Colombian conductor, Andrés Felipe Jaime, has been appointed Director of Orchestra at the University of Northern Colorado after finishing his tenure as Assistant Music Director of the Bogota Philharmonic, and as Music Director of the Conservatory Orchestra at the National University of Colombia. Andrés has actively worked with orchestras in Colombia and the United States, including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Frost Symphony, National Symphony of Colombia, Bogota Philharmonic, Youth Philharmonic of Colombia, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Antioquia. An advocate of the symphonic movement of Latin America, Andrés is an active researcher and performer. He is the author of Orchestral Music of Latin America: A Catalog for Performers; and co-author of Latin Orchestral Music: an online catalog. Born in Medellín, Andrés holds Master of Music degrees in cello and conducing from Texas Christian University, and a doctoral degree in conducting from the University of Miami.

The mission of the Colorado Dance Collective is to create a spirit of collaboration and learning among their dancers, colleagues in the fine arts, and the community at large by providing high quality classes, workshops, and performances at minimal cost to participants. Now in their 14th year, the CDC has grown to include five separate auditioned companies, each specializing in a different dance style: Ballet, Jazz, Hip Hop, Tap, and Swing. The dancers are adults, 18 and older, in all stages of life, who find common ground in their passion for dance as a performing art. Over the years, the CDC has broadened its scope to include several community outreach programs and multiple performance opportunities per year.

Overture to Juarez (6')

Korngold’s earliest music showed a mastery of form and harmony so impressive that it influenced such well known composers of the time as Johann Strauss and Jean Sibelius. In 1934, Max Reinhardt invited Korngold to Hollywood to work on the music for his film of A Midsummer Night's Dream. In Hollywood, Korngold brought Late-Romantic symphonic film scoring to its height in such numerous classics released during his era, that it set new standards for scoring in the film industry. Many consider him Hollywood’s finest composer for film, leaving a lasting impact that can be heard in many of today’s greatest movie scores.

- adapted from Steve Schwartz

Zacatecas (4')

Zacatecas, Mexican March, was composed about 1891 and was premiered by the Municipal Band of Zacatecas in October 1893. The band was conducted by Codina’s brother-in-law, Fernando Villalpando, and the concert was presented at the city’s Plaza de Armas. The march was dedicated to Gen. Jesus Arechiga, the governor of the state. The conductor decided to sponsor a march composition contest and also to submit his own entry. Both Codina and Villalpando worked tirelessly on their manuscripts throughout the time period. Even though Villalpando’s march was described as “beautiful” by the other musicians, Codina won the contest. After A. Wagner y Levien published the march in 1893, it was performed by the largest bands in the cities as well as by every conceivable type of ensemble in the villages. Zacatecas has become Mexico’s “second national anthem” (after Mexicanos, al grito de guerra).

- adapted from Program Notes for Band

Danzón No. 2 (10')

The idea of writing the Danzón No. 2 originated in 1993 during a trip to Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez. From these experiences onward, I started to learn the danzón’s rhythms, its form, its melodic outline, and to listen to the old recordings by Acerina and his Danzonera Orchestra. I was fascinated and I started to understand that the apparent lightness of the danzón is only like a visiting card for a type of music full of sensuality and qualitative seriousness. The Danzón No. 2 is a tribute to the environment that nourishes the genre. It endeavors to get as close as possible to the dance, to its nostalgic melodies, to its wild rhythms, and although it violates its intimacy, its form and its harmonic language. It is a very personal way of paying my respects and expressing my emotions towards truly popular music. Danzón No. 2 was written on a commission by the Department of Musical Activities at Mexico’s National Autonomous University and is dedicated to my daughter Lily.

- adapted from Arturo Márquez

Huapango (9')

Moncayo’s Huapango of 1941, his first important work for orchestra, is based on three authentic folk dances: SiquiSiri, Balajú and El Gavilán. The piece is arranged in three sections, with fiery music at beginning and end surrounding a slower central portion based on a lyrical melody. Huapango is a brilliant study in orchestral sonority and vibrant dance rhythms about which the French composer, Darius Milhaud, once told José Antonio Alcaraz, "When in the gray light of a Parisian winter, I want there to be sun in my flat as I listen to a record of Huapango." The huapango is a lively Mexican dance of Spanish origin that is especially popular in the lands along the Gulf of Mexico.

- adapted from Richard Rodda

El Salon Mexico (10')

Aaron Copland's first trip to Mexico was in 1932, at the urging of his friend Carlos Chávez, the composer and conductor then the dominant figure in Mexican art music, and National Director of Fine Arts. Much impressed with the people, the music, and the revolutionary government, Copland returned several times on extended working vacations. Though finished later, El Salón México was another souvenir of that trip and a pivotal work in Copland's use of folk/popular music. The work records Copland's experiences in a popular dance hall of the same name, with bits of authentic Mexican songs that Copland found in published anthologies tossed about in a frothy orchestral mix. "Copland has synthesized what is most characteristic of Mexican folk melody without removing any freshness and beauty," critic Baqueiro Foster wrote of the premiere. "He has composed music embodying our folk song in purest and most perfect form."

- adapted from LA Philharmonic

La Fiesta Mexicana (21')

La Fiesta Mexicana was a result of Owen Reed’s time in Mexico, and reflects his observations of the culture. The tolling of the church bells at midnight officially announces the opening of the Fiesta with the “Prelude and Aztec Dance”. At mid-morning a band is heard in the distance. However, attention is soon focused upon the Aztec dancers, brilliantly plumed and masked, who dance in ever-increasing frenzy to a dramatic climax. The second movement, “Mass”, presents the tolling of the bells, reminding the listener that the Fiesta is a religious celebration. Mexico is at its best on the days of the Fiesta in which passion governs the love, hate and joy of the Mestizo and the Indio. The third movement, “Carnival”, reflects the entertainment for both young and old — the itinerant circus, the market, the bullfight, the town band, and always the cantinas with their band of mariachis.

- adapted from the Crane School of Music

Conga del Fuego Nuevo (6')

Following on the success of Arturo Márquez's Danzón No. 2 adapted for band, Oliver Nickel's transcription of Conga del Fuego Nuevo gives an added kick to the concert band repertoire. In contrast to the elegant, sinuous Danzón, Conga is an up-tempo, celebratory piece, bright and catchy, with the percussion section providing the signature kick at the end of the conga pattern. Márquez slows things down in the middle section to spotlight the first trumpet in a melody that recalls the mariachi tradition. The alto saxophones pick it up and relax into a ritardando…only to be interrupted by the return of the opening material. The piece ends in fiery fashion.

- adapted from publisher

¡La Fiesta! Program Notes