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 | Latin American Composers Festival and Arturo Marquez, Harpist Lidia Tamayo, and the Luckman Chamber Ensemble to Perform at the Luckman LOS ANGELES -- The Luckman Fine Arts Complex is proud to present the Latin American Composers Festival on October 27 and 28, featuring three of the most important figures in Latin American music: composer-conductor Tania León, composer Arturo Marquez, and harpist Lidia Tamayo. Three separate performances scheduled over two days are a solo harp recital by Tamayo on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m., and two concerts with the newly formed Luckman Chamber Ensemble  León and Marquez conducting their own works on Saturday evening at 8:00 p.m., and a Sunday matinee at 3:00 p.m. with soloists Danilo Lozano and Tamayo, featuring works by León, Marquez and Flores. The festival coincides with the opening week of the Luckman GalleryÂs PinturaFresca exhibition (October 26  December 15) and related events, including Taco Shop Poets on October 30. The Luckman Fine Arts Complex is located on the campus of California State University, Los Angeles. The purpose of this festival is to present significant works by Latin American composers, providing a kind of survey of Latin American classical music. This event will also be the world première of the Luckman Chamber Ensemble, which not only includes some of the best contemporary music players in the Los Angeles area, but also has been formed with the goal of being as diversified as possible. The Luckman Chamber Ensemble, under the direction of award-winning flutist/composer/conductor James Newton, will work on special projects for the Luckman in the future and will accompany selected upcoming dance performances at the Luckman. Newton, Director of Music Programming and Research at the Luckman, is also a professor of music at Cal State L.A. Tania León, who is in demand as both a conductor and a composer, has served as an assistant to Kurt Masur as well as Dennis Russell Davies, and she has recently conducted the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the National Symphony Orchestra of South Africa, the Beethovenhalle Orchestra, the Louisville Symphony, and the New World Symphony. She also served in 1969 as the first music director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Ms. León is a composer of tremendous gifts who has demonstrated her command of a wide range of musical styles and forms. Her first opera, Scourge of Hyacinths, won the BMW Prize for Best Composition at the 1994 Munich Bienniale for New Music Theater. Among Ms. LeónÂs recent commissions are the song cycle Singing Sepia, on which she collaborated with American poet Rita Dove; the interactive work Drumming, which was commissioned by the Miami Light Project, the New World Symphony, Miami-Dade Community College, and Arizona State University; and Para Viola y Orquesta, which was premiered by a consortium of four U.S. orchestras. Ms. León is a professor of music at Brooklyn College. Arturo Marquez, who is considered to be MexicoÂs most prominent living composer, studied in Mexico City, Paris, and Los Angeles with such prominent composers as Morton Subotnick and Mel Powell. Mr. Marquez is at home writing in a wide range of musical idioms and has been influenced by many varieties of music, including the works of Silvestre Revueltas, Egberto Gismonti, Astor Piazzolla, and Manuel Enriquez, as well as the jazz tradition. He has also been powerfully influenced by the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, and, like him, Marquez has conducted in-depth studies of folk styles and forms in virtually every region of his native country. Marquez father was a violinist in mariachi bands in the Los Angeles area, and Mr. Marquez has been powerfully influenced by the mariachi tradition. Currently, Mr. Marquez numerous works are performed throughout the world by organizations such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and all major Latin American orchestras. Recently, Vicente Fox, the president of Mexico, asked that Mr. Marquez join him at a performance of Mr. Marquez work that was held at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Also recently, a week-long festival devoted to Arturo Marquez music was held in the city of Xalapa, Mexico. The featured performer at the festival will be the Mexican harpist Lidia Tamayo, who is the foremost exponent and the most tireless promoter of contemporary Latin music for the harp. She is the third of four generations of harpists in the Tamayo family, and her aunts performed with Stravinsky, Copland, and Villa-Lobos, as well as many other prominent composers and performers. Ms. Tamayo teaches at the National School of Music of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, and she is a soloist with the Dallas Symphony, the Simon Bolivar Orchestra, and the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra. She has studied folk harp styles throughout Mexico, and she produces Latin American Harp Encounters, the most significant harp festival in Latin America. Ms. Tamayo is the recipient of many awards and scholarships, including a Fulbright, and she has performed recitals in such countries as France, Germany, Spain, the United States, Mexico, Venezuela, El Salvador, and Peru. In addition, she has performed with symphonies throughout the world. Among her most important recordings are El Arpa Contemporánea and Son a Tamayo. In May 2000, her remarkable book The Harp in Mexico, the first work of its kind, was published in Mexico.
WHAT: WHEN: Saturday, October 27, 8 p.m. Sunday, October 28, 3 p.m. WHERE: TICKETS:
LUCKMAN GALLERY: PinturaFresca The Luckman Gallery presents PinturaFresca, a group exhibition of work by artists living and working in Tijuana, curated by Luis Ituarte. Gallery hours are Mon.-Thurs., Sat., 12-5:00 p.m., and one hour prior to, and during intermission of Luckman performances. Admission to the Luckman Gallery is free. Related events: Thursday, October 25, 12-2:00 p.m., Press preview. Friday, October 26, 7-10:00 p.m., Opening reception. Tuesday, October 30, 5:00 p.m., Taco Shop Poets, Latin American poet-activists from San Diego. Followed at 7:00 p.m. by An Evening with Sonido Ink(quieto) [University event], Mexicano/Chicano spoken word and music ensemble from Chicago. Symposium: Tuesday, November 20, 7-9:00 p.m.
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