Puerto Abierto (Open Port)
About This Project
The MIFA Victory Players are excited to present the “Puerto Abierto” project, celebrating the open exchange of ideas in the Caribbean. Concurrently, we’re delighted to celebrate the launch of our new project with world premieres of completed commissions by composers Eric Lemmon, Cole Reyes, Nicholas Villane, and Julio Elvin Quiñones and excerpts of new commissions.
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by Cole Reyes
‘Firming Ground’ is an homage to the metamorphosis of the concept of home throughout our lives. As we move from house to house, city to city, state to state, and country to country, we encounter that we hold a standard of a past home as the truest idea of the concept that we hold. However, ‘home’, in some sense, may still be ahead of us. Throughout the piece, I hope to develop this idea by creating various atmospheres throughout the ensemble — each of which depicting a different home I’ve had throughout my life. Some are peaceful, some are chaotic, but all together they create the human experience I call my own.
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by Julio Quiñones
Recently I have been thinking a lot about the space I occupy or intend to inhabit in the current environment of musical practices.
This has led me to question, re-examine and really meditate on how my inner sound world works. What my approach to writing in these hallowed classical genres is like and what do I have to contribute, if anything, or comment or remark about. In my most recent works such as “with bated breath in the middle of a bisected road” and “HASTA QUE EL CORAZÓN AGUANTE”, I have allowed what I perceive to be my current stylistic choices of sound, space, and personal time, to become blurred and murky. Both pieces interact with material from earlier pieces in my life, as a way of not only personal circumstances, but also as a way of re-contextualizing and revisiting musical material. In “my father never knew Amaury Veray”, I once again open the doors of my “perceived past self”, while also exploring the place the many musics of my Puerto Rico occupy in my musical sound worlds; while also engaging with the many other impulses and stimuli that fuel my creative curiosities (poetry, soundscapes, current events, upheavals, visceral, “rough” sounds). This outer expectation or perception that as a minority or “rarified identity” we have to perform our background or place of origin is a frustrating dilemma that I seek to question, twist, transmute and tergiversate.
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by Eric Lemmon
Space and time are intertwined. In music, the experience of the music can be warped, reconfigured and permutated. This can apply to the temporal organization of a piece as well as the spatial configuration. This work for the Victory Players is dedicated to exploring those ideas.
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by Nicholas Villane
Few things in life provide as much simplistic joy as flowers. There are nearly as many uses for flowers as there are variety. They can be gifts for loved ones, uplift spirits for healing, mark moments of celebration, provide comfort for the mourning, or give a rush by catching the bouquet at a wedding. Whether they are beautiful decorations or well-tended in a garden, sometimes it's nice to just stop and smell the flowers.
Because of Flowers... comprises of three movements. The first two movements are performed together without pause. Fallen Petals is introspective, and serene. As wonderful as flowers are, eventually the petals will fall, such as chapters will end in life. As the beauty of the plant fades, solace can be taken in the joy that they once gave.
Bouquet of Roses focuses on a repeating harmonic pattern, with lush harmonies and solos. In contrast to Fallen Petals, this movement is considerably slower in tempo, while still being overtly expressive in nature.
Both Fallen Petals and Bouquets of Roses are marked by flowing solos and a reoccurring swirl of notes, like a flurry of flowers, that bookends the joined movements.
The Flor de Maga is the national flower of Puerto Rico. It's a beautiful flower with vivid colors, and bares a resemblance to a hibiscus. Flor de Maga is inspired by those that have welcomed me with kindness, opened their homes to me, and shared their culture and traditions from Puerto Rico. This movement is lively and upbeat, reflecting on joy and laughter that's been lovingly shared.
