Fiesta is devoted to Latino concert music and presents artistically significant compositions from Latin America, Spain and Portugal to listeners. The creative force behind this series is Elbio Barilari, an acclaimed composer, musician, performer and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Uruguayan-born Barilari says, "Fiesta features the hottest Latin-American music from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries."
Braga Santos, Portuguese Composer: A prolific 20th-century composer, Joly Braga Santos wrote three operas, chamber music, film scores, and several choral works based on poems from Portuguese and Spanish poets. Today we will hear his ballet score, Alfama.
Florencio Asenjo, Composer and Mathematician: Argentinean Florencio Asenjo came to the United States in 1958 to work as a mathematician at Georgetown University. He also composed very personal and striking music. Join us as host Elbio Barilari revisits the work of this Latin American genius.
Four Composers from Spain: Fiesta presents orchestral music by composers from different regions of Spain: Andres Gaos from Galicia; Joaquin Turina from Andalusia; Eduard Toldra and Xavier Montsalvatge from Catalonia.