The Americas and Americans Festival – opened on April 6 at the Walt Disney Concert Hall – features from April 29 to May 2 Cantata Criolla, a masterpiece by the Venezuelan composer Antonio Estévez performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel.

This festival, which has as purpose to unite North and South America, explores the eclectic musical traditions born from the unique blending of cultures and landscapes of the American hemisphere. These roots are exemplified in Estévez’s monumental work Cantata Criolla which is featured in this festival presided over by Gustavo Dudamel

Deborah Borda, president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, commented that the Americas and Americans Festival is highly significant for the peoples of Los Angeles and the American hemisphere.  Through this festival, she explained, Gustavo presents the Americas as one continent and that is perhaps its major significance.  The president of the LA Phil Association declared they believed in the potential of music to unite the Americas, and that was maybe what they liked the most, the sense of a big family bound by music.

“I believe there is only one America. Obviously it has a south, a center, and a north, but it is one continent. I’m proud of being Venezuelan, Latin American, South American, and American,” Dudamel said on October 5, 2009; and this is something he shows by presiding over a festival that features Estévez’ Cantata Criolla contextualized by works of Ginastera (Estancia Dances) and Copland (The Promise of Living from The Tender Land).

Helen Hunt, Edgar Ramírez, Erich Wildpret, Aquiles Machado, Gaspar Colón Moleiro, Jair Acosta, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Schola Cantorum of Venezuela, and the Los Angeles Master Chorale, under the musical direction of Gustavo Dudamel will participate in this theatrical presentation with film produced by Alberto Arvelo and scripts by Guillermo Arriaga.

After the Los Angeles premiere at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Dudamel will lead Estévez’s Cantata Criolla in other countries, including Venezuela.

For further information about the festival please visit:
www.laphil.com
Americas and Americans: Dudamel Conducts Estévez