MetLiveArts presents
Encuentros
Sunday, June 30, 2024 at 3 pm
Fuentidueña Chapel, The Met Cloisters
Catalyst Quartet 2023-24 QUARTET IN RESIDENCE
Karla Donehew Perez, violin
Abi Fayette, violin
Paul Laraia, viola
Karlos Rodriguez, cello
Gabriel Cabezas, cello
Quartet in Residence programming is made possible by the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund.
Paquito D'Rivera (b. 1948)
But, just one minute? (2021) from CQ Minute
A Farewell Mambo (2013)
Wapango for string quartet (1998)
CATALYST QUARTET
Tania León (b. 1943)
Four Pieces for Cello Solo (1983)
Allegro
Lento doloroso, sempre cantabile
Montuno
Vivo
GABRIEL CABEZAS
Jorge Amado (b. 1997)
Relatos mágicos (Magical Stories) (2021)
El antiguo conjuro del sabio (The Ancient Incantation of the Sage)
Aquelarre rustico (A Rustic Coven)
El coral de los magos (The Chorale of the Magicians)
En las tierras mágicas del claroscuro (In the Magic Lands of Chiaroscuro)
CATALYST QUARTET AND GABRIEL CABEZAS
Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the GRAMMY Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagines their projects with this in mind, reimagining and redefining the classical music experience.
The Catalyst Quartet, known for “perfect ensemble unity” (Lincoln Journal Star), has toured widely throughout the United States and abroad, including sold-out performances at The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Recent seasons have brought international engagements in Russia, South Korea, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, and Puerto Rico. The ensemble has received invitations to perform at many important music festivals and as guest soloists with the Cincinnati Symphony, New Haven Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. Catalyst Quartet has served as principal players and featured ensemble with the Sphinx Virtuosi on six national tours. The ensemble launched its New York concert series, CQ@Howl, in 2018.
Highlights of upcoming collaborations include Encuentros, featuring a newly commissioned work by innovative Cuban composer Jorge Amado and other voices from across the Cuban diaspora; (Im)migration: Music of Change, a collaboration with the Imani Winds; and CQ Minute, a commissioning project of 10 miniature string quartets in commemoration of the quartet’s 10th anniversary. The Catalyst Quartet’s latest project is UNCOVERED, a multi-volume set of albums that celebrates artists who have been overlooked in classical music due to their race or gender, to be released on Azica Records. The most recent album, UNCOVERED Vol. 3, was nominated for a GRAMMY Award in 2023.
The Catalyst Quartet’s debut album, The Bach/Gould Project, features the ensemble’s own collaborative arrangement of J.S. Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations paired with Glenn Gould’s rarely heard String Quartet Op. 1. The quartet can also be heard on Strum (Azica 2015), the solo debut album of composer Jessie Montgomery, who was a member violinist from 2012-2020; bandoneonist and composer JP Jofre’s Bandoneón y cuerdas (Progressive Sounds 2017); and Dreams and Daggers (Mack Avenue Records 2017), a 2-CD GRAMMY-winning album with jazz vocalist Cecile McLorin Salvant.
The Catalyst Quartet has served as principal faculty at the Sphinx Performance Academy, ENCORE Summer Academy, and Ascent Music Festival. Other residencies include interactive performance presentations and workshops with Native American student composers at the Grand Canyon Music Festival and the Sphinx Organization’s Overture program, which delivers access to music education in Detroit and Flint, Michigan. The ensemble’s residency in Havana, Cuba for the Cuban American Youth Orchestra in January 2019 was the first by an American string quartet since the revolution and they continue to return for additional residencies.
The Catalyst Quartet members hold degrees from The Cleveland Institute of Music, Curtis Institute of Music, Juilliard School, and New England Conservatory and proudly endorse Pirastro strings. Learn more at www.catalystquartet.com.
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Cellist Gabriel Cabezas is a true 21st century musician. Named one of “23 Composers and Performers to Watch in ’23” by The Washington Post, he is a prolific and sought-after soloist and collaborator, as comfortable interpreting new works as he is with the pillar scores of the cello repertoire.
Gabriel has appeared with America’s finest symphony orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, and has premiered dozens of new works by some of the most acclaimed composers working today.
He recently released Lost Coast, a dynamic album of original music composed by Gabriella Smith inspired by her reflections on climate change, which she has seen devastate her home state of California. The album was named one of NPR Music’s “Favorite Albums Of 2021” and a “Classical Album to Hear Right Now” by The New York Times.
