Five Premieres Inspired by Five Decades October 9, 2011

Composer Armando Bayolo will make his Carnegie Hall debut with the premiere of "Lullabies," commissioned by clarinetist Marguerite Levin for Trio Montage. Premieres from Valencio Jackson, Jr., Allen Feinstein, Brian Balmages, and Joseph Ness will also appear on the program.

In making his Carnegie Hall debut, Bayolo is fulfilling the sacrifices and dreams of three generations of a musical family who barely survived Cuba's mid-century political upheaval. Around the time that his mother's family was granted permission to emigrate from Cuba, in 1967, the future Mrs. Bayolo was "invited" to become the Revolution's protege. The Castro regime would pay for her musical education and groom her to be a star of the concert stage, under the condition that she and her family remain in Cuba in perpetuity. The family obviously fled to Puerto Rico, and the young woman sacrificed her dreams as a concert pianist to build a new future for her family, learning English, and eventually marrying the senior Mr. Bayolo before moving to the United States.

Armando Bayolo's "Lullabies" consists of 6 movements, alternating between songs and dances that depict scenes of early fatherhood. "Each song in the cycle treats with the various anxieties, fears, uncertainties and, most of all, joys of having young children and the ruminations that leads to. The dances, meanwhile, present musical portraits of my own children in sound." The work takes on a special meaning, illustrating just how far the Bayolo family has come. "I feel like I'm fulfilling my grandparents' and mother's dreams vicariously by succeeding, however humbly, as a musician myself." And Armando's accomplishments are more than humble - he has successfully carved out a niche for himself as a new music advocate, award-winning composer, editor at Sequenza 21, professor, and artistic director of DC's Great Noise Ensemble.

Official Website: http://pitch.pe/170209