About the First Chair Chamber Series:
About Por Eso Te Quiero:
Art songs are so often about the pain of love — lost love, unrequited love, love gone awry. So you’d think the tension between the bottomless love you feel for your child(ren) as a parent, and the constant, boundless anxiety you also experience about their well-being, would be a rich source of inspiration for poets and composers alike. But it’s rare in the English, German, French, and Italian repertoire. Not so though for Spanish art song, where there’s a whole tradition just around canciones de cuna, or cradle songs (lullabies).
So to celebrate Mother’s Day and kick off a new chamber music series, Great Bend Center for Music will be featuring a collection of Spanish language art songs that explore the complexities and wonders of motherhood.
Featuring the music of Catalan composer Xavier Montsalvatge, Cuban-American composer Ernesto Lecuona, and Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino, this Sunday matinee performance will include selections both humorous and introspective performed by Great Bend Center for Music’s founder Matthew Melendez with pianist Joe Sartori in an interactive, conversational format.
This special performance kicks off an annual series that will go through 2023 in the rich acoustic and intimate environment of Faith Lutheran Church in Shelton.