Music of the Americas: Younger Generations

Monday, March 7, 10 a.m.

Born in New York in 2008, young Argentine-U.S. clarinetist Santiago Del Curto has performed at the Aspen Music Festival, the Stowe Tango Music Festival, Aston Magna Music Festival, the Salida Aspen Concerts, Blue Note, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. Recent solo engagements include concerts with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Lancaster Symphony Orchestra. After hearing Santiago's kindergarten concert, the Latin jazz legend Paquito D'Rivera dedicated "Blues for Santi" to him. Since then, Del Curto has performed with D'Rivera at the Montclair Jazz Festival, at the Martina Arroyo Foundation Gala, and at the Blue Note in New York City. Del Curto's live performance from Aspen Music Festival has been aired multiple times throughout the United States on the Peabody Award-winning classical music radio program Performance Today. He is featured on a recording of Piazzolla's "Oblivion" on the award-winning album Live at the 2016 Stowe Tango Music Festival. In 2020 and 2021, Del Curto participated in the Clarinet Maestro Festival where he studied with Yehuda Gilad, Afendi Yusuf, Eric Abramovitz, among others, and he also attended masterclasses with Stephen Williamson, Anthony McGill and Ricardo Morales. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Del Curto started composing electronic music under the artist name 27 Diamond. He is studying clarinet with Pavel Vinnitsky at the Special Music School in New York City. His former teachers are Katherine Cooke and Liam Burke.

Tuesday, March 8, 7 p.m.

This live webcast conversation will give the audience a chance to get to know several of the composers featured on the live concert by Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Americas Society on March 11, moderated by Ally Stoffo and Andrew Roitstein.

Watch and participate here.

Wednesday, March 9, 10 a.m.

Beatriz López Paz started studying violin at age seven at the Escuela Elemental de Música Manuel Saumell in Havana with Alla Taran. In 2015, she graduated in violin from the Escuela Nacional de las Artes and began her specialization as a violinist and viola da gamba player in the early music ensemble Ars Longa de La Habana. In 2018, she began her studies in viola da gamba with Paolo Pandolfo at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, where she currently resides.

Friday, March 11, 7 p.m.

This live concert in New York marks the Orchestra of St. Luke’s return to our stage with a program of new chamber music by emerging composers Christine Delphine Hedden, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Akshaya Tucker, Iman Habibi, and Nicolas Lell Benavides, alongside works by their mentor Gabriela Lena Frank. 

Watch here.

The MetLife Foundation Music of the Americas concert series is made possible by the generous support of Presenting Sponsor MetLife Foundation. The Spring 2022 Music program is also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, and by the Howard Gilman Foundation.