Pacific Serenades Releases Latin Influenced Border Crossings Recording

New CD Features Four Works Commissioned by the Leading Chamber Music Ensemble

Four original Latin-influenced works by gifted contemporary composers Enrique González-Medina, Robert Livingston Aldridge, Mark Carlson and Miguel del Aguila are featured on Border Crossings, a new recording from Pacific Serenades, one of the nation’s foremost chamber music ensembles. The Border Crossings title illustrates the idea that the composers, two Latin American-born and two overtly influenced by Latin American music, have artistically crossed the border — in both directions — between the United States and Latin America. Pacific Serenades’ previous CD, The Hall of Mirrors, won the 2001 Chamber Music America/WQXR Records Awards.

According to Carlson, Pacific Serenades founder and artistic director, “All four of the pieces have strong Latin-American rhythms, including tangos, various Brazilian dances and songs, and the Venezuelan merengue. The Latin-born composers brought those influences with them when they moved here, and the others of us actively went seeking them.”

Pacific Serenades has commissioned some 90 world premieres by 48 different composers, including these four works, more than any other organization of its kind in the country. Founded in 1982, it is one of the longest performing ensembles on the west coast. Twice winner (2003 and 2005) of the prestigious Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, Pacific Serenades has achieved critical acclaim for its concerts at which new music is played alongside traditional chamber repertoire in intimate settings, including private homes. Among its musicians are principals of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pasadena Symphony and Long Beach Symphony. Carlson is the recipient of more than 40 commissions and has composed works for the National Shrine in Washington, DC and the New West Symphony, among others, and for many individual musicians.

BORDER CROSSINGS

Concierto barroco for flute, violin, cello and harpsichord by Tijuana-born composer Enrique González-Medina was inspired by the eponymous novel by Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier in which Domenico Scarlatti, George Frideric Handel and Antonio Vivaldi meet and improvise on their favorite instruments (harpsichord, organ and violin). Gonzalez-Medina creates his own original baroque musical style that combines traditional forms of the baroque period, Spanish baroque and Latin American dances. Concierto barroco was commissioned by Jack and Florence Irving in 2002 for Pacific Serenades. González-Medina recently completed his first piano concerto which was commissioned by the Baja California Orchestra. The Baja California Songbook, 25 song settings of poems by five Baja poets, was premiered in 2006, and his children’s opera, How Nanita Learned to Make Flan, commissioned by Cincinnati Opera, has had more than 150 performances in the US. Guitarist Felix Bullock introduced González-Medina’s Medellin Concerto in Colombia, and Mexican soprano Claudia Montiel and guitarist Carlos Bernal recorded his song cycle, The Teacher’s Verses, for their CD, La Cuerda del Tiempo.

“If Bach used French, Italian, and German styles incorporated into the distinct movements of a suite, then I thought I should be able to do so with Irish, African, and Brazilian music!” says Robert Livingston Aldridge (with a smile) of his Three Folksongs for clarinet and string quartet. Each movement evolves from various “ethnic” themes: a Scotch/Irish ballad in sonata form, variations on an African-American-styled spiritual and a Brazilian samba realized as a rondo. Aldridge composed Three Folksongs in 1992 when it was commissioned by Elizabeth H. Henderson for Pacific Serenades. Aldridge’s music for orchestra, opera, dance, music-theater and chamber ensembles has been performed throughout the US, Europe and Japan. His tone poem Leda and the Swan, a four-orchestra consortium commission, was premiered in 2003, and his opera Elmer Gantry had its premiere at Nashville Opera in 2007. A clarinet concerto, commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, premiered in 2005.

Pacific Serenade for clarinet and string quartet by Miguel Del Aguila, is a romantic, peaceful work inspired by the Pacific Serenades ensemble, which premiered the piece in 1998. Its sensuousness is created by Latin song elements, especially nostalgic Brazilian folk songs, combined at times with blues-style melody and harmony. The string quartet, which is technically challenging, not only accompanies the clarinet, but also sets the mood in which the clarinet “sings” its serenade. It was commissioned by Dr. Eberhardt and Deedee Rechtin. Del Aguila, born in Uruguay, studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and in Vienna. Upon returning to California in 1992, he was named “resident music man of the year” by the Los Angles Times. He has composed opera, choral, solo and chamber works as well as incidental music for theater and film. He was resident composer and music director of Ojai Camerata and resident composer at the Chautauqua Institution Summer Festival and is currently composer-in-residence with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra in Albuquerque.

The eclectic Sonata for Cello and Piano reflects Mark Carlson’s diverse musical roots and interests, particularly South American popular music. The opening movement is sometimes agitated and busy while the last is inspired by the rhythm and form of the merengue, a dance peculiar to Venezuela. The middle movement begins in relative calm, then a high singing melody on the cello becomes slightly anguished, and finally calm is restored as the movement ends. Carlson composed the piece especially for cellist David Speltz and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin, who perform it on this recording. Commissioned by Virgil and Lynn Roth, it was premiered by Pacific Serenades in 1998. Always versatile, Carlson has composed lyrical and emotionally powerful, stylistically unique works which have been acclaimed by audiences throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Europe. He is known for his art songs and songs for musical theater, chamber and choral music, concerti and other large ensemble pieces.

The Border Crossing recording features musicians Joanne Pearce Martin, principal keyboardist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Gary Gray, principal clarinetist and soloist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Roland Kato, internationally acclaimed recitalist and soloist and principal violist for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; violinist Roger Wilkie, concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony; Clayton Haslop, first violinist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; violist Simon Oswell, principal violist of the Carmel Bach Festival and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra violinist Connie Kupka; harpsichordist Patricia Mabee, who has been soloist and principal keyboardist for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and a regular performer at a variety of music festivals; David Speltz, who helped form the Arriaga String Quartet which won first prize in the Coleman competition, violinist Miwako Watanabe, a founding member of the Sequoia Quartet and of the New Francesco Trio who appears regularly as concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of South Bay; and Pacific Serenades Founder/Artistic Director Mark Carlson, flute.

The recording was funded by The Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund and The Aaron Copland Fund for Recording.

Border Crossings is available at Amazon.com, on the Pacific Serenades web site — www.pacser.org/store – or by calling (213) 534-3434.