Symphony of Northwest Arkansas musicians in program featuring composers from Latin America

Lia Uribe, who grew up in Colombia, “discovered classical music and the bassoon when she was 13,” writes Becca Martin-Brown in Sunday’s (9/26) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock). “The bassoon brought Uribe to Fayetteville in 1999 to work on her … master’s in music at the University of Arkansas…. ‘I have been playing with SoNA [Symphony of Northwest Arkansas] as principal bassoonist since 2011,’ she says. Usually that means playing traditional classical music. But SoNA Beyond, a new series debuting Oct. 2 at the Fayetteville Public Library, has given Uribe a rare opportunity to take ‘a strong step toward rebalancing the world of “classical” music locally.’ … The brainchild of Paul Haas, SoNA music director, and Riley Nicholson, SoNA executive director, the series was born in the success of the orchestra’s enhanced and virtual programming during the pandemic of 2020…. In the series opener, Uribe and colleagues Fernando Valencia, Raul Munguia, Cristian Martinez, all SoNA Hispanic musicians, have curated content that highlights music … written by composers from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina and other Latin American countries…. ‘We hope that the diversity of our performers and program reflect the diversity of our own Hispanic community in Northwest Arkansas,’ she says.”