Gabriel premiered the concerto Lost Coast, reimagined by the composer as a daring work for solo cello and orchestra, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel in May 2023. Further performances of Lost Coast in the 2024-25 season include an appearance at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music with music director Cristian Macelaru, and performances with the New York Philharmonic led by John Adams.
Gabriel is a member of the genre-leading chamber sextet yMusic. Their virtuosic execution and unique configuration have attracted high profile collaborators—from Paul Simon to Bill T. Jones to Ben Folds— and inspired an expanding repertoire of original works by prominent composers including Caroline Shaw, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly and Andrew Norman. In 2023, the ensemble released their first album of self-composed work, titled YMUSIC. Written collaboratively by all six musicians, YMUSIC represents a creative breakthrough for the ensemble. “They’ve transcended all the conventions that they were trained in” (NPR Music), presenting "one of the most exciting and confident chamber music releases of the year” (Strings Magazine). yMusic’s next composition project, an evening-length work in collaboration with choreographer Kyle Abraham, Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful, will premiere across ten performances in New York at the Park Avenue Armory in December 2024.
Gabriel recently co-founded the string group Owls, described as “a dream group...” by The New York Times. The quartet weaves together new compositions with fresh arrangements of music ranging from the 1600s to the present, made distinctive by the group’s unique instrumentation of violin, viola, and two cellos. He is also a co-founder of Duende, a new music and contemporary dance collective that focuses on the interaction between musicians and dancers in the realization of new scores. Gabriel has recorded extensively as a studio musician, appearing on releases by Phoebe Bridgers, John Legend, Rufus Wainright and Taylor Swift, among many others.
In 2016, Gabriel received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence, a career grant awarded to extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians, who, early in their professional career, demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and ongoing commitment to leadership. Gabriel studied at the Curtis Institute of Music under Carter Brey.
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Paquito D’Rivera has won a combined 16 Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards (5 Grammy and 11 Latin Grammys). He is celebrated both for his artistry in Latin jazz and his achievements as a classical composer.
Born in Havana, Cuba, he performed at age 10 with the National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana Conservatory of Music, and at 17, became a featured soloist with the Cuban National Symphony. As a founding member of the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, he directed that group for two years, while at the same time playing both the clarinet and saxophone with the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. He eventually went on to premiere several works by notable Cuban composers with the same orchestra. Additionally, he was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere. With its explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical and traditional Cuban music never before heard, Irakere toured extensively throughout America and Europe, received several GRAMMY nominations (1979, 1980), and a GRAMMY (1979).
His numerous recordings include more than 30 solo albums. In 1988, he was a founding member of the United Nation Orchestra, a 15-piece ensemble organized by Dizzy Gillespie to showcase the fusion of Latin and Caribbean influences with jazz. D’Rivera continues to appear as guest conductor. A GRAMMY was awarded the United Nation Orchestra in 1991, the same year D’Rivera received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Carnegie Hall for his contributions to Latin music. Additionally, D’Rivera’s highly acclaimed ensembles- the Chamber Jazz Ensemble, the Paquito D’Rivera Big Band, and the Paquito D’Rivera Quintet are in great demand world wide.
While Paquito D’Rivera’s discography reflects a dedication and enthusiasm for Jazz, Bebop and Latin music, his contributions to classical music are impressive. They include solo performances with the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He has also performed with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the Costa Rica National Symphony, the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, and the St. Luke’s Chamber Orchestra, among others. In his passion to bring Latin repertoire to greater prominence, Mr. D’Rivera has successfully created, championed and promoted all types of classical compositions, including his three chamber compositions recorded live in concert with distinguished cellist Yo-Yo Ma in September 2003. The chamber work “Merengue,” from that live concert at Zankel Hall, was released by Sony Records and garnered Paquito his 7th GRAMMY as Best Instrumental Composition 2004.
