Notebook

Performance with PRSO of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 5, Dvorak’s violin concerto, and Mariano Morales’ Obertura festiva. Jaime Morales, director; Henry Hutchinson, violin. 8pm, Centro de Bellas Artes.

Performance with the PRSO of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet Suite and Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri overture. Luis Biava, director; Guillermo Figueroa, violin. 8pm, Centro de Bellas Artes.

Performance with PRSO and Teatro de la Opera of Donizetti’s opera L’elisir d’amore with Kamil Khan directing. April 3 & 5 at 8pm, Centro de Bellas Artes.

Performance with PRSO of Sibelius’ Symphony No. 2, Roberto Sierra’s Variations on a Souvenir and Nicolai’s Overture to “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” Theo Alcántara, Director; Ian Hobson, Piano. 8pm, Centro de Bellas Artes.

As part of the 51st annual Casals festival I performed Mejunje del Fagobongo for bassoon and bongo by Alfonso Fuentes. This performance was part of a chamber music concert of music from Puerto Rican composers and included Suite de Canciones Puertorriqueñas for soprano, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon by José Rodríguez Alvira; The concert took place at Centro de Bellas Artes, Sala de Drama in Santurce at 4:00pm.

The Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra performed Mahler’s third symphony in d minor as part of the annual Caslas Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This incredible work was conducted by new PRSO musical director, Maximiano Valdés. The concert took place March 1st at 8pm at Centro de Bellas Artes in Santurce.

In the PRSO’s first concerto of the 51st annual Casals Festival, we performed Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture; Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, K. 158a; Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture ; Copland’s El Salón México and Bernstein’s West Side Story: Symphonic Dances. New PRSO musical director Maximiano Valdés conducted with soprano Magda Nieves.

The concerto took place at Universidad de Puerto Rico Theater in Río Piedras, 8:00 p.m.

Dominic Teresi, bassoonist and historical performance practice specialist of Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra gave a masterclass and period instrument demonstration at the Puerto Rico Conservatory Monday, Feb. 4. Tafelmusik performed in San Juan at Centro de Bellas Artes Sunday night and again at the conservatory Monday morning. Mr. Teresi demonstrated and spoke about baroque affect while working with students from the conservatory. It was an extremely interesting class and we thank Dominic for his time.

I’m very excited to announce that the newly redesigned International Double Reed Society website, IDRS.org has finally launched. I have been maintaining the homepage for 4-5 years now and was responsible for its design but the enormous amount of research, files and information that had accumulated over the 13 years of IDRS.org’s existence was in desperate need of a complete renovation. Yoshi Ishikawa, the site’s Editor and I worked to segment the different facets of the site into manageable and easily understandable/rememberable sections. We also revamped the login process providing better access to members-only sections of the site like score downloads and videos. The process by which users join the IDRS online, edit their account information and renew their membership was completely rewritten.

I worked to create a design that was simple, easy to read and elegant. I reworked the logo a bit and tried to keep the look uncluttered.

Though there is still a lot of work to be done converting thousands of pages of html into the new XHTML/CSS/PHP framework I think we’ve laid the groundwork for a successful ongoing system.

Go to the site now, IDRS.org. If you’re not a member of IDRS, join.

Perfomance January 26th with the PRSO of Cordero’s Concierto festivo para guitarra y orquesta de cuerdas; Rodrigo’s Concierto andaluz para cuatro guitarras y orquesta; Compos Parsi’s Divertimento del sur and De Falla’s Suite no. 2 of The Three Cornered Hat. Pepe Romero and the Cuarteto Romero, guitars with Guillermo Figueroa, director. 8pm, Centro de Bellas Artes in Sunturce.