Repertoire
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Eric Lemmon
Excerpts 1 and 2
Composer Eric Lemmon’s artistic practice and academic research is preoccupied with the politics that circumscribe and are woven into our musical technologies and institutions. His music has been reviewed by the New York Times and featured on WQXR’s Q2 and has been performed in venues ranging from underground bars (le) Poisson Rouge and SubCulture to the DiMenna Center for Classical Music and FIGMENT arts festival on Governors Island. Eric’s work has been recognized locally and internationally with grants and residencies like MetLife’s Creative Connections Grant, UMEZ and LMCC Arts Engagement Grants, multiple Puffin Foundation Grants, a Tofte Lake Center Emerging Artist Residency, a Can Serrat International Artist Residency, a Westben Performer-Composer Residency, and ConEd’s Exploring the Metropolis Residency. Further, he has been awarded a Mancini Fellowship, a long-term fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Stony Brook University’s Presidential Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and a Fulbright Award for his artistic research and profile as a performer. Eric has written works for Yarn/Wire, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Jacqueline LeClaire, and The Chelsea Symphony. He is a member of the experimental and technology-focused music collective Ensemble Decipher and received his Ph.D. in Music Composition from Stony Brook University.
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Julio Quiñones
My father never knew Amaury Veray
Known for his compelling and expressive music, Julio Elvin Quiñones (b. 1996) writes works that are imbued with visceral gestures, intuition and strive to represent every aspect of his identity. He focuses on developing a craft grounded on his Puerto Rican cultural background, interacting with folk and popular musics, as well as literature and art from seemingly disparate, unconnected places. His music has been performed by ensembles such as: Omnibus Ensemble, JACK Quartet, loadbang, Ensemble Dal Niente, Talea Ensemble and Tacet[i]. He has been a fellow at several music festivals such as: highSCORE Festival, New Music on the Point, and DePaul University and Ensemble Dal Niente Summer New Music Residency. Most recently, he’s been composer-in-residence in the Massachussets International Festival of the Arts, with the Victory Players’ 2023-2024 Puerto Abierto Residency, as well as being named Storyteller-in-residence for recently formed experimental opera group: Telltale Opera Theatre’s 2024-2025 season.
Julio is currently pursuing doctoral studies in Music Composition at The Graduate Center CUNY, where he was awarded the Graduate Center Fellowship and the Provost’s Enhancement Fellowship. He earned an M.M. in Music Composition at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University with composer and pianist: Michael Hersch, where he received the 2021- 2022 Randolph S. and Amalie Rothschild Scholarship. He holds a B.M. in Music Composition from the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, where he studied composition and orchestration with Alfonso Fuentes.
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Cole Reyes
Firming Ground
Cole Reyes (b. 1998) is a composer, educator, and arts administrator whose creative exploration delves into the intersection of individual human experiences and the broader world. His musical output, which draws inspiration from diverse genres such as pop, rock, and folk music, is distinguished by a fusion of lyricism and rhythmic propulsion.
He has collaborated with artists such as JACK Quartet, the Rhythm Method Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, BlackBox Ensemble, Del Sol Quartet, Transient Canvas, Hypercube, and Unheard-of//Ensemble among others. Recent commissions include those from ARTZenter and the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the National Orchestral Institute, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Six Degrees Singers, the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., the Victory Players, and a consortium for percussion led by Luciano Medina.
He has been a composition fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the National Orchestral Institute and Festival, the Lake George Music Festival, and others. His primary composition teachers include Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, Robert Honstein, Roshanne Etezady, Christopher Stark, and LJ White. He is co-founder of Telos Consort, a professional chamber ensemble based in New York City dedicated to the performance and curation of new music that features saxophones, strings, and piano. He currently pursues doctoral studies at the University of Michigan.
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Nicholas Villane
Because of Flowers...
Nicholas Villane’s works strive to achieve energetic and goal-oriented musical journeys.
Born in 1996 in California, Nicholas has resided in Florida for the past decade. His music incorporates broad influences shaped by the belief that music is a shared human experience, welcoming audiences regardless of musical background and knowledge. Through constant musical momentum and drive, Nicholas’s music shifts and warps motivic content, providing a sense of liveliness within a concise and cohesive form.
