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Jorge Torres, associate professor of music, and Rebecca Stuhr, collection development librarian at Grinnell College, will celebrate the release of their new album, Music for Flute and Guitar, at 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 at the Chateau Chavaniac. The concert, which is sponsored by the Friends of the Williams Center, is free and open to the public, but reservations are necessary. Call (610) 330-5010 for reservations.
The album, which was released in June by Centaur Records, features Torres on guitar and Stuhr on modern and baroque flute. It focuses on French and Latin American music by Napoleon Coste, Emile Desportes, Radames Gnattali, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
All of the pieces are for guitar and flute with the exception of “Sextuor Mystique” by Villa-Lobos. This is a Brazilian-inspired piece which features a sextet comprised of guitar, flute, harp, oboe, celesta, and alto saxophone.
Torres and Stuhr tried to find music for the album that had few recordings. For example, the work Sonatina for Flute and Guitar by Gnattali was recorded once in the 1960s. With its jazzy harmonies and bossa nova style, Torres describes it as “a well-crafted piece in terms of melody and harmony” and a piece “with an evocative sound.” Before this recording by Torres and Stuhr, the piece was not easily available.
The album was recorded in a deconsecrated church in Iowa. The space served as an ideal place for recording because of its remote location and its “stunning acoustics,” explained Torres.
The concert Oct. 26 will consist of all French works, some of which are on the album. The performance will also include works by Gabriel Faure and other French composers, including Yann Tiersen. Selections from Tiersen’s score for the movie Amelie will conclude the concert.
The CD by Torres and Stuhr will soon be available at the college bookstore and is already available at a number of online retailers.
Torres earned his Ph.D. in musicology from Cornell University. His research examines 17th century French lute performance, the Latin American bolero romantico, and primary sources for Latin American big band music. His publications have appeared in Journal of the Lute Society of America, American Music, Notes, and Symposium. He has taught at St. Lawrence University, where he directed the Caribbean and Latin American studies program, and at Grinnell College where, along with teaching courses in music history and world music, he founded the Latin American Performance Ensemble.