In addition to his extraordinary performing career as an instrumentalist, Mr. D’Rivera has rapidly gained a reputation as an accomplished composer. The prestigious music house, Boosey and Hawkes, is the exclusive publisher of Mr. D’Rivera’s compositions. Recent recognition of his compositional skills came with the award of a 2007 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, and the 2007-2008 appointment as Composer-In-Residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. As part of the Caramoor Latin American music initiative, Sonidos Latinos, D’Rivera’s new concerto for double bass and clarinet/saxophone, “Conversations with Cachao,” pays tribute to Cuba’s legendary bass player, Israel “Cachao” Lopez. D’Rivera’s works often reveal his widespread and eclectic musical interests, which range from Afro-Cuban rhythms and melodies, including influences encountered in his many travels, and back to his classical origins. Inspiration for another recent composition, “The Cape Cod Files”, comes from such disparate sources as Benny Goodman’s intro to the Eubie Blake popular song “Memories of You”, Argentinean Milonga, improvisations on the music of Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, and North American boogie-woogie. His numerous commissions include compositions for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, the National Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Ying String Quartet, the International Double Reed Society, Syracuse University, Montreal’s Gerald Danovich Saxophone Quartet, and the Grant Park Music Festival.
Paquito D’Rivera is the author of two books: My Sax Life, published by Northwestern University Press, and a novel, Oh, La Habana, published by MTeditores, Barcelona. He is the recipient of the NEA Jazz Masters Award 2005 and the National Medal of the Arts 2005, as well as the Living Jazz Legend Award from the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. in 2007. His numerous other honors include Doctorates Honoris Causa in Music (from the Berklee School of Music in Boston, the University on Pennsylvania), and the Jazz Journalist Association’s Clarinetist of the Year Award in both 2004 and 2006. In 2008, Mr. D’Rivera received the International Association for Jazz Education President’s Award and the Frankfurter Musikpreis in Germany, the Medal of Honor from the National Arts Club in 2009. In 2010, he was named a Nelson A Rockefeller Honoree and given the African-American Classical Music Award from Spelman College.
He received his 10th and 11th GRAMMY this year for Panamericana Suite as Best Latin Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition, adding to his previously awarded 8th and 9th GRAMMY for Riberas (Best Classical Recording) and Funk Tango (Best Latin Jazz Album 2008). Mr. D’Rivera is the first artist to win Latin GRAMMYs in both Classical and Latin Jazz categories– for Stravinsky’s Historia del Soldado (L’Histoire du Soldat) and Brazilian Dreams with New York Voices. He has served as artistic director of jazz programming at the New Jersey Chamber Music Society and continues as Artistic Director of the famous world-class Festival Internacional de Jazz de Punta Del Este in Uruguay and the DC Jazz Festival in Washington, DC., and add to that now in its second year, Jazz Patagonia 2013 in Chile.
In 1999, and in celebration of its 500-year history, the Universidad de Alcala de Henares presented Paquito with a special award recognizing his contribution to the arts, his humane qualities, and his defense of rights and liberties of artists around the world. The National Endowment for the Arts website affirms “he has become the consummate multinational ambassador, creating and promoting a cross-culture of music that moves effortlessly among jazz, Latin, and Mozart.”
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Tania León (b. Havana, Cuba) is highly regarded as a composer, conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations. Her orchestral work Stride, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Music. In 2022, she was named a recipient of the 45th Annual Kennedy Center Honors for lifetime artistic achievements. In 2023, she was awarded the Michael Ludwig Nemmers Prize in Music Composition from Northwestern University. Most recently, León became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s next Composer-in-Residence—a post she will hold for two seasons, beginning in September 2023. She will also hold Carnegie Hall’s Richard and Barbara Debs Composer’s Chair for its 2023-2024 season.
Recent premieres include works for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, NDR Symphony Orchestra, Grossman Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Modern Ensemble, Jennifer Koh’s project Alone Together, and The Curtis Institute. Appearances as guest conductor include Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Gewandhausorchester, Orquesta Sinfónica de Guanajuato, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, among others. Upcoming commissions feature a work for the League of American Orchestras, and a work for Claire Chase, flute, and The Crossing Choir with text by Rita Dove.
A founding member and first Music Director of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, León instituted the Brooklyn Philharmonic Community Concert Series, co-founded the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonidos de las Américas Festivals, was New Music Advisor to the New York Philharmonic, and is the founder/Artistic Director of Composers Now, a presenting, commissioning and advocacy organization for living composers.
Honors include the New York Governor’s Lifetime Achievement, inductions into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and fellowship awards from ASCAP Victor Herbert Award and The Koussevitzky Music and Guggenheim Foundations, among others. She also received a proclamation for Composers Now by New York City Mayor, and the MadWoman Festival Award in Music (Spain).
