9th Barcelona Festival of Song®
Summer Program & Concert Series of
Latin-American & Spanish Vocal Repertoire

June 20 - July 6, 2013

Teachers

The Barcelona Festival of Song is proud to have among their faculty some of the most important and internationally renowned scholars, researchers, teachers, and performers of the Latin American and Spanish Art Song genre. Most of the teachers are natives, meaning they are from Latin-America or Spain and know in dept the culture and music of their own regions of origin.

The director of the festival, soprano, musicologist and physician Dr. Patricia Caicedo is recognized as a pioneer in the research, study and performance of the Latin-American and Iberian Art Song, having published several books, CDs and maintaining a very active international concert and teaching career. You can learn about her in www.patriciacaicedo.com

Dr. Caicedo is in charge of inviting a group of experts in different subjects related with the study of the history and interpretation of the Iberian and Latin-American repertoire. During her 8 years of existence the Barcelona Festival of Song have had as teachers some of the most important interpreters and researchers of the Latin-American and Spanish Art Song gener worldwide.

Participants to the Barcelona Festival of Song can be sure they work with the best experts in the field. In addition all diction classes are thought by native speakers.

FACULTY 2013

VOICE

Patricia Caicedo, soprano (Colombia/España)

Recognized as “The Voice of the Latin American and Spanish Art Song” and often described as its ambassador, Colombian-Spanish soprano and musicologist Patricia Caicedo positioned herself as a leading interpreter of the Latin American and Spanish vocal repertory and has sung in the United States, Canada, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Germany and numerous Latin-American countries to public and critical acclaim.

Singing in Spanish, Catalan, Portuguese, Quechua and Nahuatl she draws listeners into the world of beauty, poetry, and warmth that is the Latin American & Spanish Art Song – a world that continues to thrive because of her determination to ensure its future. As one reviewer noted, “Reflecting her deep emotional connection to the music, she interprets the repertory with extraordinary sensitivity and sweetness.”

She has recorded five CDs dedicated to the Latin American Art Song --"Aves y Ensueños - Colombian Art Songs by Jaime León" (2011), "Estrela é Lua nova..." (2011), -"De mi corazón latino" (2010), “To My Native City” (2005) and “ Lied:Art Songs of Latin America” (2001)-- has collaborated on other CDs. All are available for purchase on this website.

As a musicologist and teacher Caicedo is internationally recognized as the leading expert in the study and performance of the Latin American & Spanish art song, a tradition she has almost single-handedly rescued from extinction. Her pioneering books The Latin American Art Song: A Critical Anthology and Interpretive Guide for Singers and The Colombian Art Song - Jaime León: Analysis and Compilation of his works for voice & piano Vol.1 & 2. are consider reference books in the field. Patricia´s articles about Latin-American Art Song have appear in VoicePrints and the Latin-American Music Review.

She is the founder and artistic director of the Barcelona Festival of Song, a Summer Program and concert series focused on the study of the history and interpretation of the Latin American & Spanish Art Song repertoire, an event that will be reaching its 8th edition in 2012.

Caicedo holds a PhD in musicology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a Medical Doctor degree from the Escuela Colombiana de Medicina. Her PhD dissertation´s title is: The Latin American Art Song: National Identity, Performance Practice and the Worlds of Art.Since 2008 Caicedo was included in the Who's Who in America. Published by Marquis Who's Who is the leading biographical reference publisher of the highest achievers and contributors from across the country and around the world. The inclusion of Ms. Caicedo represents a tribute to her discipline and hard work as an advocate of the Latin American and Spanish Music. Since 2010 Patricia is included in the Who's Who in American Women and Who´s Who in the World.

Lenine Santos, tenor (Brazil)

Lenine Santos was born in Brasília – DF, Brazil and is considered one of the best interpreters of Brazilian music. He finished his PhD in Music at São Paulo State University – UNESP – focusing his dissertation on Brazilian Chamber Music. He began his musical career at a very young age with the String Orchestra of SESI, studying violin. Later on, he entered the Brasília School of Music where he studied voice technique. He also took classes at the University of Campinas – UNICAMP – in the State of São Paulo with the well known singer Niza de Castro Tank.

