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."
Paquito D’Rivera: This Cuban‐American clarinet and saxophone player is also a composer of chamber and orchestral music. Today's program features D’Rivera's orchestral piece, The Elephant and the Clown and his Saxophone Quartet.
Living Composers from Mexico: Today Fiesta presents a selection of delightful pieces by living Mexican composers. These include flute and guitar works by Maria Granillo, Juanrra Urrusti, Julio Cesar Oliva, and Diana Syrse.
Symphonic Poems from Venezuela and Mexico: Fiesta celebrates the symphonic poem with music by Venezuelan composers, Juan Bautista Plaza and Evencio Castellanos; and, Mexican composers, Ricardo Castro and Jose Pablo Moncayo.