Yale Concert Band: Music and Guest Artists of Venezuela and Mexico

● Venezuelan composer Aldemaro
Romero’s “Fuga con Pajarillo” features virtuosic cadenzas for harp
and cuatro (guitar). Guest artist Hector Molina, cuatro.
● “Onda Tropical” represents a tropical wave rolling from New England
(where Rodrigo Martinez Torres wrote it) to his hometown of Mexico City, in an
attempt to evoke a nostalgic feeling about home and the new friendships made
while away. Guest artist Abi Pak, acordeón.
● Mexican composer Nubia Jaime-Donjuan describes her “Tundra: A Cold that
Burns” as the relationship between the warm musical genre of the danzón
and the cold climate of the tundra.

Other music:
● Written in 2002, Jennifer Higdon’s lively “Fanfare Ritmico”
celebrates the rhythm and speed (tempo) of life and its rapid increase at the
approach of the new millenium.
● Charles Ives, Yale class of 1898, wrote “Decoration Day” as part of
his Holiday Suite. It is a haunting and melancholy depiction of the sounds Ives
heard at the side of his father, the Director of the Danbury (CT) Band, on the
occasion of the holiday that is now known as Memorial Day.
● The five movements of “Suite Française” (Darius Milhaud) celebrate
the folk tunes of provinces where American and Allied forces fought alongside
the French underground during WWII. The incorporation of these melodies
reinforces the idea of hope – which is the basis of freedom.