LEC TURE DESCRIPTIONS
🎵 Composing Across Traditions: Musical Heritage in Operatic Form
In this lecture, I examine how Mexican and Mexican-American musical traditions inform my operatic writing. Drawing from works such as Zorro and La Llorona, I discuss how styles including the corrido, mariachi song, and norteño rhythms can be integrated into a neo-romantic operatic framework.
Rather than treating these traditions as surface color, I explore how rhythm, melody, and dramatic pacing shape character and narrative. Inspired by composers such as Puccini and late Verdi, my approach seeks to honor operatic form while allowing culturally rooted musical language to live fully within it.
Through musical examples and discussion, this lecture considers how opera can remain grounded in tradition while expanding its expressive and cultural vocabulary.
📜 Echoes of Struggle: History and the Role of the Artist
This lecture explores the role of history in shaping my work as a Mexican-American composer. In operas such as Zorro and La Llorona, I draw from moments of social upheaval, land struggles, and cultural transformation—not to make political arguments, but to honor the endurance of individuals and communities.
I reflect on how historical memory can inform storytelling, deepen dramatic meaning, and inspire connection across cultures. By engaging with history through music and narrative, I seek to create works that speak to resilience, dignity, and hope.
Through this lens, the artist becomes both storyteller and steward of memory, creating space for reflection and shared understanding.