SONiC: Puentes caribeños

Program

Curated by Puentes Caribeños

Introduction by Garrett McQueen, ACO Director of Artist Equity

Paul Shaw, piano

Piano Variations: Aaron Copland

Limba for George: Paul Shaw

Variations on a Theme by E. Clement Bethel: Cleophas Adderley

Bridge 1

Pequeños puentes 1*: Carlos Carrillo

Christine Gangelhoff and Nora Lee Garcia, flutes

Fluterican
Nora Lee Garcia, flute

Estampas del Caribe*: Mariano Morales

with Mariano Morales, piano

Sonatina for Flute and Piano: Raymond Torres Santos

Movement IV: Raymond Torres Santos

with Raymond Torres Santos, piano

Bridge 2

Pequeños puentes*: Carlos Carrillo

Christine Gangelhoff and Nora Lee Garcia, flutes

C Force

Christine Gangelhoff, flute Christian Justilien, euphonium, Paul Jones, piano, with Gillard Louis, percussion

Erosions*: Adam Walters

Conch ‘n Cays*: Christian Justilien/Paul Jones

Bahama Islands Suite: Christian Justilien, text by Marion Bethel

San Salvador (The New World)
Grand Bahama (Pinder's Point)
Eleuthera (Da Bight)
Ragged Island (Deep South)
Bimini (Blue Marlin)

with Garrett McQueen, spoken word

*World premiere

About Puentes Caribeños 

Puentes Caribeños is the organization behind the Caribbean art music symposia that have taken place across the Caribbean since 2013. Passionate about the extensive but little-known repertoire of music from the region, Puentes Caribeños is committed to promoting composers linked to the Caribbean in order that their voices may be heard more widely. As the classical music world finally begins to embrace more diversity and inclusion, the work of Puentes Caribeños is timelier than ever. The Puentes Caribeños committee consists of its co-founders Dr Carlos Carrillo (University of Illinois), Dr Christine Gangelhoff (University of The Bahamas) and Dr Adam Walters (University of Trinidad and Tobago).

Paul Shaw - piano, a top prize-winner in the William Kapell International Piano Competition and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, has performed at prestigious venues across the globe including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, the Kennedy Center and the Hall of the Americas in Washington, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. He was educated at the Jamaica School of Music and at The Juilliard School where he earned the Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Piano Performance. He is a Steinway Artist.

Fluterican Nora Lee Garcia is one of the most highly regarded flutists in the concert world today. A Powell Flutes Artist and Professor of Flute at the University of Central Florida, she is in demand as an international soloist, chamber artist, and teacher. Nora Lee has performed in Carnegie Hall and she played with the Chautauqua Symphony in New York and holds the position of principal flute with the Bach Festival Orchestra of Winter Park and the Florida Chamber Orchestra, of which she is a founding member. She has collaborated with some of the world’s finest performers, composers, and conductors, such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Michael Tilson Thomas, George Crumb, Michel Debost, Philip Moll, and Gary Schocker. Most notably, Nora Lee can be heard on the soundtrack for the Sony Pictures film, The End of the Spear and her CD for flute and guitar 2022 Global Award winner Cubatina (Centaur 3937).

Mariano Morales works in a wide spectrum of genres and styles. As a composer, Morales has received numerous commissions and his works have been performed by distinguished ensemblesincluding the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Houston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic Brass Ensemble, the Santa Fe Symphony, and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra. Performances of his compositions have also been presented at Music in the Mountains Festival in Durango, the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, the Orlando Philharmonic, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra’s Chevron Fiesta Sinfónica Series. Morales holds a bachelor’s degree in music in Jazz Composition and Arranging from Berklee College of Music and a master’s and a Doctoral Degree in Music Composition from Indiana University.

Born in Puerto Rico, Raymond Torres-Santos studied at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and the University of Puerto Rico. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in composition from UCLA and completed advanced studies at Stanford and Harvard University. He furthered studies in Europe, at the Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Germany, and at the University of Padua in Italy. His major professors were Henri Lazarof and David Raksin. He is the recipient of awards given by ASCAP, BMI, Meet the Composer, American Composers Forum, American Music Center, California State University and City University of New York as well as the Henry Mancini and Frank Sinatra Awards in Los Angeles. 

C Force Trio features a unique instrumentation with Christine Gangelhoff, flute; Christian Justilien, euphonium; and Paul Jones, piano. The members of C Force, who hold degrees from Berklee, Indiana, Minnesota, North Texas, Vandercook, Western Ontario and Yale, are unified in their desire to elevate music education in The Bahamas and throughout the Caribbean via their inclusive repertoire, compositional work and performance practice. Since its formation in 2008, the group has been featured in concerts throughout the islands of The Bahamas and the wider Caribbean, with performances in Trinidad and Tobago, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Canada, and the United States. Their aim is to showcase little-known classical composers of the Caribbean in original works, transcriptions and arrangements. C Force has recorded several CDs, one of which was described by the late musicologist Dominique-René de Lerma as “destined to become a document in the evolutionary history of music in The Bahamas.”