“What began a decade ago as a smattering of concerts put on by two composer-educators to introduce local audiences to music from Latin America and Spain that was being ignored by most of the area’s established classical music organizations has taken on a life and importance its founders could scarcely have imagined,” writes John von Rhein in Tuesday’s (9/8) Chicago Tribune. “Indeed, the Latino Music Festival has become one of the biggest, most important conglomerate cultural events of its kind anywhere in the nation, perhaps even the world. ‘We see ourselves as providing a space where people can come from everywhere to present music from many countries, eras, traditions and styles, and have it flourish here in Chicago,’ says the Argentinian-born Chicago composer Gustavo Leone. A professor of music in the Fine and Performing Arts department of Loyola University Chicago, Leone co-founded the festival and serves as one of its artistic directors, along with his colleague, composer Elbio Barilari, an Uruguayan native … Their assertion is no exaggeration when you survey the 24 concerts of Latin American classical and contemporary music that make up the 10th anniversary festival, which begins Thursday and continues through Nov. 22 at various city and suburban locations.”
Posted September 10, 2015
