A forum for the appreciation of all things related to the classical music of Latin America.
Born in Indiana in 1906, David Van Vactor received his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in 1928. He spent the following year in Vienna composing and studying the flute with Josef Niedermeyer, the principal flutist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. He returned to the US and became the first flutist of the Chicago Civic Orchestra. …
Alfonso Leng, La muerte de Alsino, opening section. The classical music of Latin America unfolded along an entirely different path than that of Europe or the United States. In fact, the sequential development that we learned about in music history class, that is, concerning the distinct periods ending with “ism,” such as classicism or modernism, …
Francisco Curt Lange (1903-1997) was a German-born Uruguayan musicologist. He earned a degree in architecture, and also, pursued studies in music at universities in Leipzig, Berlin, and Munich. At the university in Bonn, in 1929 he received a Ph.D. after writing a dissertation on the polyphonic nature of Dutch motets. The following year, the Uruguayan …
For a five-year period, from 1936 to 1941, Leopold Stokowski shared the conductor’s podium of the Philadelphia Orchestra with Eugene Ormandy. However, Stokowski’s constant tinkering with the orchestra, such as his once telling the players to sit on stage wherever they wanted, led to increasing acrimony between the two conductors. In fact, by near the …
For all intents and purposes, today’s undergraduate music majors in the United States are exposed to little or no information about the classical music of Latin America. For instance, in my copy of the eighth edition of the Burkholder History of Western Music, under the heading, “The Americas,” a grand total of two and a …
Last night saw the conclusion of the Latin American Art Music Festival at the University of Kansas. I gave the keynote speech about the re-imagination of musical Pan-Americanism, and immediately afterward, I conducted KU music students in a performance of four works that our Cayambis Sinfonietta had previously presented on our 2024 concert last fall. …
Yesterday (Sunday), there were several performance events that took place; for instance, one of these was a program of Latin American classical music that was presented by KU music department alumni. You can watch this, as well as all of the other recent performances, on the KU School of Music YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@KUSchoolofMusic You can …
Today, here at the University of Kansas Latin American Art Music Festival, and as part of the “Milton Steinhardt Lectures in Music” series, I gave a talk entitled, “Musicological Disparities: The State of Affairs regarding Latin American Classical Music.” My presentation was centered around the musicological tools, in English, related to the classical music of …
Another excellent day at the University of Kansas Latin American Art Music Festival! Here in this photo, you can see (most of) us rehearsing Batuque, by Oscar Lorenzo Fernández. The KU students are doing a great job, which means that it’s shaping up to be a fantastic concert this coming Monday evening on the KU …
Had a great rehearsal with the KU music students last night! Though they may not know this, they are now the “Kansas version” of the Cayambis Sinfonietta. Together, we’ll be performing four pieces from the Americas: Victor Herbert’s Panamericana, Oscar Lorenzo Fernández’s Batuque, O Garatuja by Alberto Nepomuceno, and Alfonso Leng’s La muerte de Alsino. …