Annual American Composers Update
Leonardo Balada
Leonardo Balada, University Professor of Music Composition
at Carnegie Mellon Univ., in Pittsburgh, PA, spends the
summer in Europe especially in the Barcelona (Spain) area,
where he teaches composition at the Torroella de Montgri
International Music Festival and Music Courses. Performances
of his works and interviews with the composer aired on
classical-radio station WNIB's "The Music of Leonardo
Balada," in Chicago (3 programs) and on Catalunya Radio
of Barcelone (4 programs). In Spain in 1998, he lectured
at the University of Oviedo on his music (July), and he
served as jury president for the Francisco Tarrega International
Guitar Competition (Sept.). His recent commissions come
from the National Orchestra of Ireland, for the orchestral
work
Dreams and Melodies; and from the Radio Berlin
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos,
for
Piano Concerto No. 3, to premiere in Feb. 2000.
Premieres
Line and Thunder (Beteca Music), commissioned by
the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, was introduced by the
orchestra, under Mariss Janssons, Feb. 20-22, 1998. On
Feb. 16-17, 1999, the first performance of a revised version
of
Concierto Magico, for guitar and orchestra,
was given by Angel Romero and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Michael Lankester.
Performances
The Orquesta Filarmonica Ciudad de Mexico played
Homage
to Sarasate (
G.
Schirmer), Nov. 20-21, 1998 in Mexico City. Pianist
Jean Pierre Dupuy toured France and Spain with Balada's
Transparencies of Chopin's First Ballade, spring
1998. In 1998,
Cuatris was heard at the Sixth International
Music Festival, in Santiago, Chile, with Ensemble Bartok
under Eduardo Alonso-Crespo, Oct. 25; and at the Torroella
de Montgri International Music Festival (Aug.).
Sketches,
for guitar quartet, had performances with the Quatuor
de Guitares de Versailles, on tour in France and Belgium,
winter 1999; and by Quartet Tazul, in Cambridge, England,
spring 1998.
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