This summer, professor of music Dr. Orlando Jacinto Garcia was awarded a prestigious residency by the Bogliasco Foundation near Genoa, Italy, a region of extraordinary beauty whose landscape has stimulated creative expression for centuries.
The Bogliasco Foundation offers one-month residencies to individuals of all nations who can demonstrate notable achievement in the Arts and Humanities and has welcomed nearly 800 Fellows from 55 different countries since it began over 18 years ago.
During his four week residency as the Aaron Copland Bogliasco Fellow in Music, Dr. Garcia completed a 16 minute work for 2 violins and chamber orchestra, a composition written for violinists Igor and Vesna Gruppman, both with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Garcia has explored the extended timbre possibilities of the instruments, as well as the performers’ virtuosity and control of their sound throughout the piece.
According to Garcia, the title of the work, “Fragmented Patterns,” refers to the “different melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic patterns that are heard throughout the work, most often in recurring fragments. The solo violin and viola parts were created to display the beautiful sound of Igor and Vesna’s playing which require the ability to control varying subtle shades of timbre while including moments of more traditional virtuosity. As with much of my work the counterpoint between timbre, register, density, and pacing along with the slow evolution of materials are aesthetic concerns.”
Dr. Garcia is the founder and director of several international music festivals and ensembles, including the New Music Miami Festival and the NODUS Ensemble. He has been nominated for three Latin Grammys for best contemporary classical composition, and has received fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Cintas Foundation, and the Fullbright Association. His work has been performed in concerts and festivals around the world.
