 6, 2008 (Thursday)
Time: 7:30-10:30 P.M.
Place: Harman Center for the Arts at the Shakespeare Theatre, 610 F Street NW, WDC (directions)

Mexico’s explosive cultural saga — from stark Mayan ceremonies to the torrid revolutionary art of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo — produced centuries of explosive music. This unique program, combining music, history, and visual art, includes the Aztec intensities captured by Carlos Chavez, the florid reverence of Mexican Baroque, and the shrill trumpets and booming tubas remembered by Silvestre Revueltas from his rural childhood.

(Additional Mexican programing Nov. 1 at Georgetown University: "Defining Mexico" — an all-day conference followed by a choral concert by Georgetown University Chamber Singers at 6:00 pm in McNeir Hall (New North Building). Free and open to the public.)

Principal Performers:
Pedro Carboné, piano
Roberto Limón, guitar
Georgetown University Chamber Singers
Gregorio Luke, commentator
Angel Gil-Ordóñez, conductor

Program:
Pre-hispanic culture — Xochipili by Carlos Chávez (with pre-Hispanic instruments)
Mexican Baroque — Choral works by Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla
Romantic/Post-Romantic — piano music by Ricardo Castro and Manuel Ponce
Solo guitar — Scherzino mexicano and Variations and Fugue on “La Folia” by Manuel Ponce
Nationalism — Three Pieces for solo guitar by Carlos Chavez; Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca by Silvestre Revueltas
High modernism — Three Secular Dances for cello and piano by Mario Lavista; Serenata by Ana Lara (East Coast premiere)

Joseph Horowitz at Library of Congress

Date: March 15, 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 4:00 - 5:00 P.M.
Place: Room LJ 119, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress

Moderator Georgette M. Dorn, Chief of the Hispanic Division at the Library of Congress leads discussants Joseph Horowitz, Artistic Director of the Post-Classical Ensemble, Roberto Kolb, Gregorio Luke, Leonora Saavedra, Barbara Tenenbaum, and Sergio Vela. This will be an open discussion, following a panel on cultural context, part of "Two Faces of Mexican Music: Carlos Chávez (1899-1978) and Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) Revisited" running March 11 - 16, 2008, at the Library of Congress.

PCE Performs Revueltas at Library of Congress

Date: March 14, 2008 (Friday)
Time: 8:00 P.M (Pre-concert Prelude at 6:15 P.M.)
Place: Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress (directions)

Eugenia Leon, vocalist, joins the Post-Classical Ensemble for chamber music, poetry, and popular song, celebrating Mexico’s revolutionary 20th-century “sound muralist,” Silvestre Revueltas, whose pulsing sonic canvases parallel in music the achievements of Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros in visual art.


If there is a Latin American composer whose “time has come” it is surely Silvestre Revueltas. For one thing, Revueltas is the composer who most resonates with the charismatic Mexico of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. For another, he is the rare 20th century composer whose voice is both original and instantly recognizable. A program incorporating popular song and poetry as part of a four-day Library of Congress festival: “Two Faces of Mexican Music: Chávez and Revueltas Revisited.”

PCE Performs "Free to Sing" at Strathmore

Date: February 16, 2008 (Saturday)
Time: 8:00 P.M.
Place: Music Center at Strathmore (directions)

Tickets:

"Free To Sing: The Story of the First African-American Opera Company" is an original Strathmore production featuring 19th Century Music

Commissioned by Strathmore, the original script charts the personal advancement of some of Washington D.C.’s most prominent African- American individuals, as they use their musical talent to raise money for their church community and build schools for their children in the 1870s. Free to Sing focuses on the musical accomplishments of the Opera Company with an introductory narrative. The creative team for the show includes: Emmy Award-winning director Scot Reese, Joseph Horowitz and Angel Gil-Ordóñez of the Post-Classical Ensemble, and the Morgan State University Choir under the direction of Eric Conway.

Almost 150 years ago, in 1858, St. Martin’s Parish, now known as St. Augustine’s Church, was founded as a place of worship for Washington D.C.’s African American Catholic population. With a heavy emphasis on music and education, the church employed the expertise of a former Marine Band member, Professor John Esputa, to lead their chorus. Recognizing the great musical talent found in the church, choir member Willia.m. T. Benjamin and Professor Esputa went on to form the Colored American Opera Company. In 1873, the Opera Company presented 7 performances of Julius Eichberg’s The Doctor of Alcantara to mixed race audiences—two at Lincoln Hall (capacity 1,500) and two at Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C., and three at Agricultural Hall in Philadelphia.