Rave review for Paredes in New York Times

Hilda Paredes' concert at the Miller Theatre, New York, has received a glowing review from music critic Steve Smith in the New York Times. Smith wrote of Corazón de Onix that it '... evoked a gemstone’s luster and mutability with sharp, glistening sounds, reshaped and refracted with microtonal smears and noisy outbursts.'

Paredes' new commission by the Miller Theatre, Señales, '... featured Irvine Arditti, the formidable English violinist who is also Ms. Paredes’s husband. From a lapping, splashing introduction, the music — played by a 10-member ensemble that included an ear-tickling mix of cimbalom, harp and marimba — rippled, surged and jolted ceaselessly around Mr. Arditti’s flashing exertions. Time stood still repeatedly during haunting interludes that paid homage to another composer, Jonathan Harvey.'

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Hilda Paredes

PAREDES PREMIERE IN NEW YORK

Hilda Paredes' has been commissioned by the Miller Theatre and Columbia University to write a new work, Señales, for solo violin and chamber ensemble, which will be premiered in New York by violinist Irvine Arditti and Ensemble Signal, conducted by Brad Lubman, at the Miller Theatre on Saturday 12th May at 8pm. Señales, subtitled Homage to Jonathan Harvey, to whose highly spiritual music Paredes wanted to pay tribute, and to whose Fourth Quartet there are oblique references in two transitional passages in the work, is dedicated to Ensemble Signal and to Irvine Arditti.

Hilda Paredes wrote of her new composition: "Musical performance has a lot to do with signs or signals, with señales, whether cues, indications from a conductor, or the printed propositions of the score, to all of which a musician has to respond immediately and purposefully. The product of musical performance – music – is itself loaded with signals, which we as listeners are invited to construe. In doing so, we may well feel that many of the signals are not directed only to us, but that we are witnessing the music’s signalling to itself: calling ahead, answering back, opening a new course or blocking it, making a demand or reviving a memory."

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El Perro Andaluz

York Spring Festival of New Music 2012, 9th-13th May

The York Spring Festival of New Music 2012 will take place from 9th-13th May. It will include a performance of Thomas Simaku's a2, by El Perro Andaluz, on Wednesday 9th May. The Festival will comprise a variety of events in venues ranging from the University of York’s concert halls to more informal surroundings within the city walls. Styles of music include jazz, vocal, contemporary classical and musical comedy, with a wide range of local, UK and international artists.

LINE-UP:
El Perro Andaluz // Juice + Consortium5 // Threads Orchestra // Martin Suckling // Dave Smyth Sextet Feat. Julian Argüelles // Jay Foreman // Tom Service // The Octandre Ensemble // Kate Boyd // Roller Trio

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Jo Kondo honorary member of American Academy of Arts and Letters

UYMP is delighted to announce that Jo Kondo has been elected an honorary member to The American Academy of Arts and Letters. We offer Jo many congratulations.
www.artsandletters.org