Cuban music has a long and rich history going back many centuries. Given the island’s location many musical styles and aesthetics were born on the island and then disseminated while music from different parts of the world came to Cuba as well adding to the mix. While the folk and popular forms are well known types of Cuban music, there is an important art music tradition as well. Similar to the folk and popular traditions, the art music from Cuba has many influences especially considering the large number of Cubans living outside of the island. Sonidos cubanos is a snapshot of a segment of Cuban composers born on the island that currently live outside of Cuba. Each composer has a unique voice and background only being tied to each other by the fact that all 4 were born in Cuba and that all have received the coveted Cintas Foundation prize, awarded to select artists of Cuban birth or descent. Sonidos cubanos was created to showcase the work of these composers while attempting to bring more attention to the art music from this part of the world.
Initiated by FIU faculty composer Orlando Jacinto García, NODUS is the professional contemporary chamber music ensemble in residence at Florida International University in Miami (FIU). Specializing in the cutting edge Art music of our time, the makeup of the ensemble varies for each concert depending on the works being presented. The ensemble’s repertoire includes recent music by composers from around the world, works written specifically for the ensemble, and works with electronics and/or video.
NODUS debut at the FIU Festival of the Arts in November 1998 and shortly thereafter was featured at the January 1999 New Music Miami Festival. Subsequent performances have included the 1999, 2000, and 2001 FIU Music Festival, the 2001 Music of the Americas Festival, the 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 New Music Miami ISCM Festival, the 2004 International Computer Music Conference, the 2006 International Association of Women in Music Conference, and other concerts held at a variety of South Florida venues over the past several seasons. In 2009-10 NODUS was featured at the International New Music Festival in Lima, Peru, and once again participated in the New Music Miami ISCM Festival. During 2010 and 2011 the ensemble is scheduled to perform at the Cervantino Festival in Mexico and the World Music Days in Zagreb, Croatia.
NODUS has been featured at the Norton Museum, Wertheim Performing Arts Center, the Wolfsonian, the Spanish Cultural Center, Miami Art Central, Miami Art Museum, von Hartz Gallery, Dorsch Gallery, Gusman Concert Hall, among other performing spaces in the region. The musicians in NODUS are internationally acclaimed performers and include flutist Elissa Lakofsky, clarinetists Paul Green, and Julian Santacoloma, pianists Jose Lopez and Jennifer Snyder, percussionists Guy St-Amant and Mark Schubert, violinists Robert Davidovici, Huifang Chen, and Luis Fernandez, violist Laura Wilcox, cellist Phillip Lakofsky, contrabassist Luis Gomez Imbert, soprano Kathleen Wilson, and tenor Robert Dundas.
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