Sunday, April 15, 8pm
Hofmann Theatre
Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Dr., Walnut Creek CA
Tickets: $12-$18
Call the Box Office: (925) 943-7469
or
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Enjoy the enchanting and exciting music of South America from the samba and tango to a musical tour of Machu Picchu
featuring
Carlos Reyes, an internationally acclaimed virtuoso on the Paraguayan Harp and violinist.
Carlos began his musical career at a young age in his native Paraguay and continues to win ovations in performances throughout the world. His roots are now in the Bay Area.
He has performed and recorded with major artists, and his own recordings have been best sellers. He also has provided music for the popular “ Seasame Street ” and “Villa Alegre” children’s TV programs.
For more of Carlos' background click here
{click on titles or composers for notes}
El Torero .......................................................................................... Hudson Nogueira
Volver A La Montana (Return to the Mountain) .................................. Shelley Hanson
Based on folk tunes of the Quechua (Inca) people of
Equador, Peru and Bolivia
Bachianas Brazileiras (Brazilian Bach-Pieces) ........ Heitor Villa-Lobos/Arr. Alfred Reed
I. Preludio (Introduction)
IV. Danso (Mindinho)
Braseijo (Brazilian Little Kiss) ................................................. Edmundo Villani-Côrtes
"Brazil," or "Aquarela do Brasil" ................................... Ary Barroso/Arr.Peter Ippolito
INTERMISSION
Choro e Dobrado ............................................................. Antonio Carlos Neves Campos
Artist's Choice ................................................................................. Arr. Carlos Reyes
Carlos Reyes, Harp
Artist's Choice ................................................................................. Arr. Carlos Reyes
Carlos Reyes, Harp
Julio Reyes, Guitar
Mama Camba .................................................... Carlos Reyes / Arr. Matt Montgomery
Carlos Reyes, Harp
La Bikina .................................................................... Luis Miguel / Arr. Randall Biagi
Carlos Reyes, Violin
Machu Picchu: City in the Sky
- The Mystery of the Hidden Sun Temple ....................................... Satoshi Yagisawa
Tico Tico ....................................................................................... Zequinha de Abreu
South American music, especially Brazilian music, is full of passion, sentiment and joy. It is the result of a long simmering mix of AmerIndian, Portuguese and African sources melding with global influences to create a magical, mystical music. Wherever you go in South America there is always the music. Whether it is the polyrhythms from percussion instruments at a street corner or a sophisticated discussion of the current year's Carnaval songs, the continent shares a common inspiration through its evolving music.
(Excerpted from “Brazilian Music on the Web” and other sources.)
This narrative piece depicts the pageantry and danger of the bullfight. It is a triumphal lament as the picadores ("lancers"), banderilleros ("flagmen"), and a mozo de espada ("sword servant") march in followed by their heroic “torero” or matador. Set in a minor key, the music hints at the inherent danger with classic dance rhythms, especially the final paso doble of the matador and the bull. “El Torero’s” lively pace gives the audience hope that the matador will prevail. This piece combines art, machismo and vulnerability as a perfect introduction to tonight’s concert. {Back to Program}
Volver A La Montana (Return to the Mountain)… Shelley Hanson
is based on several folk tunes of the Quechua ("Inca") people of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Near the end of the movement, the folk song Sepracion (Separation) is quoted briefly. The words are "My mother told me no to cry, though I'm leaving the mountains forever." Over the past century, many of the Quechua people have had to leave their villages forever because of the economic difficulty of trying to maintain their traditional mountain lifestyle.
The movement opens with a stately processional, followed by a fast dance that uses the characteristic Latin American alternation or simultaneous appearance of two-and three-beat patterns. In the return to the processional theme near the end of the movement, muted trumpets echo the flutes, as sound would echo in the mountains. {Back to Program}
Bachianas Brasileiras ("Brazilian Bach-pieces") … Heitor Villa-Lobos
embody a series of nine suites written for various combinations of instruments and voices between 1930 and 1945. Each represents a fusion between Brazilian folk and popular music and the style of Johann Sebastian Bach. Most of the movements in each suite have two titles: one 'Bachian' (Prelúdio, Fuga etc.) and one Brazilian (Embolada, O Canto da Nossa Terra).
