Cuarteto Latinoamericano
Cuarteto Latinoamericano | |
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 Cuarteto Latinoamericano | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Mexico City, Mexico |
| Genres | Latin American |
| Years active |
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| Members |
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Cuarteto Latinoamericano Cuarteto Latinoamericano is one of the world's most renowned string quartets and, for over thirty-five years, the leading proponent of Latin American music for the genre. Founded in Mexico in 1982, the Cuarteto has toured extensively throughout Europe, North and South America, Israel, China, Japan and New Zealand. They have premiered over a hundred works written for them, and they continue to introduce new and neglected composers to the genre. Winners of two Latin Grammys for Best Classical Recordings, they have also been awarded with the prestigious Diapason d'Or, have been recognized with the Mexican Music Critics Association Award, and have received three "Most Adventurous Programming" Awards from Chamber Music America/ASCAP.
Cuarteto Latinoamericano's members are three Bitran brothers: violinists Saul and Aron and cellist Alvaro, with violist Javier Montiel. They have recorded more than 80 CDs, including nearly the entire Latin American repertoire for string quartet. Volume 6 of their Villa-Lobos cycle of 17 string quartets on Dorian, was nominated for a Grammy and a Latin Grammy for Best Chamber Music Recording. Their albums "Brasileiro, works of Mignone" (2012) and "El Hilo Invisible" (2016) won Latin Grammys for Best Classical Recording. The work Inca Dances by Gabriela Lena Frank, recorded by Cuarteto Latinoamericano with Manuel Barrueco, won the 2009 Latin Grammy for Best New Latin Composition.
Formed in Mexico in 1981, Cuarteto Latinoamericano was, from 1987 until 2008, quartet-in-residence at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. They have collaborated with many artists including cellists János Starker and Yehuda Hanani, pianists Santiago Rodriguez, Cyprien Katsaris, Itamar Golan and Rudolph Buchbinder, tenor Ramón Vargas, and guitarists Narciso Yepes, Sharon Isbin, David Tanenbaum and Manuel Barrueco. With Barrueco, they have played in some of the most important venues of the US and Europe, have recorded two CDs, and commissioned guitar quintets from American composers Michael Daugherty and Gabriela Lena Frank.
Under the auspices of the Sistema Nacional de Orquestas Juveniles of Venezuela, the Cuarteto created the Latin American Academy for String Quartets, based in Caracas, which serves as a training ground for five select young string quartets from the Sistema. The Cuarteto Latinoamericano is represented in the United States by Tom Gallant, at General Arts Touring [1]. In the Benelux countries their agent is Martijn Jacobus, at Impulse Arts Management [2], and in Italy, Cuarteto Latinoamericano is represented by Valerio Novara [3]. Since 2004, they have been recipients of the México en Escena grants given by the Mexican government through FONCA (National Fund for Culture and the Arts).
Recordings
Cuarteto Latinoamericano have recorded over eighty CDs, which include the complete works for quartet by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Silvestre Revueltas, Alberto Ginastera, Rodolfo Halffter, Carlos Chávez, Manuel M. Ponce, Mario Lavista, Francisco Mignone, Julián Orbón, and many other Latin American composers. Their sixth, and final, album of Heitor Villa-Lobos's string quartets, Quartets Nos. 4, 9 and 11, was nominated for two Grammy Awards (Best Chamber Music and Best Latin Music) in 2002. For Élan Recordings they have recorded Ginastera: The Three String Quartets and Latin American String Quartets, which includes the world premiere recordings of Orbón's String Quartet and Lavista's Reflejos de la Noche. As of 2011 the Cuarteto Latinoamericano is under a recording agreement with Sono Luminus, for whom they have released four albums: Encores (2010), Mexican Romantic Quartets (2011), Brasileiro: Works of Mignone (2012), which won a Latin Grammy in the Best Classical Recording category, and "Ruperto Chapí: String Quartets" Vol. 1 (2014), which was nominated for a Latin Grammy in 2015. Their 2015 album "El Hilo Invisible", with Mexican singer Jaramar, won the 2016 Latin Grammy for Best Classical Recording.
Members
- Saúl Bitrán – violin I,
- Arón Bitrán – violin II,
- Javier Montiel – viola,
- Alvaro Bitrán – cello
Sources
- Interview with guitarist Manuel Barrueco about working with Cuarteto Latinoamericano
- Art of the States: Cuarteto Latinoamericano performing Memorias Tropicales (1985) by Roberto Sierra
External links
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