Kunstlieder aus Lateinamerika / Art songs from Latin America

Under the direction of composer Rafael Marino Arcaro, soprano Hannah Dienes-Williams and Ensemble Utak bring to Germany a rare concert consisting entirely of premieres, spanning a century of Latin American music written between 1927 and 2026. Works from Brazil, Chile, Peru, Cuba and Mexico connect early modernism with contemporary voices in a cross generational cultural encounter. Two song cycles by Brazilian composer Dinorá de Carvalho (1895–1980), newly arranged for soprano and ensemble, trace her evolution from modernism to a strikingly individual atonal language. Songs by A. García Caturla (1906–1940), written after his studies in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, are marked by rhythmic vitality and daring harmonies shaped by Afrocubanism. Mexican composer Carlos Chávez’s Invention III (1967) for solo harp offers a concentrated study in restraint and mystery. Recent works by Chilean composer Tomás Brantmayer and Peruvian composer Sofía Alvarez extend this lineage into the present: Brantmayer draws on melodies from the Yaghan indigenous community, while Alvarez explores the resonance of sound itself—a contemporary rethinking of mantra. At the centre stands the world premiere of what i learned from manuel de barros, op.28, Marino Arcaro’s setting of Manoel de Barros’ 1998 poetry collection, transforming the poet’s language of fragility into a daring vocal landscape evoking the quieter rural regions of Brazil.