Vocal Sampling & Symphony Orchestra - 30th Anniversary Special Concerts
To celebrate the group’s 30th anniversary, Vocal Sampling reveals a whole new repertoire, as well as new facets of its vocal talent.
For these special anniversary concerts, the group will perform a classical and contemporary repertoire in collaboration with local symphony orchestras. The music will consist mainly of works written by great Cuban composers as well as René Baños Pascual, the musical director and leader of Vocal Sampling.
René Baños Pascual: “We want to combine the implicit codes of ‘concert’ music as a vector that guides us towards a new vision of the universality of Cuban music, based on the crossbreeding that is our culture and reflection of our society.”
Vocal Sampling & Symphony Orchestra
The Concerto #1 for Vocal Sampling and Symphony Orchestra, composed by René Baños Pascual, consists of three movements (Allegro Rítmico – Andante – Danzón Allegro). It is freely inspired by the fundamental roots and the evolution of Cuban music. The piece offers space for fascinating exchanges between the six singers and the symphony orchestra, even allowing them to alternate musical roles at times. Each movement musically reflects the composer’s vision of the essential spirit of an ordinary day in contemporary Cuba, a day still deeply permeated by its traditions.
The first movement, Allegro Rítmico, filled with rhythmic and harmonic tensions and releases, brimming with energy and featuring sections for percussive improvisation, evokes the hustle and bustle at the start and during the course of a Cuban day.
The second movement, Andante, invites the listener to imagine a peaceful sunset, perhaps by the sea or in the countryside, in good company, with a typical refreshing Cuban drink, and even a cigar.
The third movement, Danzón Allegro, feels like a lively nighttime dance, unleashing festive and melodic energy through Cuba’s national dance form: the Danzón. Improvisation and audience participation are key features here.
With its irregular rhythms, strong syncopations that illustrate the coexistence of symmetry and asymmetry, its colorful and surprising melodies, contemporary harmonies blending jazz impressionism and tonal lyricism, and the added element of improvisation, this concerto vividly portrays the natural spirit of a day in Cuba.
With the symphony orchestra, the group performs ‘‘O Tic Tac Do Meu Coração”, a musical piece arranged by Jenny Peña (Cuba), that combines two popular rhythms (Samba and Son) with a great dose of improvisation, lightness and liveliness.
Vocal Sampling and the orchestra also perform some of the timeless hits of Latin American song such as “Besame Mucho” and “A Bayamo en Coche”.
Without any doubt a Cuban evening full of emotions and surprising musical discoveries.
Cycle of Contradanzas & Danzas
With the Contradanzas and Danzas of Manuel Saumell and Ignacio Cervantes, Vocal Sampling reveals, through a cappella versions, how these two great Cuban composers and pianists mixed so early the essential elements that make up Cuban music. The elegant melody coming from Europe and the funny and energetic African syncopations, always based on the binary structure of the small piano pieces used in European Romanticism.
Los Tocadores (René Baños Pascual)
Los Tocadores is a cyclic 6-voice polyphonic game, where each voice brings a distinctive melodic and rhythmic element to Cuban music. These elements are in turn contrasted and, in their combination, form a sound amalgam that allows us to travel through the different trends and influences of Cuban music.
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Booking
Germany / Austria / Switzerland
HANDSHAKE BOOKING / Julian Hölscher (Managing director)
Oppelner stresse 29
D-10997 Berlin
Phone: +49 (0)30 6981 4840
E-Mail: julian@handshake-booking.com