Manhattan Chamber Players: JP Jofre, Felipe Nieto

About the Composers

Praised by The New York Times for having "traversed the palette of emotions" with "gorgeous tone and an edge of-seat intensity" and described by Diario de Menorca as an "ideal performer" that offers "elegance, displayed virtuosity, and great expressive power," Spanish cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios has played as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. First-prize winner of numerous international competitions and awards, Casarrubios has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Lincoln Center, and the Piatigorsky, Ravinia, and Verbier Festivals. Her latest engagements include commissions and concerts in Mexico, Spain, Romania, Belgium, Germany, Canada, and the United States. Casarrubios' album, Caminante, presents some of her own original music. Released on Odradek Records, it was chosen as one of the “Best 2019 Classical Music Albums” by Australia’s ABC Classic, celebrating her artistry as "superhuman." As a guest soloist at Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Casarrubios performed her own Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, MIRAGE (2019). Her solo cello work SEVEN (2020), described as "an intense and elegiac tribute to the essential workers during the pandemic" (The New York Times), was commissioned by Thomas Mesa, and performed at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium in 2021, among other venues. Casarrubios' compositions have been programmed worldwide, presented by organizations such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Sphinx Organization, Washington Performing Arts, Manhattan Chamber Players, the European Parliament, NPR, and the Spanish National Radio. Solo appearances as a cellist include performances of Franz Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata in A minor arranged for cello and orchestra by Casarrubios herself, Osvaldo Golijov's Azul with conductor Sameer Patel, as well as some of her own original works for cello and orchestra while touring a solo recital program of a wide range of repertoire from Johann Sebastian Bach to Xavier Foley. A dedicated mentor, she has taught masterclasses at the Juilliard School, University of Southern California, the Eastman School of Music, City University of New York, Missouri State University, as well as at numerous festivals and institutions on tour. Her cello teachers have included María de Macedo, Lluis Claret, Amit Peled, Marcy Rosen, and Ralph Kirshbaum. She is an alumna of Ensemble Connect, and as part of her doctoral degree in New York, Casarrubios also studied composition with John Corigliano.

Born and raised in Bogotá, Felipe Nieto first developed an interest in music by learning to play the guitar during his teenage years. Soon after, he started to write music and moved to the United States to study music composition with Edward Knight at Oklahoma City University and later on at Ithaca College with Dana Wilson and Jorge Grossmann. He has received first prize at the annual PubliQuartet Composition Competition, first prize at the Exit 128 Ensemble Composition Competition, honorable mentions at the Buffalo Chamber Players call for scores and the Boston Guitar Festival Composition Competition. He is a two-time recipient of the Smadbeck prize for Music Composition at Ithaca College. In 2018, he was selected for the American Composers Orchestra’s 2018 EarShot program to have an orchestral piece performed by the Charlotte Symphony and as for the American Composers Forum's ACFICreate program. Upcoming engagements include a commission and residency with Quinteto Latino (San Francisco), and a new large-scale work for the New York based Cygnus Ensemble. Nieto's music has been heard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC), DiMenna Center for Music (NYC), the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra (North Carolina), National Museum of Bogota (Colombia), Mizzou New Music Festival (University of Missouri), Conservatorio Superior de Musica Joaquin Rodrigo (Spain), Boston Guitar Festival, Brooklyn Bazaar (NYC), Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, as well as at Las Americas en Concierto where he is also an artist in residence.

Born in San Juan, Argentina, Juan Pablo Jofre Romarion, aka JP Jofre, is a 2022 Grammy-nominated composer and bandoneon player. Having written several double concertos with chamber and symphony orchestras, and more than 40 chamber music works, Mr. Jofre has been repeatedly highlighted by the New York Times and praised as one of today’s leading artists by Great Performers at Lincoln Center. His music has been recorded by the legendary London Symphony Orchestra, multi-Grammy award-winner Paquito D’ Rivera, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra among others. He has performed and given lectures at Google Talks, TED Talks, the Juilliard School of Music, the New School, and other venues. A recipient of the National Prize of the Arts grant in Argentina, Mr. Jofre has been part of many prestigious festivals, including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Umbria Jazz Festival, Great Performers at Lincoln Center, Seattle Town Hall, Hatfield and Sheffield Chamber Music Festival (United Kingdom), and Kasposfest (Hungary), to name a few. For the world premiere of his Bandoneon Concerto, the Mercury News wrote, “…he is an electrifying composer-bandoneon player.” In 2012, Jofre was invited by the Free University of Bolzano and SudTirol Festival (Italy) to perform for the homage to Argentinean Nobel Peace Prize Winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. For the release of his double concerto for violin and bandoneon with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Michale Guttman, the BBC Magazine wrote, "His concerto is arresting and—through the gorgeous Adagio—rather beguiling." He currently leads the JP Jofre Quintet. The ensemble has been touring internationally since the release of its last album, "Manifiesto," among others. Mr. Jofre's music has been performed at the most prestigious concert halls around the world, such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Los Angeles Music Center, Morlacchi Theater (Italy), Mariinsky Theater, Mikhailovsky Theater, Stanislavsky Theater (Russia), Beijing National Concert Hall, Seoul Art Center, and Taiwan National Theater. Mr. Jofre started making music for pleasure at the early age of 5, and academically studying at age 15, double bass with Néstor Castillo, harmony with Horacio Lavaise, composition, and orchestration with Ezequiel Viñao and Adrian Rusovich. He took masterclasses given by Ingrid Zur and George Heyer (Germany) and studied bandoneon with Julio Pane, former bandoneonist of the legendary Astor Piazzolla Sextet. Mr. Jofre has received numerous commissions for composing music from producer Ted Viviani, violin virtuosos Francisco Fullana, Kyung Sun Lee, Rachel Lee, Eric Silberger, Lucia Lin, Michael Guttman, Yih Shuin Huang, MUPA Budapest, pianists David Fung, Min Kwon, clarinetist Seunghee Lee and cellist István Várdai, Metropolis Ensemble, Belares Symphony Orchestra, and San Antonio Music Institute.

About the pieces

La Libertad se levantó llorando ("Liberty Rose Weeping") by Andrea Casarrubios
This duo for violin and cello was premiered in New York City in 2018. The work takes inspiration from a poem by Pablo Neruda, an excerpt that refers to the Spanish Civil War. The music is filled with the strength and the vulnerability of Neruda's words. In this piece, the image of battered Lady Liberty is used to resonate with our own perceptions of the destruction that comes with any war. In the middle of the work, after a tumultuous passage, the poem appears. Towards the end of the recitation, the words "vuestro silencio" allow for the strings' sound to fade providing a moment of rest, a literal silence. This silence brings a sense of reflection and renewal, as it is often the case after a quiet, important observation.  

Text and translation