News

Fans of contemporary classical music in Orlando last saw Juan Trigos in town in 2012, conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Universidad de Guanajuato (OSUG), hosted by Accidental Music Festival. The Mexican-American composer and conductor was born in Mexico City and now lives in Miami. His search for a personal musical language led him to a concept he calls Abstract Folklore — a process in which he abstracts and assimilates various literary and vernacular musical traditions into a modern compositional rhetoric. Applying this concept, Trigos has composed music for ballet, opera, cantata and chamber, among other genres. He received the 2020 Fromm Commission of the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University.

In this Interview, Esteban Meneses catches up with Trigos, ahead of Alterity.co’s Divergent Pulsations concert on September 17. The program includes his Suite for Ensemble, which was commissioned by the Cantus Ensemble, from Zagreb (Croatia), and premieres in 2020. Alterity.co will present the United States premiere. Following are highlights from the conversation:

What are some of the highlights of your career since we last saw you perform in Orlando, some 10 years ago?

I’ve had several activities as a composer and as a conductor. After being principal conductor of OSUG, I was principal conductor of the Oaxaca Symphony and formed two chamber groups: one again in Guanajuato called Sinfonietta MIQ, and The Last Hundred Ensemble in Miami, which is where I live. Except during the pandemic, I have also conducted several groups and orchestras as a guest conductor, such as Nodus Ensemble, Bent Frequency Ensemble (U.S.), Icarus Ensemble (Italy), Nuevo León Symphony Orchestra OSUANL, State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico OSEM (Mexico), Sergipe Symphony (Brazil), and Heredia Symphony (Costa Rica), among others.

As a composer, I wrote several works and had several premieres, performances, and recordings. Among the most notable is my Symphony No. 3, Offering to the Dead, which was commissioned and premiered by the Houston Symphony; Cantata Concertante No. 3 Phos Hiron (premiere and recording); Clarinet Concerto (premiere and recording); Symphony No. 4 Nezahuacóyotl Icuicahuan (premiere and recording); Conversiones, for clarinet and piano (commissioned, premiered, and recorded by Vincent Dominguez); Ricercare VII, for guitar and percussion (commissioned, premiered and recorded by Duo Hennings-Vaillancourt); El Divino Narciso, Auto Sacramental in two acts (premiered by Opera Offenbach and Opera Cinema), to name a few.

The program for the upcoming concert with Alterity.co is based on pulsation. Can you explain? How does the notion of pulsation show in these four pieces?

“Pulsation” has always been of great interest to me. In my opinion, each work proposes a different sound and pulsation concept. Two of them are related to dance: Dance Mobile, by Augusta Read Thomas, and my Suite. In the case of the first one, which is a ballet, the perennial pulsation that runs at a fast metronome of 1⁄4 = 144, is very evident. This is interrupted by moments of immobility in the orchestra, indicated by the slower metronome changes. My work (Suite) alludes to the ancient form, which is made up of a set of different dances, in this case, abstract ones.

In Rodríguez’s Double Concerto for flute and guitar, the powerful dance rhythms (even if it is not a ballet, properly speaking) are inherited from Caribbean folklore, especially in the second movement. In addition to the virtuosic writing for the soloists, the use of piano and percussion stands out in the orchestration. In Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, Harrison Birtwistle (1934 – 2022) makes a cluster with mechanisms on top of rhythms and instrumental interlockings that generate complex gears and therefore a mechanical but asymmetrical pulsation. It gives the impression of a large piece of machinery that moves quickly but sounds rusty and uneven.

Your work develops the concept of “abstract folklore,” which features in your Suite’s references to Spanish and Italian music. What are some of the musical traditions that you’re abstracting into this particular composition? And in general, how does the piece fit in your body of work?