León has received Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Colgate University, Oberlin, SUNY Purchase College, and The Curtis Institute of Music, and served as U.S. Artistic Ambassador of American Culture in Madrid, Spain. A CUNY Professor Emerita, she was awarded a 2018 United States Artists Fellowship, Chamber Music America’s 2022 National Service Award, and Harvard University’s 2022 Luise Vosgerchian Teaching Award. In 2023, Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library acquired Tania’s León’s archive.
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Jorge Amado (b. 1997, Havana, Cuba) graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2020 from The University of Arts of Cuba with degrees in both violin and composition in 2020. He has won awards such as 1st Prize at the UNEAC Composition Competition Harold Gramatges (2015 and 2021), Finalist at the Alfred Schnitkke International Composer’s Competition (2016, Ukraine), 1st Prize at the 8SW Composition Competition (2018, USA), Ojalá Symphonic Creation Prize (2018), 1st Prize of the String Quartet Composition Competitions "Nuestra América" (2019, Mexico), winner of the “Conmutaciones” Musical Creation Grant (2019), the Ibero-American Performance Award 2020, Cubadisco 2022 Award in two categories for his first monographic album Ofrenda, among others.
In 2023 he was nominated for a Jeff Award for original music along with Orbert Davis, for the music composed for the play Measure for Measure, directed by Henry Godinez for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
As a composer and performer he has participated in several international events such as Havana Chamber Music Festival (2015), Festival of Contemporary Music of Havana (from 2016 to 2022); the Austin Chamber Music Festival (2017, USA), the Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival (2018 and 2022, USA), Habana Clásica (2019), Mozart+Festival 2022 (Salzburg), Young Euro Classic 2023 (Berlin), among others.
He has composed music for films, especially for Cuban filmmakers such as Fernando Pérez.
Performers and ensembles that have played Amado's works include the Catalyst Quartet, Jon Kimura Parker, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Niurka Gonzalez, Didier Laloy, the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, the Cuban American Youth Orchestra (CAYO), Eight Strings and a Whistle, Fear No Music Ensemble, the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, among others.
He is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Composition at DePaul University, where he studies with Dr. Christopher Wendell Jones and Dr. Osnat Netzer. Amado also serves as a Teaching Assistant in Aural Training and Music Theory.
Leadership support for MetLiveArts provided by:
The Adrienne Arsht Fund for Resilience through Art
Jody and John Arnhold, Frank and Lydia Bergen Foundation, Betsy and Edward Cohen / Areté Foundation, the Director’s Fund, Kathryn O. Greenberg, The Kaplen Brothers Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky, The Howard and Sarah D. Solomon Foundation, the estate of Katherine Walter Stein, Douglas Dockery Thomas, Barbara Tober
Additional major supporters:
Sarah Arison, The David Berg Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Fund, the Adbul Latif Jameel Community Initiatives Fund, the Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Fund, the Grace Jarcho Ross and Daniel G. Ross Concert Fund, Peter Steinberg and Kathrine Gehring, Helen Lee Warren and David Warren, William H. Wright II
Firebird Fellows and Firebirds:
Carey Ramos and Cartina Bentley, Jenny Gerard Brown and Barry L. Brown, Magda Dvir, Constance Emmerich, Robin Fowler, Thomas C. and Penny Brandt Jackson, Kenneth Koen, Uttara P. Marti, Deborah Paul, Barbara A. Pelson, Rajika and Anupam Puri, Douglas and Jean Renfield-Miller, Meryl Rosofsky and Stuart H. Coleman, Bonnie J. Sacerdote, Melanie Shorin and Greg S. Feldman, Beatrice Stern, Douglas Dockery Thomas, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Van Dercook, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang
Produced by The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Department of Live Arts
Limor Tomer, Lulu C. and Anthony W. Wang General Manager of Live Arts
Art Priromprintr, Senior Administrator
Nunally Kersh, Senior Producer
Harrison Corthell, Production Manager
Madyson Barnfield, Production Associate
Emery Kerekes, Program Coordinator
Audrey Rosenblith, Associate for Administration
Ricardo V. Barton, Associate for Administration
Kerrigan Quenemoen, Production Associate
Sam West, Artist Management Associate
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is on the island known as Mannahatta—now called Manhattan—in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenape people.