Bachianas No. 4 was originally composed in 1930 for piano alone, then arranged for orchestra in 1941. Tonight’s performance will be movements I and IV, the sweeping “Prelúdio (Introducao)” and the complex techniques of the “Danso (Miudinho)”. {Back to Program}
Braseijo (Brazilian Little Kiss) … Edmundo Villani Côrtes
This work was originally composed after a brief visit to Buenos Aires in 1994, like a friendship gesture. Later it was revised and dedicated to the director Roberto Farías. {Back to Program}
"Brazil," or "Aquarela do Brasil"… Ary Barroso
This piece was originally called “Aquarela do Brasil” [Watercolors of Brazil]. It was the first of a new genre in Brazilian popular music: samba-exaltação, a samba exulting in the beauties of the land.
Walt Disney actually introduced “ Brazil ” into the U.S. In August 1941, Walt Disney visited Brazil on a U.S. State Department Good Neighbor Policy mission. When he complained that his hotel’s band was playing only North American tunes, the pianist played “Aquarela do Brasil.” As Disney conceptualized the dapper Brazilian parrot "Ze Carioca,” he decided “Aquarela do Brasil” was the right song for this character. So Disney asked to meet he composer. The following day, Disney and Barroso met at a cocktail party at the U.S. Consulate. As they discussed the song, the title morphed into simply “Brazil.” Disney included the song in his pro-South American propaganda cartoon, Saludos Amigos.
“Brazil” was recorded in the U.S. by many big names. First was Eddy Duchin, then a Portuguese version by Xavier Cugat and his Waldorf-Astoria Orchestra. Later, Cugat recorded a radio transcription with Dinah Shore , then Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra brought out a version. With all this activity “ Brazil ” became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. in 1943.
Over the years, Xavier Cugat and Carmen Miranda profited most from the popularity of Latin music in the U.S. “Brazil” was the springboard for both the mambo and cha-cha crazes. Miranda's version of " Brazil " was revived in the opening sequence of Terry Gilliam's 1985 film of the same name, then in 2000 an instrumental version opens the film “Woman on Top” starring Penelope Cruz.
“Brazil ” also enjoys the dubious honor of being the seventh most frequently played in hotels and restaurants. It became the most successful Brazilian song until the bossa nova era. {Back to Program}
Choro e Dobrado… Antonio Carlos Neves Campos
This piece in two movements begins with a delightfully complex Choro featuring the woodwinds. Then the entire Wind Symphony performs a lively Dobrado, which ends with the original Choro motif.
Choro (pronounced SHOH-roh) is best described in American terms as "the New Orleans jazz of Brazil." It is a complex popular musical form based on improvisation, and like New Orleans jazz, blues, or ragtime, grew from a formalized musical structure and many worldly influences. But to the people of South America, choro is Brazil. It is life.
The word choro in Portuguese literally means "to cry," which seems like an ironic name for music that is often so joyous and celebratory. Actually the term refers to the lilting or "weeping" qualities of the solo instrument, usually a flute or clarinet. Think of the way Benny Goodman could "wail".
Musically choro is based on what we know as samba-style or bossa nova rhythms and played on a guitar or other fretted stringed instruments, plus flute or clarinet and percussion. Structurally it is the Brazilian music that is closest to European classical music (it borrows the form of the Chopin waltz and the counterpoint of the high Baroque period), yet retains a personality that is all Brazilian. Within its exacting structure, choro is known for the large leaps in its melody and its dizzying speeds, surprising changes of harmony and improvised sound. This is extremely virtuosic music that is played to sound very natural and spontaneous. {Back to Program}
This popular song describes an attractive, proud, lonely woman who walks endlessly bearing unresolved pain. Some critics have felt the story is a dark recasting of "Girl from Ipanema", written by Antonio Carlos Jobim. This tune is very popular with Mexican mariachi bands. {Back to Program}
Machu Picchu: City in the Sky - The Mystery of the Hidden Sun Temple … Satoshi Yagisawa
Explaining the significance of Machu Picchu begins with remembering the Incan empire at its zenith, and its tragic encounter with the Spanish conquistadors. 378 years later an archeologist from Yale University, Hiram Bingham, rediscovered "Machu Picchu", a glorious mountaintop Incan city that had escaped the attention of the invaders. At the central high point of the city stands its most important shrine, the Intihuatana, or "hitching post of the sun", a column of stone rising from a block of granite the size of a grand piano, where a priest would "tie the sun to the stone" at winter solstice to insure its seasonal return. Yagisawa describes that magnificent citadel as three principal ideas dominate the piece:
- The shimmering golden city of Cuzco set in the dramatic scenery of the Andes,
- The destructiveness of violent invasion, and
- The re-emergence of Incan glory as the City in the Sky again reached for the sun.
