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ELISENDA FÁBREGAS

Catalan/American composer Elisenda Fábregas is based in Seoul, South Korea, where she is an Invited professor of music at Kyung-Hee University Humanitas College. She holds doctorates from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in music composition (2011), and from Columbia University Teachers College in education (1992); she also received a Masters and Bachelors in piano performance from The Juilliard School (1983). Before coming to the US, she completed the highest studies as a pianist in Barcelona. During her early career, Elisenda performed as a pianist throughout Europe and the US, including a Carnegie Recital Hall debut in New York. These experiences as a performer and the training involved ultimately propelled her towards musical composition.

PERFORMANCES & NEWS

“Masks for clarinet, cello and piano” will receive its New York City premiere on February 11 at the Plaxall Gallery, Long Island, and 14 Tenri Cultural Institute, Manhattan, NY, as part of the Random Access Music (RAM) Concert Series. Other works in the programs will include com positions by Dalit Warshaw, Jennifer Higdon, Elisenda Fabregas, Aleksandra Vrebalov and RAM composers, Seth Boustead and Gilbert Galindo. “Masks for clarinet, cello and piano” was commissioned by IonSound Project Ensemble and premiered/performed on October 19, 2019, in Pittsburgh, PA. Future performances by this group will take place in Cincinnati, OH, (February 22, 2020) and Birmingham, AL (February 24, 2020).

On December 28, 2019, 19:30, Homenatge a Pau Casals for cello solo will be performed by Roger Morelló Ross at the 143rd Concert of the the Anniversary of the Birth of Pau Casals at the Museum Pau Casals, El Vendrell (Tarragona). Other works included will be works by G. Cassadó, Max Bruch and Enrique Granados. Morelló will also perform Homenatge a Pau Casals in Cologne (Klangraum-Kunigunde, January 26, 2020), in Vienna (St. Peters Kirche, February 3,4 , 2020), Berlin (Nikodemus Kulturkirche, February 23) and at the Círcol del Teatre Fortuny in Reus, Tarragona (September 18, 2020). More details on these concerts later.

Naxos release of Catalan Wind Music, Vol. 2, includes Symphony #1 for Symphonic Wind Ensemble, recorded two years ago by the Barcelona Symphonic Ensemble (Banda Municipal de Barcelona) conducted by Salvador Brotons. This new album from the Barcelona Symphony Band is a compilation of the first world recordings of works by Catalan composers (Montsalvatge, Amargos, Fábregas and Bertrán). “Elisenda Fábregas’ dramatic and emotional First Symphony contrasts majestic grandeur with the expressiveness of Catalan song.” (Naxos Direct).

Recent performances in 2019 of four of my compositions (song cycle, solo cello, solo piano, and chamber ensemble) were performed in the USA and Europe (Barcelona, British Colombia, Norway and Iceland). In addition, two works were recorded (Mirage for piano, and Imitacio del foc for tenor & piano) and will appear on forthcoming CDs.

Imitació del Foc (Imitation of Fire) for tenor and piano was performed by Jess Muñoz, tenor, and pianist Oksana Glouchko at St. Stephen’s Concert Series in Wilmington, DE; Furman University in NC; Newberry College in SC; and University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, NC. They commissioned this work with generous support from a University of Delaware General University Research Grant. Imitacio del foc was recorded this past August with producer/engineer Andreas Meyer and will be part of an album featuring 24 Art Songs by Catalan Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries.

Imitació del Foc (Imitation of Fire) for tenor & piano received its premiered on March 12, 2018, at the University of Delaware in a program dedicated to Catalonian and Latin American women composers. Imitació del Foc is based on poetry by Mallorquin poet Bartomeu Rosselló-Pòrcel (1913-1938). It includes four poems: I. Inici de campana (Quadern de sonets); II.Escolto la secreta… (from Imitacio del Foc, ‘Arbre de Flames’); III. Pluja brodada (Imitacio del foc, ‘Fira encesa’); and IV. Ardent himne (Imitacio del foc, ‘Arbre de Flames’).

Roger Morello Ròs, a young talented cellist from Reus, Spain, performed Homenatge a Pau Casals for solo cello at the famed Gaudi building Casa Mila (La Pedrera) in Barcelona on March 17, 2019. Roger Morello Ros was a Resident Artist 2018/19 at Casa Mila in Barcelona). He has performed throughout Europe in festivals such as Musethica International Chamber Music Festival Berlin 2018, Aurora Winter Classic Festival 2016 in Sweden and Echo Festival 2016 in Italy, and in concert halls like Philarmonie Berlin, Pau Casals Auditorium and Josep Carreras Auditorium, among others. He is the winner of top competitions and has studied at Cologne University of Music (Germany). This October he will do his debut at Palau de la Música Catalana (Barcelona).

Pianist Becky Billock recently recorded Mirage for piano in a CD title Mother Earth that included works inspired by nature by Amy Beach, Marion Bauer, Henry Cowell, Edvard Grieg, Karen Tanaka, Bonnie McLarty, Elisenda Fabregas, Patrick Burke, Germaine Tailleferre, Robert Schultz, Katherine Hoover, Gwyneth Walker, and Kaja Bjørntvedt. More program details. Becky performed Mirage in her Pacific Northwest tour and also in Iceland and Norway. She performed in Portland, OR; Salem, OR; Olympia, WA; Sequim; Sidney, B.C; Abbotsford, BC; Seattle, WA; Bellingham; Riverside, CA; Pittsburgh, PA; Reykjavik, Iceland; ; Oslo concert. More details and links on these concerts.

Resident musicians from Portland’s 240 Strings joined by resident musicians from New Haven’s Music Haven, flutist Nicole Rabata and pianist Anastasia Antonacos at performed Portraits II for flute, violin, cello and piano this past spring at Mechanics’ Hall, in Maine and at Corthell Concert Hall, Gorham Campus in the University of Southern Maine (USM) Concert Series.