Mexican Flutist Alejandro Escuer Incorporates Audiovisuals in Americas Society Performance

 

On November 20, flutist Alejandro Escuer performed a multimedia concert to an appreciative crowd at Music of the Americas. Collaborating with fellow composer Felipe Pérez Santiago, Escuer combined visual and aural elements into the performance.

Since his last appearance at Music of the Americas in 2004, Escuer’s career has been fruitful as the performer made an array of recordings, went on numerous international tours, and wrote several new pieces. The November program centered around Escuer’s latest album, Flying, and included pieces by an international cast of composers dealing with the theme of communication, in particular social media. Many of the pieces included video alongside electro-acoustic elements. As Vivien Schweitzer of The New York Times wrote, “One of the most rewarding pieces on the program was the improvisatory ‘Levitarium,’ a collaboration between Mr. Escuer and Mr. Pérez Santiago, in which a flute line soared over an intensely layered electronic canvas.” Whether it was an image of a murky swamp during Templos or recorded audio of laughter and spoken words during Lipstick, each piece sought to pierce melody through the clamor of its “outside influences.” 

Music of the Americas presented Escuer and Pérez Santiago as part of the Celebrate Mexico Now festival and Carnegie Hall’s Voices From Latin America festival, which offers multidisciplinary events in cultural institutions in New York. For more information on Alejandro Escuer, please visit his website at www.alejandroescuer.com.

Read the complete Times review here.

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