Concorde brings the sounds of Mexican composers to Dublin this January and February.

The first of two concerts of contemporary Mexican music took place in the National Gallery of Ireland on January 18 and featured five Irish premieres including a commissioned work from Alejandro Castanos. These highly diverse and colourful pieces were presented to a capacity audience in the Shaw Room in the presence of the Mexican Ambassador, Ms. Cecelia Jaber. The programme was described by an audience member as 'mind-opening and ear-opening.'

The second concert takes place on Sunday February 15 at the Irish Museum of Modern Art at 3.00 pm. Five composers will be featured: Gabriela Ortiz, José-Luis Hurtado, Jorge Torres-Sáenz, Ana Lara and Javier Alvarez and all of the pieces have been composed in the 21st century. All are Irish premieres and Ana Lara's work will be receiving its world premiere.

Gabriela Ortiz currently teaches composition at the Mexican University of Mexico City and as a visiting professor at Indiana University. Her composition, El águila bicéfala (the two-headed eagle) is inspired by geometrical shapes found on textiles and fabrics depicting the image of this fantastic bird, an important symbol in Mexican history. José-Luis Hurtado, a PhD candidate at Harvard University, has written a work for voice, cello and piano which uses fragments from a poem by the Mexican poet Jaime Sabines and is centred on 'water.' Jorge Torres-Sáenz has been inspired by a brief unfinished Haiku of Matsuo Bashuo: 'Chrysanthemums come into flower, ethereal, after the rainstorm'. Ana Lara, from Mexico City, has studied in Warsaw and at Maryland University in the USA and has been composer-in-residence with the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico. Her duo for flute and piano, Niebla del alba (Mist of dawn), provides an intense conversation between the two instruments. Javier Alvarez, one of Mexico's best known contemporary composers, is featured with a dramatic work for solo cello, electroacoustic sounds and film projection of two silent films: Le Repas du Serpent and Retour a la Raison, a film of Man Ray. This extraordinary work, one of Alvarez's most recent compositions, reveals his skill in writing for the combined sounds of live musician and electroacoustic sound.

The concert takes place on Sunday, 15 February at 3.00 pm in the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Admission is free.

Concorde is supported by the Arts Council. Concorde's Mexican concerts are supported by the Embassy of Mexico, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Irish Museum of Modern Art.

Posted: 26 January 2009