Compositions
Bravement
Based on Quis Dabit, conductus XXX from Codex Las Huelgas (13th c. Iberia)
Bravement = the state or fact of being brave to speak up, and be heard no matter who you are, where you are, or where you are from.
Lament = a song, piece of music, or poem expressing sorrow.
Statement = a definite or clear expression of something in speech or writing.
Bravement explores the role that women hold in our culture and how they are framed, celebrated and silenced. Using only a few simple musical and dramatic gestures, the piece conveys the complicated and nuanced issues of inherited social ideas, complicity, emotional impulse, and need for connection. The women singers are standing in rows, making an architectural square. They each have lightbulbs that can turn on and off. They sing, sometimes improvised ideas that spread through the group, and sometimes a traditional melody. Within that simple structure, this collection of material shows the audience something specific about these women and ourselves today, while deftly implying our connection to the more archetypal idea of women throughout history. When they cover their own mouths as they sing, with simple means, the piece is conveying the very complicated dance between defiance and compliance, personal and political.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
what keeps mankind alive
This is a collection of arrangements, re-compositions, compositions and improvisations based on the works of writer and poet Bertolt Brecht in collaboration with composer Kurt Weill and the works of musicians that either were influences for Brecht/weill (like Stravinsky), or were influenced by Brecht/Weill, (Ruben Blades, Tom Waits, James Chance and the Contortions, among others).
The text for these pieces are some of Brecht’s famous quotes as well as excerpts from the lyrics to What Keeps Mankind Alive.
This band has the intention to literally translate these words to music:
“In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing
About the dark times”.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
El Tiempo es un Mani
for Low String Quartet and Percussion
I. As regular as possible
II. As slow as possible
III. As fast as possible
A piece inspired by the music of Thelonious Monk and Anton Webern. A point of contact between Webern and Monk’s music is their particular relation and awareness of time and its limitations. They both seem to have a way of making the listener (and the performer) perceive time in a different way as a listener. One single event on their music can make one feel like a year has passed, or like if 5 minutes were 5 seconds.
What is time? “Time is the longest distance between two places” Tennessee Williams The title of this piece is taken from Les Luthiers; it is their translation to Spanish of the phrase “time is money”.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
calm like a bomb.
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation”. -Oscar Wilde
“The best form of government is no government at all, and that will be what men will have when we are ready for it”. -Henry David Thoreau, “Essay on Civil Disobedience” 1849
Calm like a bomb: Politics: a. The art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal and external affairs. b. The methods or tactic involved in managing a state or government In politics, as in life, what we are seeing is not always what it really is.
Gerrold’s Law: A little ignorance can go a long way.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
Que pasa
For power trio and group of people
Que Pasa? :
a. What's going on?
b. What's happening?
c. What's the matter?
d. What's wrong?
e. What's up?
A commentary on going to music school for 20 years.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
Apostamos una mogolla Y un chicharrón
A piece to fail
If the performers fail playing the piece the composer wins, if the performers play it perfectly the composer fails. Just like in real life someone always has to fail.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
Borondo Concerto
for Trumpet, Orchestra, and Choir
This work will be released in April 2024
Borondo Concerto
I. “To find your way... You have to listen, you have to respect the difference, and you have to come back inside”
II. “To find your way... you have to be ready to follow the signals”
III. “To find your way... you have to fight, you have to remember the past, and you have to try to be just one”.
More information about this project can be found in the description box on YouTube.
por la fuerza
Is an ongoing project that presents 10 selected recounts of kidnappings that occurred in Colombia between 1990 and 2010 (20 years). During those years Colombia had the highest rate of Kidnapping in the world. In the year 2000 alone, there were 3572 people taken by force either for ransom or political reasons.
The recounts were found collecting data from families, victims, and perpetrators and presents different perspectives related to these crimes.
All 10 pieces were written in 2012 and have been released 1 every 2 years to complete the project in 2032 (after 20 years) I am unsure of the reason why, perhaps to prolong the uncertain feeling of knowing how they will sound, or to exercise the painful virtue of patience, or as a tribute to how time passes when one is waiting.