He received prizes and honorable mentions in several competitions such as that of Carlos Gomes, Canto de Barra Bonita, and Maria Callas. In 1998 Lenine Santos recorded “XX Compositores Brasileiros”, his first CD dedicated exclusively to Brazilian song. In 2005 and 2010, he recorded “Caipira” and “Mais Caipira” with singer Suzana Salles and guitar player Ivan Vilela, in which they interpret Brazilian popular songs. Continuing his extensive work on Brazilian music, Lenine participated in the recording and reedition of Antônio Carlos Gomes’ songs in 2006, resulting in a new CD entitled “Minhas Pobres Canções”, and recorded in 2007 the CD “Canção”.

Josani Keunecke, mezzosoprano (Brazil)

Josani holds a degree in conduction and flute from the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil. The mezzosoprano is at this moment undertaking her PhD in singing/voice at the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Her entire investigation is about the study of the vocal work of the composer Camargo Guarnieri. Josani is also a member of the research group of Brazilian music and the study group “Expressão Vocal na Performance Musical” in the Instituto de Artes of UNESP.

Keunecke performs regularly as a soloist in Brazil, Latin America and Europe. In 2009 was awarded at the Concurso de Interpretação da Canção Erudita Brasileira. She is a student of Lenice Prioli and a member of the “Mestres Cantores de São Paulo”.

Adélia Issa, soprano (Brazil)

One of the most important lyrical singers in Brazil, Adélia Issa began her singing studies with Herminia Russo in São Paulo and attended the Manhattan School of Music, in New York, where she also participated in workshops by New York City Opera’s Lou Galtiero. She did several courses to perfect her opera skills and about Chamber music with Nico Castel at the New York Metropolitan Opera and worked under the guidance of the renowned pianist Dalton Baldwin.

She has been performing throughout Brazil, Latin America, United States and Europe, in recitals, concerts and operas.

She has a Masters in Music by the Universidade de São Paulo, and has been invited to teach courses in some of the most important festivals across Brazil, such as the on in Campos do Jordão, Maringá, Águas de São Pedro, Ourinhos, Campo Grande and João Pessoa. She as been teaching master classes and seminars in several universities and music schools, being amongst them the Universidades Federais de Bahia, Paraíba, Uberlândia, Rio Grande do Sul, Pelotas and the Escola Municipal de Música de São Paulo.

Adélia is also the president of the Núcleo Hespérides – Música das Américas, a group that is aimed at bringing together, preserving and divulge the Music of the Americas, especialy the one created after the 20^th century and they try to bring back the cultural richness of the three Americas and the Caribean.

PIANO

Carolina Estrada (Spain/Australia)

Prestigious musicians like Paul Badura Skoda, institutions like the International Dinu Lipatti-Clara Haskil Foundation and the audiences have unanimously described Carolina Estrada as “an inspiring example in music” with a “very strong personality at the piano”, “stunning virtuosity” and “colorful and spontaneous sound.” Estrada’s interpretation is “highly inspiring and individual, sensitive yet powerful, performance of a true artist!” (Dejan Lazic).

Spanish-born concert pianist Carolina Estrada performs frequently in international festivals and she has given recital in prestigious concert halls around the world as soloist and with orchestras, in Europe, Asia and Australia. She has edited several recordings with Quality Classics in Holland and recorded live broadcast for National Catalan and Spanish Radios. She won her first award at the age of 8, since then, she has been grant holder of numerous international awards and prizes. Currently she has been awarded at the Chamber Music Section of the Australasian International Double-Reed Competition in Sydney and is recipient of the George Henderson Award and the Kathleen & Allison Short Scholarship, both Faculty Merit Scholarships offered by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music to financially support her doctoral degree.

