Description
Composers Xavier Beteta (Guatemala), Josh Rodriguez (Colombia/USA), Carlos Carrillo (Puerto Rico) and Richard Scofano (Argentina), offer a concert of world premieres—a rich sonic feast presenting eclectic aesthetics that draw inspiration from classical, contemporary, and Latin American dance and folk music.
This celebration of music by Chicago-based composers from across Latin America honors Hispanic Heritage Month with a concert of new piano trio music performed by Stephen Uhl, Brian Ostrega, and Brian Gaona.
More about the artists
Josh Rodríguez:
Known for his energetic rhythms, rich harmonic language, and striking colors, Colombian-American composer Josh Rodríguez (b. 1982) continues to gain recognition as an emerging composer and collaborator on a national and international scale. Born in Argentina and raised in Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States, Rodríguez’s musical imagination has been formed by this bilingual multicultural heritage. Rodríguez (ASCAP) is composer-in-residence of the Corona Symphony Orchestra, and currently serves as Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the Elmhurst University. He regularly contributes to various arts & culture blogs. Rodríguez earned his MM at the Cleveland Institute of Music and upon winning the Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship moved west to study a doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research at UCLA culminated with his dissertation on Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera.
Xavier Beteta:
Xavier Beteta studied piano at the National Conservatory in Guatemala. At age 18, he was awarded the first-prize at the Augusto Ardenois National Piano Competition and third-prize at the Rafael Alvarez Ovalle Composition Competition in Guatemala. He continued his piano studies in the United States with Argentinean pianist Sylvia Kersenbaum and with Ukranian pianist Sergei Polusmiak. As a composer, Xavier did most of his studies privately with Rodrigo Asturias. In 2013 he won the Silver Medal at the fourth International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition in Prague. He obtained his Ph.D. in composition at the University of California San Diego where he studied with Roger Reynolds, Philippe Manoury, and Chinary Ung. His compositions have been performed in diverse festivals and by ensembles such as Accroche Note, Ensemble Signal conducted by Brad Lubman, the Mivos Quartet, The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players under Steven Schick, the Guatemalan National Symphony and the Camellia Symphony.
Richard Scofano:
A master of the bandoneón, Richard Scofano was born in Paso de los Libres, Argentina, and is the descendant of three generations of bandoneonists. He began his studies at age five, with his father, Ricardo Scofano, himself a landmark in the Argentine musical genre of the Chamamé. In 2015 he created a duo with pianist Alfredo Minetti and they toured extensively throughout the US and Puerto Rico, as well as Argentina and Brazil. They have released the album “Estaciones” with Richard’s compositions. As a composer he has premiered his Iberá (concerto for bandoneon and orchestra) with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, his symphonic poem “La Tierra Sin Mal” with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (Roco) and inspired in a Guaraní legend. He has also performed his works with the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Brasileira, and the Boulder Philharmonic, among others. He has performed with renowned artists such as Yamandú Costa and Sergio Assad.
Carlos Carrillo:
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carlos Carrillo holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Yale University (MM), and the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.). His teachers have included Tania León, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Roberto Sierra, George Crumb, James Primosch, Jay Reise, and Steve Mackey. His music navigates the space between simplicity and complexity and the results of this conflict. In the program notes for his string quartet Versos, he writes, “The movements gain in expressive power by their brevity and concentration of ideas. This, I believe, summarizes the essence of my creative work.” He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Bearns Prize, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI, and ASCAP awards. Music and the Anthology, Casals Festival, the New York Youth Symphony, Concert Artists Guild, Boston Opera Collaborative, and Chamber Music America, among others, have commissioned him. He is the 2023-25 Vanguard Opera Composer with Chicago Opera Theater. Last year, he received an Illinois Arts Council Artist Fellowship. He has taught composition at DePauw University, Reed College, and the Conservatory in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and currently is an Associate Professor of Composition-Theory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.