About

 

Hello! Welcome to my website.  Here you’ll find some biographical data about myself and a list of my works if you scroll down past the biographical essays. Some of the works contain links to a video or audio file so you can hear them and to blog posts giving info about their creation and content. The blog posts are something new I am starting to do with the works so there may not be many at first.

My biography in a few words:

I am a  composer and pianist who was born in Mexico City and studied with Cuban pianists Marcia Freyre and Marcia Freyre de Andrade in Mexico and then with pianists Mario Feninger and Ian Brooks in the United States. I made my pianistic debut in Mexico in 1985, appearing in numerous recitals  and also on TV, in a show called Estudio 54 several times. In the late eighties I injured my left hand, which forced me to  perform music for one hand for several years, recording the CD “Piano Music for One Hand”. Then, through several years of work with Dorothy Taubman and Nina Scolnik, I was able to resume playing with both hands. In the nineties I started to compose, being taught the basics by my mentor, Mario Feninger, and when I returned to playing in public, I did so performing my own music. In 2005 I recorded my CD “Almost Songs”, which was called “sensational listening” by The Jamestown Post-Journal. In 2006 ERM Music recorded my First Piano Concerto in Kyiv and issued it as part of his Masterworks of the New Era series. My Second Piano Concerto was recorded in 2013 in Bratislava and came out in the CD “Memories of my Childhood”, which included both concerti. Through the advice of my friend Stephen Paulus, I started to pursue the composition of choral music and in 2017 “Moses, An Oratorio” for choir SATB, soloists and chamber orchestra was premiered by the the San Fernando Valley Master Chorale in Los Angeles, which named me its composer in residence, a position I still hold. I was given a  McKnight Visiting Composer  residency in 2019 by the American Composer Forum and I wrote The Immigrants, a work in 4 movements about Mexican immigrants in Minneapolis as part of my residency, but the May 2020 premiere got COVID cancelled. However, it got recorded virtually at the end of 2020 and it got premiered in television, on Channel 22 of Mexico City. I have a catalog of 34 opuses comprising around 120 works for piano, chamber ensembles, choirs, Jewish cantorial music and orchestral and symphonic band music.

 

My Works

Here is a compilation of my works. If the name is underlined, you can hear it by clicking on it. If the word Score is underlined, you can see the score by clicking on it.  If you want to perform any of these pieces or have any questions or comments, please press the button “Contact Me”.

CONCERTI

Concerto #1 for Piano and Orchestra (The Russian)

Concerto #2 for Piano and Orchestra :

The Body

The Mind

The Spirit

 

 

 

SOLO PIANO

1. Five Concert Etudes

2. War and Peace

3. 12 Preludes

4. Three Evolutions

5. Three Evolutions II

6. Interruptions

7. Three Very Short Melodies

8. Improvisations.

9. Scenes of Their Childhood (11 miniatures, 13 minutes):

Hear it complete.  Hear it by movements: 1. The Nintendo, 2 The Carpool, 3 Homework, 4Reading, 5 Dreaming,

6 Fairies, 7 Wake Up!, 8 Playing, 9 Innocence, 10, Friends, 11 My Family.

10.Concepts

11. Sonata I

12. Sonata II

 

 

ALMOST SONGS

(Sets of piano pieces preceded by a small poem)

1. Moods:  Sadness, Despair, Fear, Anger, Hostility, Boredom, Seriousness, Cheerfulness, Enthusiasm

2. The Media Sonata: The Press, The Internet, TV for Adults, TV for Kids

3.Us

4.Environmental Suite

5.The Drugs Suite

 

CHAMBER MUSIC

String Quartet #1 Opus 13

1. The False Idea

2. Classical, Barroque and a Tiny Bit Modern

3. Ethereal

4. Rhythmia

Trio for Flute, Oboe and Clarinet Opus 6

1. A Frolic

2. A Walk in the Forest

3. An Acceleration

Piano quintet Echoes of Mexico

 

 

CHORAL MUSIC 

 ORATORIOS                                                                                 

MOSES, An Oratorio (For soloists, SATB choir and chamber orchestra)                                 

Moses, an Oratorio,  Highlights  

1 Prelude,Moses at Wilshire Blvd.

2.O, Hear our Voices,

3.Moses’ is Born,

4.The Killing of the Taskmaster/Marriage to Tziporah,                                                                                                  

5.The Burning Bush,

6.The Plagues,

7.Escape from Egypt,

8.The Song of the Sea,

9.In the Desert,

10.Amalek Attacks,                                 

11.The Ten Commandments,

12.The Golden Calf,

13.The Spies,

14.Moses Addresses Israel.

THE NIGHTMARE AND THE DREAM  (Oratorio for soloists, SATB choir and wind ensemble)

Complete work (1 hour)

By movement:

1.Europa

2.Metamorphosis

3.Herzl’s Vision 

4. Travels, Diplomacy and the Congresses

5. The Pioneers

MIXED CHOIR

The Immigrants (For SATB choir and piano)(4 movements, 16 minutes)

The Immigrants by movement (each can be performed as a stand alone piece):

1.¿Por qué me vine? (Why did I Come Here?)

2.La cruzada (The Crossing)

3.El trabajo (Work)

4.¿Me quedo o me voy? (Should I Stay or Should I Leave? )                                                                                                                           

Moses, the Passover Story ( SATB choir and piano, 15 minutes)

Ode to Music. (SATB choir, 3 minutes)

Isaiah Said (Isaiah 11:6) (SATB choir a capella)

A Hanukkah Gathering  (2 voices, men and women, a capella)

My Flowers Will Never End (On a poem by Netzahualcoyotl, SATB choir, flute and drum)

A Song and a Prayer (SATB Choir, piano)   

We Are The Music Makers (SAB choir, piano)

Prayer and Praise (SATB choir, string quartet and/or piano)

Hanukkah, an Inspiration (SSAB choir and piano)

To See What You See (SATB choir and piano)

TREBLE CHOIR

Keep On Going On (SA choir and piano)

CHILDREN’S CHOIR

Caminante  (SSA, piano)

Who is Judah Maccabee? (SSA, piano)

SOON TO BE PREMIERED:

Love (SSAA and piano)

There Is No Glory in Hate (SATB Choir a capella, advanced) (Anti-war) (5 minutes)

Ode to Poverty (For SATB choir or SSAA choir and piano, advanced) (On a poem by Pablo Neruda) (6 minutes) 

Nonatzin (On a poem by Netzahualcoyotl, for SATB choir, piano, flute and drum)

Hineni (Here I Am) SSAATB and harp

 

SONGS

Two Songs on Poems by Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz for soprano and piano:

1. Endechas

2. Soneto

 

     WIND BAND

1. Echoes of Mexico (flexband) 

2. Memories of my Childhood (Symphonic Band) Hear the orchestral versionScore

3. The Spirit (Symphonic band) Hear the orchestral version Score

4. Jarocho L.A.