Carolina Estrada started her studies with Carles Julia and Ramon Coll in Barcelona. Later, she studied her Bachelor´s and Master´s Degrees with Matthijs Vershoor at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she was selected to undertake a year of specialization at the Universitat der Kunste Udk with the legendary pianist Laszlo Simon. She has also received advices from Dejan Lazic, Paul Badura-Skoda, Natalia Sheludiakova, Claude Helffer, Gerard Willems, Ilse Graubin, Edit Fisher and Malcom Bilson.

From 2005 to 2011, she was appointed member of the piano faculty at the Reus Music Conservatorium in Spain and at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. Furthermore, she has been invited guest teacher in masterclasses, summer courses and festivals in Spain. Moderator at the Barcelona Piano Festival Colloquium and presenter in International Music Symposiums in Australia. Since March 2012 she is undertaking the Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) on Spanish performance with Natalia Ricci at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Her doctoral research receives pianistic guidance by Spanish music specialists and the Marshall Academy in Barcelona and the support of Cervantes Institute and the General Consulate of Spain in Sydney.

Adam Kent (USA)

Adam Kent has performed in recital, as soloist with orchestra, and in chamber music throughout the United States, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and South America. A winner of the American Pianists Association Fellowship and Simone Belsky Music Awards, Dr. Kent also received top prizes in the Thomas Richner, the Juilliard Concerto, and the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competitions, and is a recipient of the Arthur Rubinstein Prize and the Harold Bauer Award. Dr. Kent made his New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall in 1989, and has been featured on WQXR, WNYC, WFUV, WVOX and Sirius Radio stations. Chamber music has been an important part of Dr. Kent’s concert life, most recently with the Damocles Trio, which has performed both in the United States and abroad. The group’s recording of Joaquín Turina's complete piano trios and quartet with Emerson Quartet violist Lawrence Dutton was released by Claves Records in 2004, followed up by their recording of Heitor Villa-Lobos’s complete piano trios and Oscar Lorenzo Fernândez’s Trio brasileiro in 2009.

Spanish music has been a specialty of Dr. Kent’s, whose advocacy has been acknowledged by the Spanish government on numerous occasions. In 2011, King Juan Carlos I of Spain honored the pianist by bestowing Spain’s Orden al Mérito Civil, and the Consulate General of Spain in NY underwrote Dr. Kent’s course on the history of Spanish music at Brooklyn College. The Spanish Consulate has also sponsored numerous appearances by Dr. Kent at NY’s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the Spanish Ministry for Education and Culture awarded him a grant for Música por doquier/Hispanic Music Everywhere, a year-long celebration of Spanish and Latin-American in NYC with the Damocles Trio and Spanish composer and conductor Salvador Brotons. The Foundation for Iberian Music at the CUNY Graduate Center and the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU have also sponsored a number of Dr. Kent’s Hispanic-themed projects, including commissions of new works by Tania León, Salvador Brotons, Miguel-Ángel Roig-Francolì, and others.

Dr. Kent’s critically acclaimed recording of the complete works of Ernesto Halffter is available on Bridge Records, and a recent performance of Book I of Albéniz’s Iberia suite was praised in the Indianapolis Star as “Albénizian to the core...his suave legato touch wedded to a tone with an Old World patina about it.” Excelsior of Mexico City enthused about a recent all-Spanish recital, “Adam Kent brought not only magnificent technical ability to the music, but managed to go beyond the printed page, delving into the essence of what the composer sought to express.” Dr. Kent’s expertise in this repertory has also extended to interviews and performances in several recent documentaries on Spanish composers Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla.

Dr. Kent received a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal and served as an adjunct professor. His dissertation, The Use of Catalan Folk Materials in the Works of Federico Mompou and Joaquín Nin-Culmell, was awarded the school’s Richard F. French Prize, and his writings have appeared in Clavier and Music in Art magazines and in a Spanish-language monograph on Xavier Montsalvatge published by the Spanish Society of Authors and Editors. He holds B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky. Curretly, Dr. Kent is on the Piano Faculties of Brooklyn College Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, and New Jersey City University.