In 1917, Abreu‘s orchestra played a new composition – still unnamed – at a ball. This jumpy, fast-tempo song made the dancing couples go crazy in the ballroom. He commented to his bandmates that those people were just like tico-ticos (a small, local bird) eating corn meal. When he asked for suggestions about the song's name, his bassist Artur de Carvalho replied that he had already named it: "Tico-tico No Fubá (Tico-tico Bird in the Cornmeal)”
"Tico-Tico no Fubá" enjoyed mild success in dancing rooms of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in the 20s and 30s. In 1943 it suddenly became an international hit when organist Ethel Smith played it in Walt Disney's animated film "Saludos Amigos", later reinforced by Carmen Miranda's zestful rendition of the song in "Copacabana" (1947). Modern audiences may recall Brazilian actress Denise Dumont singing it on-screen in Woody Allen's "Radio Days" (1987), in a somewhat Cubanized version, with Tito Puente's percussion. {Back to Program}
COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES
Hudson Nogueira (1968 - ) was born in rural São Paulo State, Brazil. He graduated from the Escola Superior de Música Mazarteum in São Paulo in 1997 with a Bachelors degree in clarinet performance. In 1995, he composed his first pieces written for chamber ensembles. Receiving great success, many works followed. In 1998, he became the resident composer at the Conservatório Dramático e Musical Dr. Carlos de Campos in Tatuí, São Paulo. His pieces have been performed by many various chamber, symphonic and popular ensembles throughout Brazil and worldwide. Along with his work as a classical composer, Hudson has never forgotten his passion of "Brazilian Popular Music", which can always be heard in his chamber and symphonic works. {Back to Program}
Shelley Hanson is an arranger, teacher, and professional musician, who specializes in writing and performing folk music. Her band, Klezmer and All That Jazz, recorded traditional and original music for the audio book version of the Yiddish play “The Dybbuk.” Ms. Hanson received a Ph.D. in Performance, Music Theory, and Music Literature from Michigan State University. She is a member of the Minneapolis Pops Orchestra.{Back to Program}
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 – 1959)was possibly the best-known classical composer born in South America. He wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works. His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and by stylistic elements from the European classical tradition, as exemplified by his Bachianas brasileiras.
As a young man he spent time playing in the ad hoc musical groups in Rio's cafes, on street corners, and at parties and weddings. He then traveled throughout Brazil, absorbing musical influences from his country's three main ethnic strands - Portuguese, African and Amerindian. He would use this woven pattern of sounds to both revitalize and individualize concert music in Brazil. After both success and controversy as a composer in Brazil, he went to Paris in 1923. The artistic ambience of Paris during the 1920s was perfect for Villa-Lobos. African music and jazz were in vogue so his highly colored, strangely conceived, and rhythmically assured music found an ideal home there. He returned to Brazil in 1930.
His immense output and rich musical language typified the diverse and kaleidoscopic Brazilian scene. It also freed Brazilian music once and for all from the constraints of European Romanticism. {Back to Program}
Edmundo Villani Côrtes (1930 -) was born in Minas Gescis, Brasil, into a musical family. His father played flute and his mother played piano. As a twelve-year old, he played guitars intuitively. At seventeen he started his formal music studies, including the piano at Rio’s "Conservatôrio Brasileiro de Mûsica" and graduated in 1954. By then he had already composed many compositions including a piano concerto which he first performed with the "Juiz de Fora Philharmonic Orchestra" in 1956. Simultaneously, he stayed in touch with the pop music that emerged at the beginning of the ´60s. That cultural bond with Brazilian popular jazz defines much of his work, which is freer than mere academic compositions.
His professional career since then has been full of activity and diversification. As a pianist and arranger, he has amassed more than 1000 musical works for television and recordings during 1970's to the 1990's and has composed over 200 works that he wrote for solo instruments, duets, trios, quartets, wind ensembles as well as symphonic orchestra. {Back to Program}
Ary Evangelista Barroso (1903 – 1964) was born in Ubá, in Minas Gerais, Brazil. After going to Rio de Janeiro to attend law school, he was seduced by the music and the bohemian lifestyle. When he finally finished law school, he was already was a respected musician and recording star.
Barroso studied classical piano and played in dance bands in Rio de Janeiro as a young man. Desperate for money to get married, he wrote the song, "Da Nela" for a 1930 Carnaval song contest. The song won, and Barroso soon became a regular composer of Carnaval marchas and sambas.
