Gabriela Ortiz: Téenek premiered by Gustavo Dudamel in Berlin
On 11-13 May the Berlin Philharmonic presents the first German performances of Gabriela Ortiz's orchestral work Téenek - Invenciones de Territorio under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. The internationally successful Mexican composer signed a publishing agreemeent with Boosey & Hawkes in 2022.
Gabriel Ortiz’s orchestral score Téenek - Invenciones de Territorio is introduced to German audiences by Gustavo Dudamel, who has done much to champion the Mexican composer’s music, in three concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic at the Philharmonie on 11-13 May. The score was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and premiered under the musical direction of Dudamel at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles in 2017.
Téenek, scored for symphony orchestra and with a duration of 16 minutes, joins an extensive series of powerful orchestral works from Ortiz's pen that fuse modernism and folk music tradition. The title refers to the language of the Mexican region of Huasteca and alludes to the importance of a region or place for the cultural imprint of its inhabitants - across time and regardless of origin, skin colour, political borders or socio-economic conditions.
"Téenek is a sonorous metaphor of our transcendence", the composer explains. "A strength that alludes to a future where there are no borders, but rather, a recognition of the actual particularities and differences between us that propitiate our development while at the same time, enriching and uplifting us." In line with this notion, Ortiz shapes her work from "a series of apparently dissimilar inventions which find their strength in their differences, enrichment, and musical development: these are interwoven and transformed over time in a discourse that demonstrates how the existence of borders may be diluted in pursuit of the powerful idea that our potential future lies in recognizing our differences".
In his programme with the Berlin Philharmonic, Gustavo Dudamel undertakes a musical journey that travels through Central, South and North America. Starting in Mexico, the Ortiz premiere is followed by a concerto rarely heard in Europe – Piano Concerto No.1 by Alberto Ginastera, composed in 1961 and suffused with the percussive stylistic characteristics of this important Argentinian modernist; the soloist is Sergio Tiempo, who has been performing this concerto for over a decade. The Berlin programme is rounded off by Symphony No.2 by US composer Charles Ives.
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Further Ortiz highlights over the coming month include the UK premiere of her orchestral work Clara at the BBC Proms in London on 8 September with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Domingo Hindoyan. Her orchestral concert opener Kauyumari, celebrating the return to musical activity after the pandemic, receives six performances in the US and UK over the coming year.
> Further information on Gabriela Ortiz
> Further information on Work: Téenek - Invenciones de Territorio
Photo: Gabriela Ortiz (© Boosey & Hawkes)