Noticias
She is working in an opera based on Harriet Tubman’s life
Composer Hilda Paredes plans to premiere her works in Mexico City, London and Amsterdam ·
May 25, 2017There are so many things and people that inspire the composer Hilda Paredes: a poem, a painting, an esthetic political or social concern, or a work of some colleague that surprises her, "but especially the musicians themselves, singers or directors whom I have been fortunate to work with and for whom I have written or for whom I am writing”, says the artist from London.
It is in the English capital where the artist, member of the National System of Art Creators of the National Fund for Culture and Arts, finalizes the last details of her compositions that will be premiered on 2017 and 2018.
"From where I find myself as a creator, the word that comes to my mind to describe what I do is: to discover. Increasingly, I think that musical creation is a process of discovery of the wonderful world of sounds and extraordinary possibilities how to articulate and relate them to each other”.
At the moment, Paredes said, I have just completed the first draft of a work that has not yet a title but is for the saxophone quartet and for the Spanish group Sigma Project, "so I hope to finish the score this summer and find a title ".
The artist added that she is also working on an opera based on the life of the abolitionist and former slave Harriet Tubman, who became leader of the Underground Railroad movement, an antislavery network that aided fugitive slaves in the United States.
"Like the vast majority of slaves, she was also illiterate, so they communicated through music to send coded messages among the fugitives. In this sense, the score draws on fragments of this music in the dramatic development”.
"It’s been a long time of fascinating research and collaboration with librettist Mayra Santos-Febres and the making of the score is becoming an equally fascinating experience”.
The play is a mono-drama for soprano Claron McFadden and includes a young soprano (ideally a girl), violin, guitar, percussion and electronic media.
"At the moment it is contemplated to do the electronics in the studio of the Centre National de Création Musicale in Nice, France, where I will be working”, she said.
The work is a commission of the International Cervantino Festival 2018 for the project OM21, Mexican Opera of the XXI Century and the production is in charge of Music Theater Transparant.
According to Hilda Paredes, the world premiere is scheduled for October 3rd, 2018 at the Muziekgebouw concert hall in Amsterdam, after which she will travel to Mexico to perform at the Cervantino Festival and the National Arts Center.
Parallel to this work, the artist whose compositions are defined as exciting, challenging and poetic works, stressed that she is anxious and waiting for the concert to be held next Saturday June 3rd at 5:00 pm in the Sala Manuel M. Ponce of the Palace of Fine Arts, an event with which she celebrates her 60th birthday.
The concert is a tribute given by the National Center for the Arts and the Center for Experimentation and Production of Contemporary Music (Cepromusic, for its acronym in Spanish). The program includes works by young Mexican composers who have written for this celebration: Alejandro Romero, author of Euridíce in reconfiguration of memory for violin and ensemble, and José Luis Hurtado, author of Stabiles III also for violin and instrumental group.
"Both will have its world premiere at this concert which includes the work Piccola Musica Notturna by Luigi Dallapicola, a composer who has always had a special appreciation and whose work should be known much more. The program will also feature Stirrings Still by the British Rebecca Saunders, whom I know and whose work is always surprising”
"I will also perform the premiere in Mexico of my concerto for violin Señales, Hommage to Jonathan Harvey (with Irvine Arditti as soloist) and Jitanjáfora, a work that I wrote in 2014 for the ensemble, both of which will be directed by José Luis Castillo. Also, a special guest who will play the cymbal in Señales: percussionist Laurence Kaptain. The program is very attractive and will be full of surprises so we invite you to join us”.
Finally, Paredes revealed that the European premiere of Son dementes cuerdas in charge of the composer and guitarist Eliot Fisk and the Arditti Quartet will take place at the Wigmore Hall in London on Wednesday June 14th at 19:30 p.m.
To know more about the work and future releases of Hilda Paredes’s compositions please visit: www.hildaparedes.com
Mexico,Distrito Federal
