July 2006

To the best of my knowledge there were two performances of my music in July, and both were on the same day: 9 July. In the afternoon, the Edinburgh-based ensemble Mr McFall’s Chamber played Botanic Spider at All Saints Quayside, as part of the ¡Vamos! Festival. In the same programme the McFalls played a piece by one of my students, Sergio Camacho’s Four Dances for the One Moon. 

¡Vamos! being a festival of Hispanic and Lusophone culture, the rest of the McFalls’ programme was a judicious selection of classical works such as the Cuban Fabio Landa’s Pequeña suite cubana, Ignacio Cervantes’s Adiós a Cuba and several pieces by Astor Piazzolla. An outstanding aspect of the concert was the singing of Taylor Wilson, an extraordinary performer who offered arresting renditions of songs by Weill and Brel. 

Almost at the same time, across de water a group of talented young musicians was performing my Trío at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The players were Miranda Cuckson, violin, Christopher Gross, cello, and Philip Fisher, piano. I couldn’t be in both places at the same time, so I had to leave the New York event in the capable hands of its animateur, Joel Sachs. According to his report, and to a very positive review on the New York Times (11 July), the performance went very well and the reception was goood. This was the Trío‘s first performance outside Bolivia, where it had been played several times before by Trío Apolo, who commissioned it with funds from Fundación Arnoldo Schwimmer. My thanks to these wonderful musicians and to their promoters, ¡Vamos! Festival and Joel Sachs, for bringing my music alive.