Fiesta is devoted to Latino concert music and presents artistically significant compositions from Latin America, Spain and Portugal to listeners. The creative force behind this series is Elbio Barilari, an acclaimed composer, musician, performer and professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The Uruguayan-born Barilari says, "Fiesta features the hottest Latin-American music from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries."
Latin American Songs: Join us on a fascinating trip of Latin American songs. Included in this program are works by Carlos Guastavino, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and tango singer, Carlos Garde.
Robert Xavier Rodriguez, U.S.-Latino Composer: Robert Xavier Rodriguez is an accomplished, U.S. living composer, whose music has been performed around the world. He is best known for his opera “Frida”, based on the famous artist from Mexico. Today, Fiesta presents his Xochiquetzal for Violin and Percussion Orchestra as well as the concert suite from “Frida”.