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New jazz work commemorating slain Spanish poet’s 1929 visit to NYC premieres at Rutgers

By Carlos Fernandez
New Brunswick, NJ.  The Alexis Cuadrado Group will premiere a new concert-length jazz work in honor of Spanish poet Federico García Lorca on Tuesday, March 27 at 7:30 PM at the Nicholas Music Center, located at 85 George Street in New Brunswick.
The program, free and open to the public, is presented by the Center for Latino Arts and Culture in partnership with Mason Gross School of the Arts and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
The March 27 program will include a Jazz clinic with Alexis Cuadrado for music students at Mason Gross School of the Arts, scheduled from 10-11:30 AM. A free pre-concert talk with Alexis Cuadrado and Margaret Persin, Professor of Spanish at Rutgers University, about the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca and the development of the new work will be held at 6:30 PM at the Nicholas Music Center. 
“A Lorca Soundscape” is a new work by award-winning bassist and composer Alexis Cuadrado that commemorates the 75th anniversary of the death of famed Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director Federico García Lorca (1898-1936). The poet was assassinated in 1936 by Fascist militia whose leaders went on to rule Spain for the next forty years.
Best known for his plays “Bodas de Sangre” and “La Casa de Bernarda Alba”, García Lorca visited New York City during the fall and winter months of 1929-30 at the height of the stock market crash. 
Published posthumously in 1942 as “A Poet in New York,” the heartfelt set of poems reflect on the culture shock and loneliness that García Lorca experienced at the time. The work broke new ground by seeking inspiration in the city and directly addressing social justice through its imagery.
According to Cuadrado, “the book is a raw social commentary that connects with themes that are still an important part of the American reality today, such as economic inequalities, racial-social discrimination and the brutality of the urban landscape.”
Cuadrado, originally from Barcelona, Spain, draws on poems from García Lorca’s book as lyrics for the various movements in his new composition, which serves to reflect on Lorca’s themes and to create a unique dialog across time.
The concert line-up features some of today’s most outstanding jazz performers, including Claudia Acuña on vocals, Miguel Zenón on saxophone, Dan Tepfer on piano and Mark Ferber on drums.
The work was commissioned by Chamber Music America’s 2011 New Jazz Works and funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.
For more information, visit clac.rutgers.edu.