He wrote "Aquarela do Brasil" in 1939, featured in tonight’s concert. Walt Disney heard the tune during a 1941 visit and decided to include it in his 1942 cartoon contribution to Roosevelt's Latin American policy, Saludos Amigos. Disney invited Barroso to come to Hollywood, but he declined. He continued to contribute material for Disney, winning an Oscar nomination in 1944 for "Rio de Janeiro," a song from Brazil, and adapting an earlier Brazilian hit, "No Baixa do Sapateiro," which became a space age pop standard as "Baia," for The Three Caballeros.
Barroso was the most important Brazilian popular composer in the 40’s and 50’s. {Back to Program}
Antonio Carlos Neves Campos was born in Tatui, Sâo Paulo, Brazil, c. 1940. His musical education began at the age of five and continued on to the Conservatory of Tatui, where he majored in piano in 1964. In 1966, he won the Regional Competition of Piano in Massena New York USA. He went on to attend the State University of New York at Potsdam and where he studied with Arthur Frackenpohl and Raymond Schinner at the Crane School of Music.
Since 1984 he has been the Director of the Conservatory of Tatui, the largest music school in Latin America and the most important music school in Brazil. As an arranger, Mr. Campos has written for several musical groups including the Symphonic Orchestra of Campinas, Brazilian Wind Orchestra, Sâo Paulo Symphonic Orchestra, the Youth Symphonic Orchestra, Symphonic Band of the State of Sâo Paulo, the Gallery Band and many others. Mr. Campos has recently conducted two concerts with trumpet player Marvin Stamm in the US. Currently he has been working on electronic music with synthesizers, samplers and computer. {Back to Program}
Luis Miguel Gallegos (1970 –) was born in Puerto Rico then raised in Spain and Mexico. Undoubtedly the most successful Latin star of the 90s, singer Miguel has won four Grammys and sold over 36 million records worldwide Miguel is the son of Italian actress Marcela Basteri and Spanish singer Luisito Rey,
The young Miguel was spotted performing at a birthday party in Veracruz by a Mexican record executive, and was promptly given a record deal. Within a year, under the direction of his father, he was on the way to becoming one of Mexico's biggest teen stars. He signed a long-term contract with WEA Latina in1987, and in the process wrestled control of his career away from his father.
Developing a more sophisticated image modeled on singers such as Julio Iglesias and Frank Sinatra, Miguel began singing less pop-orientated material, and in the process achieved a multitude of gold and platinum selling singles and albums on the Latin American charts. After many albums sold well in the U.S., Miguel received the ultimate accolade, a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. {Back to Program}
Satoshi Yagisawa (1975 –) is a Japanese composer born in Tokyo.
He studied to the Musashino Academia Musicae and graduated there. His body of work is variation-rich and includes orchestra music, chamber music, choir music and music for traditional Japanese instruments. His wind orchestra compositions are noted for their drama and tonal range. Yagisawa also serves as a Juror with competitions, as a guest conductor at numerous orchestras and as an author of articles in music periodicals. {Back to Program}
Zequinha de Abreu (1880 – 1935) was one of the prominent Brazilian composers of the "Belle Époque," having contributed to the establishment of the choro genre. His most famous composition, "Tico-tico No Fubá" (known abroad as "Tico-Tico"), is today still recorded by great artists worldwide in all styles.
At five, Zequinha was already a music enthusiast, spending hours delightfully watching musicians play. He was given a little harmonica, on which he quickly learned to play simple melodies. At seven, he began to take music classes and also organized a little band with his classmates at school. Moving to Itu to study at the Colégio São Luís, he was already playing an ocarina. At ten, he joined the group of José de Abreu, and, shortly after, in 1884, he entered the Episcopal Seminary to become a priest, his mother's wish. One day, deciding to be a musician, he ran out of the seminary and went back home. On his way home, he composed the valse "Flor da Estrada."
Once in his hometown, he formed a locally renowned band. In 1896, Zequinha composed "Bafo de Onça. In 1899, Abreu formed the Lira Santarritense and Smart Orchestra, which were both very successful in nearby upcountry cities. At this time, he was also a politician, but was composing even more: choros, marchinhas, valsas, tangos, and several other genres. By 1915, he had already written nearly 100 compositions. In 1917, he played with his orchestra a new composition, still unnamed, at a ball. This jumpy, fast-tempo song made the dancing couples go crazy in the ballroom. This is the “Tico Tico" of tonight’s concert. {Back to Program}