In each movement of the Suite, I make references, with an oneiric touch, to the Spanish “Cante Jondo,” the old “Tiento,” and to the classic ostinato, but with constant metric modulations. I also refer to the Passacaglia, using a very simple sequence as the basis; to a Carillon that is heard in the distance, which suddenly approaches, creating a shock; and finally, a tribute to Franco Donatoni. This is not the first work where I use material from him; I also did it in the second movement of my Sinfonia Breve No. 2 (“Brief Symphony”), titled Scherzo Donatoni. It is worth mentioning that this adds to a series of homages that I have composed in honor of composers for whom I feel great admiration. The other two movements of my Sinfonia Breve No. 2 pay homage to Bartok (Mov. I; Allegretto Bartok) and to Poulenc (Mov. III; Poulenc alla breve). The same thing happens with my Brief Symphony No. 1, where the tributes are to Carlos Chávez (mov. I and II) and to Heitor Villalobos (Mov. III).

Speaking of Franco Donatoni, whom you tip your hat to in the Suite, what are some of the things you particularly appreciate about him, as a composer and as friend?

He was an absolutely generous and magnanimous person and teacher — I would say splendid. He never held anything back; he filled me with his knowledge and great creativity, a gift that cannot be repaid but I can always be grateful for. I would say that, among other things, I owe him my taste for writing and the internal musical structure.

As a composer-conductor, what are some of the things that you look for as signs of an artistically satisfying performance?

As a conductor, the first and most important thing I seek is the understanding and assimilation (as much as possible) of the scores I conduct, through hard study and reflection. This process requires a lot of time. The next step is to communicate to the performers the artistic ideas and vision that emerge from this process, and to work side by side in rehearsal (and with each performer individually), to be able to capture that vision. Finally, experiences and emotions are shared with the audience during the live concert.

To conduct my works, what I do is treat them exactly the same as any other. I study them as if they weren't mine and while rehearsing them with the orchestra, I work on them according to difficulty, duration, or whatever each one needs specifically. I avoid as much as possible to act with apprehension toward them. I don't mean by that that I treat them coldly — quite the contrary: By facing them with the same dedication and discipline as the others, the result is much better and more effective, artistically speaking.

Timucua Arts Foundation Presents

Alterity Chamber Orchestra: Divergent Pulsations Saturday, September 17, 2022 | 8 p.m.

Harriett’s Orlando Ballet Centre

PROGRAM

• Dance Mobile, by Augusta Read Thomas (U.S.)

• Suite for Ensemble, by Juan Trigos (Mexico/ U.S.)*

• Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum, Harrison Birtwistle (U.K.)

• Double Concerto for Flute and Guitar, by Alberto Rodríguez Ortiz (Puerto Rico)**

*U.S. premiere **World premiere

FEATURING

• Juan Trigos, conductor

• Eladio Scharrón, guitar

• Carrie Wiesinger, flute

Half-price tickets are available for students, teachers, frontline workers, veterans, and seniors. Harriett’s Orlando Ballet Centre is located at 600 N Lake Formosa Dr., Orlando, FL 32803

To get your tickets, please click here.

To learn more about Timucua Arts Foundation, and become a member, please visit timucua.com.

ARIADNE GREIF, praised for her "luminous, expressive voice" (NYTimes), her "elastic and round high notes" (classiqueinfo), and her "mesmerizing stage presence" (East Anglian Daily Times), is Alterity.co's featured soloist for Abandon Waiting on March 22, 2018.

In this Interview, Esteban Meneses asks Ariadne five questions about the upcoming concert, her time in Orlando, and her approach to contemporary works.

E. How did you first make contact with Alterity about the possibility of collaborating?

A. Chris Belt and I met more than five years ago in New York at a concert with the ensemble Contemporaneous—I think it was an oratorio about Moby Dick! I met Natalie Grata in 2016 during the Orlando Philharmonic’s Magic Flute, I believe, and we have been sending each other cat videos on Instagram ever since! The last time I was in Orlando, for Elixir of Love, they told me they were poised to launch Alterity and asked me if I would be interested, and I think I responded yes before they had even finished the question!