Ricardo Ballestero (Brasil)

Born in São Paulo, Ricardo Ballestero has dedicated his career to be a piano accompanist, he was a student of two of the most important accompanist of our time, Martin Katz and Dalton Baldwin. He got his B.A. at the Universidade de São Paulo, his Masters at the Westminster Choir College, at Princeton, USA and his PhD in Accompanist and Chamber Music at the University of Michigan, USA.

Ricardo performs regularly in recitals with soloist singers at the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera. He has collaborated with Orchestras from Baltimore, Puerto Rico, the state of São Paulo, Frankfurt and Madrid.

As a coach, Ricardo has performed in almost twenty opera productions at the Houston Grand Opera, Festival Amazonas de Ópera, Festival de Inverno de Campos de Jordão and at the opera departments of Michigan and Colorado Universities.

He is a teacher of Vocal Repertoire and Accompanist at the Music Department of the Universidade de São Paulo and has been an invited teacher at the University of Colorado-Boulder, USA in 2003/03.

GUITAR

José Lezcano (Cuba/USA)

Described by the New Millennium Guitar Magazine as "a superb guitarist as well as a first-rate composer and arranger" José Manuel Lezcano has captivated audiences on four continents. His programs featuring traditional and Latin American repertory, and his own original compositions have taken him as recitalist, collaborative musician, and concerto soloist from Carnegie Recital Hall and the North-South Consonance Series in New York City to major venues and festivals in Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic and Germany.

Born in Havana, Cuba in 1960, Lezcano was invited to join the faculty of Keene State College in New Hampshire in 1991, where he is Professor of Music and teaches courses in guitar, music theory, and Latin American music; he directs the Guitar Orchestra and Latin American ensemble. He earned degrees from Peabody Conservatory (BM), University of South Carolina (MM), and Florida State University (Ph.d. music theory) where his teachers included Aaron Shearer and Christopher Berg. He also participated in master classes taught by Michael Lorimer, Sharon Isbin, and Leo Brouwer the noted Cuban guitarist and composer who referred to him as "a magnificent guitarist -un guitarista magnifico."

Dr. Lezcano's own Guitar Concerto (2004), which he premiered in New York City as soloist with the North-South Consonance Chamber Orchestra directed by Max Lifchitz, has received critical acclaim after release on the North-South label in 2007 as "Remembrances/Recuerdos." Fanfare Magazine wrote, "Colorfully scored ... agreeable music, and dashingly performed by the composer." In September, 2008, Dr. Lezcano performed his concerto with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Peru. He has also performed it with orchestras in Ecuador, Colombia, and New Hampshire.

Dr. Lezcano's works include two additional concerti, a song cycle, a choral suite, chamber music, and solos, written in an eclectic, expressive, but accessible language that is praised for "energy" and "soaring melodies" (Flute Talk). His chamber works with guitar, published by Alry and Tuscany, have been performed by major artists including Ricardo Cobo, Antigoni Goni, Duo Fresco, the Alturas Duo, and William Bennet. A recent CD by Ms. Goni, "Songs from the New Village," on Koch International, includes José's Sonatina Tropical.

José has earned numerous awards, including first prize in the MTNA National Guitar Competition, the NH State Arts Council Individual Artist Fellowship, NHMTA Composer of the Year (2002 & 07), KSC Distinguished Research Award, and a Fulbright Award to Ecuador where he performed as orchestral soloist and pursued research on indigenous guitar traditions. Jose's scholarly publications include Latin American Music Review. Dr. Lezcano have been part of the faculty of the Barcelona Festival of Song since 2008.

COMPOSER

Lucio Bruno Videla (Argentina)

Composer, orchestra director and violinist from argentina. Assintant director of the Instituto de Etnomusicología of Buenos Aires. With a degree in music by the Instituto Universitario Nacional de Arte (IUNA) of Buenos Aires.

He has specialized in music in Buenos Aires. For the Bicentanary year 1910-2010, he edited, directed and registered the first production of a complete opera in Argentina (Chasca de Enrique Mario Casella). He aproched and recovered Argentinian music of different genres, such as sacred music, ballet, opera, opereta, zarzuela, symphony music and chamber music.

