“How fitting that the grand finale of this year’s Chicago Latino Music Festival will be a free concert” at the Harold Washington Library Center, writes Howard Reich in Monday’s (11/12) Chicago Tribune. “The idea is to welcome as wide a range of listeners as possible to the pleasures of Latin American music.… ‘I think in the 13 years, the festival—together with other things happening in Chicago—helped change the perception of Latin American music,’ says [festival artistic director Elbio] Barilari. ‘Fifteen years ago, people were not really that aware of Latin American classical music, except for Villa-Lobos and Ginastera…. People … are more aware now that there is a huge number of treasures from the baroque to now. Not just because of the festival, but programmers were more sensitive to other music,’ adds Barilari, citing the Grant Park and Ravinia music festivals. The Chicago Latino event … stretching conventional assumptions on the meaning of Latin American music … ranged from guitarist Fareed Haque’s jazz-tinged tinged collaboration with the Kaia String Quartet … to Fulcrum Point’s exploration of electroacoustic music from Mexico … to classical guitar music played by Ivan Resendiz and Eduardo Fernandez.”
Posted November 16, 2018