E. Have you performed “The Pieces that Fall to Earth” before?

A. Never! I had heard it before, and I know Chris Cerrone a little bit socially. He sent me another absolutely gorgeous song cycle several years ago, and I have been thinking about singing it ever since but have never actually performed any of his other vocal music.

E. Cerrone describes Kay Ryan’s poetry as “a kind of monodrama, where the work becomes more and more personal as the piece proceeds.” It seems very open-ended or ambiguous at first, opening with “One could almost wish they wouldn't; they are so far apart, so random. One cannot wait, cannot abandon waiting…” How do you think the form and meaning of the poetry come together for you, as a performer who has the power to interpret the poetry? How does it come together, while serving the music, to a more concrete climax in the end, if that is the case?

E. This poetry is totally fabulous; I didn’t know about Kay Ryan before this. I think in this case the musical interpretations Chris has made solidify the level of personal emotional involvement in the text about ten notches higher than I would have dared to take if I were an actress performing the words by themselves! That is so satisfying! It is the whole reason we come to music. There is a lot of extreme, upset screaming in this piece; I think was brave for Chris to have written both for emotional and practical reasons. He is so clear with emotions that I almost think the piece requires zero extramusical interpretation. That being said, art is autobiographical for everyone involved, in this case, performers, composers, and audience, and although I know how the piece feels to me, I am very interested to hear him talk about it!

E. What has been the most challenging part of learning this piece so far?

A. Chris wrote this for the soprano Hila Plitmann; we have an immense overlap in repertoire, but we have profoundly different voices on every level from size and range to color! Some small things Chris asks for technically are perfect for her, but run the risk of sounding contrived or difficult in my voice. I have a million of my own alternative assets to bring to the table, so I’ve been working on ways to obey the spirit and the letter of the piece, but as myself in my most fabulous form! I talked it over with Chris months ago and I am excited to see what he likes and what he hates!

E. We’ve seen you perform in Orlando in operas like Elixir of Love and The Magic Flute. You are also known for your interest in new operas and contemporary pieces, like Cerrone’s. How do you approach the performance of new music, especially when specific performance practices might not yet have been established? Does it help when you have access to a composer who is still alive?

A. Working with a living composer is absolutely the best! I cannot recommend it more. You can ask all of your questions, you can work together to make a piece fit you better idiomatically (especially if it is being written for you), you can know definitively when you are taking too much liberty or not enough with the spirit of the piece. I am singing my first Pierrot Lunaire next month, and I wish I could shake ol’ Arnie and make him tell me all the answers to my questions! As for performance, I do have an agenda, which is that I want people to have a chance to get the same emotional fulfillment from contemporary music that they do from the old music and the non-classical music they love. I feel like there are so many under-funded and therefore underrehearsed, under-practiced, under-cared-for performances of contemporary music, and great musicians do their best under the circumstances but give disastrous or mediocre or simply wooden performances of fabulous music. Performers and audience members alike see this a few times and feel that they’ve accurately confirmed that they dislike the genre. On a specific topic, I hate gratuitously syllabic singing and find it can often suck all the pleasure and understanding out of a piece. Many singers are taught by their voice teachers in school to avoid all contemporary music for a variety of pseudoscientific reasons, but it turns out that contemporary music is a part of every modern career! I think that this lack of experience makes singers fearful later, when they are confronted by a new piece, and often I feel they don’t know they could practice a piece just a little differently to feel liberated from counting beats and panicking. It certainly doesn’t always happen, but ideally, I would like to have the same freedom, speech-like text delivery, and emotional connection in all classical and contemporary music that I would in a cabaret show! So I do notice that my default approach is to try to sing any piece I get with almost reactionary lyricism and as much emotional connection as possible, to a fault, unless the composer explicitly asks me to be dispassionate.

For more information on Ariadne, please visit her site http://www.ariadnegreifsoprano.com/