Has performed in Argentina, Brazil, Austria, France,Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Hungary, Checz Republic, Italy and Japan. In 2011 got a nomination for a Latin Grammy as a composer and director in two European film productions for television and for festivals.

MUSICOLOGY

Dr. Craig Russell (USA)

Craig Russell received his bachelor's and master's degrees in guitar and lute performance at the University of New Mexico under the guidance of Hector A. Garcia. After completing his Ph.D. in historical musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982, he obtained a position at Cal Poly where he is presently a professor of music. He was one of two recipients in 1994-95 who were chosen from the 22 California State University campuses to receive the California State University Trustees' Outstanding Professor Award-CSU's highest honor. He was the sole professor selected as the 1994-95 recipient of the Outstanding Professor Award at Cal Poly. He speaks often at musicological conferences and conventions in North America, Mexico, and Spain and has published over forty articles on eighteenth-century Hispanic studies, Mexican Cathedral music, the California Missions, baroque guitar music, and American popular culture.

His large two-volume book, Santiago de Murcia's "Codice Saldivar No.4": A Treasury of Secular Guitar Music From Baroque Mexico was published in the summer of 1995 by the University of Illinois Press, and his latest book "From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California Missions" was released in summer 2009 by Oxford University Press. He has received major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Commission, Spain's Ministry of Culture, the Program for Cultural Cooperation, the California Council for the Humanities, and the Edmund Cabot Memorial Fund.

Dr. Russell's Concierto Romantico for guitar and orchestra was premiered in February, 1992, and a compact disk of the work has received enthusiastic reviews in Soundboard, New Times, the Eugene Register Guard, the LA Times, and the American Record Guide and has been performed everywhere from the Krakow Festival to the Oregon Bach Festival. His compositional activities embrace several different areas: he has composed two musical comedies (Zapatera! and It's a Man's World-Or Is It?), two symphonies, a piano concerto, a bass concerto, numerous chamber pieces and several solo guitar works.

Dr. Russell is part of the Barcelona Festival of Song faculty since 2011.

Body Awareness

Raniah Al-Sayed

Raniah Al-Sayed is a theatre artist with over fifteen years of professional experience. Primarily working as an actor, she has also had the pleasure of writing, producing and directing both in the UK and the USA. She trained at the BRIT School for Performing Arts, London, and with Michael Howard in New York City.

For many years, Raniah taught English as a Foreign Language alongside her acting work. This began the development of her skills as a teacher and facilitator of learning. She has been a student of Lucid Body since 2009, with the last two years dedicated to an apprenticeship with Lucid Body creator, Fay Simpson. In 2013, Raniah became a certified Lucid Body teacher.

She has assisted classes at the Yale School for Drama, New School's undergraduate Eugene Lang College, the Actor's Center NY and the Studio Conservatory NY. She has taught workshops in Paris and London and is returning to both of these cities to teach in June 2013.

Earlier this year, Raniah co-created and directed the one-man show "RotPeter-Franz-Drew" for an ETA festival and is currently assisting the Studio NY Class of 2013 in the creation of their solo-performance pieces. Most recently, she has been leading a weekly Lucid Body class in NYC.

CATALAN DICTION

Anna Martí Mallorquí (Catalunya)

Born in Girona, Catalunya, journalist and linguist Anna Martí have devoted most of her life to perfect her mother tongue, the Catalan. She have been trained with some of the most important experts in Catalan language achieving the highest degrees of Catalan spoken and written.

She has a degree in Journalism from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona and holds a master in pedagogy and translation of Catalan language and a master in Catalan for Audiovisual media.

She have worked as an editor and translator for such important media as TV3 (Televisión de Cataluña), the CCMA (Corporación Catalana de Medios Audiovisuales) and La Vanguardia, the most important Catalan newspaper.

She is the head of communications and contents of Interactiu, SL, a company specialized in digital contents located in the city of Girona.

She is a language consultant for several companies and has experience as a catalan teacher.