Nicholas has had works read and recorded by members of Ensemble C Barré, Talea Ensemble, Ekmeles Vocal Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Icarus Quartet, ~Nois Sax Quartet, Momenta String Quartet, Polymorphia, and Ithaca College Percussion Ensemble. His work has also been featured on the Festival of New Music at Florida State University. Nicholas holds a D.M. in Composition from Florida State University studying under Dr. Lilya Ugay. He also holds a M.M. from Ithaca College having studied with Dr. Evis Sammoutis and Dr. Jorge Grossmann, and a B.M. from Stetson University under Dr. Sydney Hodkinson and Dr. Manuel de Murga.
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Odaline de la Martinez
Born in Cuba and brought up in the USA, Odaline de la Martínez is now based in the UK where she has become a formidable force on today's classical music scene, pursuing a busy career as an award-winning composer, conductor, record producer and event curator. Working with everything from Mozart symphonies to the latest contemporary music, she has acquired an illustrious reputation for her versatile and eclectic vision, with a longstanding special commitment to contemporary music, women composers and Latin American composers in particular. Amongst her many achievements, Martínez was the first woman to conduct a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in 1984. www.odalinedelamartinez.com
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Sonia Morales
Sonia Ivette Morales-Matos (b. 1961) is a Puerto Rican composer, performer, and educator who belongs to a family of distinguished musicians. She has a BM degree from Berklee College of Music, where she studied composition and jazz, and an MM degree in both Composition and Jazz Studies from Indiana University in Bloomington. While at Indiana University, she studied with distinguished professors such as David Baker, Dominic Spera, Juan Orrego-Salas, Claude Baker, and John Eaton. She also holds a certificate in Music Education from the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. She was the 2016 recipient of the Dr. Herman Hudson Alumnus Award presented by the African American Arts Institute of Indiana University for her excellence as an educator, performer, and composer. In June 2019, she received recognition from the City of Santa Ana, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana, CA, for her participation in the “Latino Masters Concert'' as a composer, performer, and educator, and for her contribution to the community of the City of Santa Ana, California, USA.
Morales-Matos brings a Latin-American flare to her musical compositions. Her identity finds a voice in the rhythmic and harmonic sounds of her music. Some of her recent works are Tropical Overture (2022), commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Fiesta No.2, for String Quartet and Percussion with String Orchestra (2023), and Fiesta No.3, for Orchestra, recently premiered by the Symphony Orchestra of Puerto Rico (Feb. 2024). Other works premiered in 2024 are: Fiesta No. 4, for Wind Ensemble and Percussion, commissioned by Wright State University Bands, “a work with sounds from the Caribbean, intertwined with South American sounds like the Venezuelan joropo,” says Morales-Matos, and Divertimento Caribeño No. 6, for trumpet and orchestra. Some compositions for solo or chamber groups include Miniatura Tropical, for harp solo, Joyful Clarinet Trio, and Divertimento Caribeño No.3, for string quartet, which was recently recorded by the Dalí String Quartet.
Sonia resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, her home since 2004. She performs regularly and works as an educator in the Public School District of the City of Cincinnati. At present, she is composing music and working on various commissions.
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Luis Quintana
Born in Puerto Rico, Luis Quintana is an internationally prized composer who develops his work in France and abroad in the field of contemporary classical music, extending the frontiers of his musical universe from concert music to acousmatic pieces and sound installations.
Often inspired by nature and various forms of traditional and popular music, particularly Caribbean soundscapes, he confronts the conventional and the modern — recontextualizing these elements and experimenting with suggested, effaced, and disseminated imagery.
After completing his composition studies at the Paris National Conservatory (CNSMDP) and the Ircam Cursus, he has been engaged in a wide array of projects internationally, earning various awards along the way, including the Composition Prize from the Académie des Beaux-arts in France (Prix Pierre Cardin 2022) and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship in 2024. www.luis-quintana.com
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