KAIA String Quartet Performs Twice. Photo by Todd Rosenberg.

Preview: 12th Chicago Latino Music Festival Opens Thursday

Ensemble Lipzode explores music from colonial Latin America. Photo courtesy of Chicago Latino Music Festival. Celebrating the rich musical heritage of Latin America and Spain, the 12th annual Chicago Latino Music Festival opens this Thursday with a free concert by Peruvian guitarist Luis Rafael Vivanco. His solo performance will feature works from the late 19th Century to the present day by Joaquin Rodrigo, Isaac Albéniz, Gerónimo Giménez, and others at the Instituto Cervantes Chicago, 31 W. Ohio Street, 7:00 pm. Peruvian guitarist Luis Raphael Vivanco opens the festival. Photo courtesy of Chicago Latino Music Festival. Hosted by the International Latino Cultural Center, this year’s festival has 11 concerts in several venues around Chicago. Many of the concerts are free. Spanish and Latino artists perform orchestral, chamber, electronic, and vocal music. While several musical periods are represented, modern and contemporary music predominates, with two world premieres. The festival will join forces with Fulcrum Point New Music Project, directed by Stephen Burns, for a concert featuring electronic and neo classical music. Included on the program are works by Argentine-born Gustavo Leone, who is a Professor of Music at Loyola University and Uruguay-born Elbio Barilari, who is on the faculty at the University of Illinois-Chicago. Leone and Barilari also serve as the festival’s co-Directors. Wednesday, October 18, Merit School of Music, Gottlieb Hall, 38 S. Peoria, 7:00 pm, $15 general admission, $10 students. The music of Leone and Barilari also appear in an orchestral concert with the Chicago Composers Orchestra.  A program highlight is composer, pianist, and scat vocalist Clarice Assad performing her own composition Scattered. Assad was born in Rio de Janeiro, and her father and uncle form the wonderful Assad Brothers guitar duo. She appeared with them in a concert in Hyde Park last April. Sunday October 22, Constellation, 3111 N. Western, 8:00 pm. $15-$20. Fulcrum Point New Music Project Director Stephen Burns. Photo by Saverio Truglia. WFMT’s ensemble in residence, the KAIA String Quartet will be performing on two adjacent evenings. On Thursday, October 19, is a concert of music by Miguel Berbal, Oswaldo Golijov, and José Bragato Ginastera. Harold Washington Library, Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, 400 S. State Street, 6:30 pm, free.  On the following day, Friday, October 20, the KAIA Quartet will be joined by guitarist Fareed Haque and pianist Susan Merdinger to celebrate the 5th anniversary of WFMT’s Fiesta, the only radio program in the United States to feature classical music from Latin America. Music Center at Columbia College, 1040 S. Michigan Ave, 7:00 pm, free. KAIA String Quartet performs twice. Photo by Todd Rosenberg. Music from colonial Latin America will be performed by Ensemble Lipzodes, a vocal and wind group from Indiana University. Highlighting the program will be several pieces from Música del Manuscrito de Ibarra, a recently discovered manuscript from Ecuador that, originally written between 1680-1730, Lipzodes is transcribing. Thursday, November 9, Harold Washington Public Library, Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, 6:30 pm, free. Spanish pianist Daniel del Pino will perform music by composers from his homeland dating from the turn of the 20th Century. This includes the Second Book of Suite Iberia by Isaac Albéniz and three pieces from the moving Goyescas by Enrique Granados. Wednesday, November 15, PianoForte Studios, 1335 S Michigan Ave, 7:00 pm, $10-$20. More information about the 12th Chicago Latino Music Festival can be found at Chicago Latino Music Festival.
#Ensemble Lipzode#Fulcrum Point New Music Project#KAIA String Quartet#Latino Music Festival
Louis Harris

A lover of music his whole life, Louis Harris has written extensively from the early days of punk and alternative rock. More recently he has focused on classical music, especially chamber ensembles. He has reviewed concerts, festivals, and recordings and has interviewed composers and performers. He has paid special attention to Chicago’s rich and robust contemporary art music scene. He occasionally writes poetry and has a published novel to his credit, 32 Variations on a Theme by Basil II in the Key of Washington, DC. He now lives on the north side of Chicago, which he considers to be the greatest city in the country, if not the world. Member of the Music Critics Association of North America.