Cuarteto Latinoamericano and Dalí String Quartet

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Join Music of the Americas for an evening of music by Mignone, Nancarrow, and Shostakovich performed by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano and Dalí String Quartet.

Click here for a .pdf version of the printed program.

PROGRAM

Seresta No. 2 for double quartet (1956)  | Francisco Mignone (1897-1986)
Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Dalí Quartet

Angélica (Mix of Latin Rhythms, 2000) | Efraín Amaya (b. 1959)

La Oración del Torero, Op. 34 (1925) | Joaquín Turina (1882-1949)

Danzón Almendra (Dance, 1938) | Abelardito Valdes (1911-1958) arr. by N. Aponte

El día que me quieras (Tango, 1935) “The day you love me” | Carlos Gardel (1890-1935) arr. by N. Aponte

La Cumparsita (Tango, 1917) “The little parade” | Gerardo Matos Rodríquez (1897-1948) arr. by Javier Montiel

Dalí Quartet

INTERMISSION

String Quartet No. 1 (1945)  Conlon Nancarrow (1912-1997)
     Allegro Molto  
     Andante Moderato 
     Prestissimo 
 
Quartet No. 2 (1957)  Francisco Mignone
     Allegro 
     Seresta 
     Desafio 

Cuarteto Latinoamericano
 
Prelude and Scherzo for octet, Op.11 (1924/25) | Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)
     Prelude 
     Scherzo 

Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Dalí Quartet

Cuarteto Latinoamericano

Álvaro Bitrán, cello
Arón Bitrán, violin
Saúl Bitrán, violin
Javier Montiel, viola

Cuarteto Latinoamericano is known worldwide as the leading proponent of Latin American music for string quartet. The renowned ensemble from Mexico has toured extensively in Europe, the Americas, Israel, China, Japan, and New Zealand. The group has introduced more than a hundred chamber works written for the Cuarteto and has participated in over a hundred world premieres. The group received a Mexican Music Critics Association Award in 1983 and "most adventurous programming" awards from CMA/ASCAP in 1997, 1999, and 2000.

Formed in Mexico in 1981, Cuarteto Latinoamericano members are the three Bitrán brothers, violinists Saúl and Arón and cellist Alvaro, along with violist Javier Montiel. The Cuarteto has recorded almost all the Latin American repertoire for string quartet. The sixth volume of their Villa-Lobos cycle of the 17 quartets for Dorian was nominated for a 2002 Grammy Award and a Latin Grammy for Best Chamber Music Recording. The Cuarteto signed an exclusive recording contract with Sono Luminus in 2008, releasing one album per year. Brasileiro, Word of Mignone was released in 2011. The next recording will be with bandoneon master Daniel Binelli.

The Cuarteto has collaborated with many celebrated artists over the years, including cellists János Starker and Yehuda Hanani; pianists Santiago Rodriguez, Cyprien Katsaris, and Rudolph Buchbinder; tenor Ramón Vargas; and guitarists Narciso Yepes, Sharon Isbin, David Tanenbaum, and Manuel Barrueco. The group performed with Barrueco in many of the most important venues of the United States and Europe, recorded two CDs together, and commissioned guitar quintets from American composers Michael Daugherty and Gabriela Lena Frank. Inca Dances by Frank won the 2009 Latin Grammy for Best New Latin Composition. From 1987 to 2008, Cuarteto Latinoamericao was quartet-in-residence at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

Under the auspices of the Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles of Venezuela, the Cuarteto created and heads the Latin American Academy for String Quartets in Caracas, a training ground for five select young string quartets from the Sistema. The Cuarteto LatinoAmericano visits the Academy four times a year. 

Dalí String Quartet

Simón Gollo, violin
Carlos Rubio, violin
Adriana Linares, viola
Jesús A. Morales Matos, cello

With an artist’s grace and a Caribbean soul, the Dalí Quartet is today’s freshest voice in classical and Latin American music.Anchored in both Venezuela's El Sistema and in American classical conservatory traditions, this exciting young quartet combines the best of both worlds.

The Dalí Quartet’s captivating performances of traditional string quartet and Latin-American repertoire create an extraordinary concert experience that takes listeners on an eclectic journey of rhythm and sound. In the spirit of famed Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, the Dalí Quartet embraces imagination and excellence as central to its art form.

The quartet is comprised of award-winning solo and chamber artists who have appeared at Carnegie Hall, toured widely in Asia and Europe, collaborated with some of the finest composers of our time, and recorded for Dorian, Centaur, and Naxos. As a quartet, they have been invited to perform with emphasis on the Latin-classical connection for television, festivals, and presenting organizations from Toronto to Texas, and from New York to Venezuela.

The Dalí Quartet serves as quartet-in-residence for the Elite Strings Program where it hosts the Dalí String Quartet Summer Music Camp and Festival. The Dalí is also a Resident Ensemble of the Black Pearl Chamber Orchestra in Philadelphia, which is dedicated to normalizing minority participation in classical music. A part of the Dalí Quartet’s mission includes the presentation of many educational concert activities each year; its popular events for students in grades K-12 are complemented by interactive concerts for the entire family.

Trained by world-renowned artists, members of the Dalí Quartet are products of Venezuela’s social and music education movement El Sistema and have studied at esteemed institutions such as the Cleveland Institute of Music, Indiana University Bloomington, Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, Switzerland and the Simón Bolivar Conservatory in Caracas, Venezuela.