Celebrity Series of Boston Presents Unitas Ensemble with Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Conductor

Celebrity Series of Boston presents Unitas Ensemble with conductor Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Histoire du Tango: a Piazzolla Celebration, in a streaming concert on Thursday, October 1, 2020 at 8pm ET as part of the “Celebrity Series at Home” Neighborhood Arts Community Concerts virtual concert series. A Boston-based chamber ensemble dedicated to performing works by Latin-American and Latinx composers past and present, Unitas Ensemble makes their Celebrity Series Neighborhood Arts debut with a streaming program celebrating tango music by the incomparable Astor Piazzolla. The performance features live narration by Unitas Ensemble's artistic director and conductor Lina Gonzalez-Granados, and takes place at Futura Productions Studio in Roslindale.

Tickets for the digital concert are free with RSVP and are available online at celebrityseries.org/productions/unitas-ensemble. To browse the entire “Celebrity Series at Home” series and learn more about all of the free and paid performances, visit: celebrityseries.org/athome.

Program:
Osvaldo Golijov, Last Round, for string nonet (1996)
Astor Piazzolla, Two tangos for strings
     Coral
     Cayengue
Astor Piazzolla (arr. Osorio), Histoire du Tango, for clarinet and string orchestra
Astor Piazzolla (arr. Ljova), Libertango, for flute and string orchestra

About Unitas Ensemble:

Unitas Ensemble was founded in 2014 to satisfy the need to share a sound that embodies and reflects the soul of the Latinx diaspora through concert music. This music derives great influences from its European and North American ancestors, but it differs from them by its exploration of the popular fascination with the endemic experience of the Latinx community, and a respect for the folkloric. Unitas Ensemble is, as a musical project, the most refined representation of their aspirations.

Led by award-winning Artistic Director Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Unitas has performed and commissioned nearly a dozen World, North American, and U.S. premieres, and have offered a variety of free concerts geared toward offering underserved communities access to artistically enriching experiences. Recent spotlights include their season-long “Mujeres” project, focused on the music of Latina composers; this included the U.S. premiere of Teresa Carreno’s Serenade for Strings, 200 years after its composition. They also celebrated the 100th anniversary of Stravinky’s Histoire du Soldat with a newly commissioned work by Colombian composer Juan David Osorio, which sourced correspondence from guerillas, soldiers, and victims of Colombia’s 50-year armed conflict. In 2018, they released Estaciones, their debut CD, recorded alongside the Latin Grammy-winning Cuartero Latinoamericano.

Upcoming performances include their 2020-21 season project “Reimagined,” focused on the art form of the Tango and the Bolero, appearances with Celebrity Series, and their 4th Annual bilingual Holiday celebration “Navidad Latina.”

About Lina Gonzalez-Granados:

Praised for her "attention to orchestral colors" (OperaWire) and ability to create "lightning changes in tempo, meter and effect" (Boston Musical Intelligencer), Lina Gonzalez-Granados has distinguished herself nationally and internationally as a talented young conductor of symphonic and operatic repertoire. Her spirited interpretations of the orchestral repertoire, as well as her dedication to highlighting new and unknown works by Latin-American composers, has earned her international recognition, including receiving the Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award. Most recently, she was awarded the 3rd prize and the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) Prize in the 2020 inaugural La Maestra Competition for Women Conductors which took place at the Phiharmonie de Paris. Lina will also participate in the La Maestra Academy during 2020-2022, with a program of professional engagements by the Philharmonie de Paris, the Paris Mozart Orchestra and their local and international partners.

Lina was the winner of the Fourth Chicago Symphony Orchestra Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition, and became the new Solti Conducting Apprentice under the guidance of Maestro Riccardo Muti, starting in February 2020 and continuing through June 2022. She also holds positions as Conducting Fellow with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Seattle Symphony. The 2020-21 season will include debuts with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oxford Philharmonic, Orquesta RTVE, Ann Arbor Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, OSPA, Kristiansand Symphony, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, San Antonio Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, and Hawaii Symphony. Recent appearances include performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, San Diego Symphony, San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, Tulsa Opera, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, and Filarmónica de Medellín. She has had the opportunity to work with world renowned artists such as Yefim Bronfman, Pinchas Zukerman, Giancarlo Guerrero, Zubin Mehta, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Lina is an active and fervent proponent for the inclusion and development of new works for chamber and large orchestra, especially music from Latin-American composers. She is the Artistic Director of Unitas Ensemble, a chamber orchestra she founded that performs the works of Latinx composers, and provides access to free community performances for underserved communities. Her work with Unitas has earned her numerous community awards, most recently a Spark Boston award from the City of Boston. She has also commissioned multiple World, North-American, and American premieres, as well as the creation and release of the Unitas Ensemble album “Estaciones”, recorded alongside the Latin Grammy-winning Cuarteto Latinoamericano.

From 2017-19, Lina served as the Taki Concordia Fellow, a position created by Maestro Marin Alsop to foster entrepreneurship and talent of female conductors. She has attended the 2019 Tanglewood Conducting Seminar, as well as the Lucerne Festival Masterclass with Maestro Bernard Haitink and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music with Marin Alsop as a recipient of the Bruno Walter Scholarship. She also participated in the Linda and Mitch Hart Institute for Conductors at the Dallas Opera with Maestro Carlo Montanaro and Nicole Paiment, making her the first Hispanic conductor selected for that role. Lina was named one of the contestants selected for La Maestra Competition, which will take place at the Paris Philharmonie in September 2020.

?Born and raised in Cali, Colombia, Lina made her conducting debut in 2008 with the Youth Orchestra of Bellas Artes in Cali. She holds a Master’s Degree in Conducting with Charles Peltz,  a Graduate Diploma in Choral Conducting from New England Conservatory with Erica Washburn, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Conducting from Boston University. Her principal mentors include Marin Alsop, Bernard Haitink, Bramwell Tovey and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

About Celebrity Series of Boston  

Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. The Series has been bringing the very best performers–from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more–to Boston’s major concert halls for 81 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience—on stages, on streets, in neighborhoods–everywhere.

Celebrity Series of Boston is grateful to our 2020-21 Season Sponsors Amy & Joshua Boger, and to the many individuals, corporations, foundations, and government agencies whose generosity supports Arts for All! and help fulfill our mission to present performing artists who inspire and enrich our community. Individual and Institutional supporters include the Barr Foundation through its ArtsAmplified initiative, Leslie & Howard Appleby, Stephanie L. Brown Foundation, The Catered Affair, Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation, Mr. & Mrs. Peter Coxe, Amy & Ethan d’Ablemont Burnes, D.L. Saunders Real Estate Corp., First Republic Bank, Foley & Lardner LLP, Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals, George & Lizbeth Krupp, Liberty Mutual Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, Outside the Box: A Production of the Boston Arts Summer Institute, Cynthia and John S. Reed Foundation, Royal Little Family Foundation, Stifler Family Foundation, Anonymous, and many others.

Arts for All! programs are also made possible by support from the LIVE PERFORMANCE! Arts for All Endowment & Innovation Funds of the Celebrity Series of Boston.

celebrityseries.org

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