The world of Joaquin Nin-Culmell:
CVE Performs a Concert Dedicated to his Memory
The Latin American Music Center and the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble invite you to a concert dedicated to the memory of composer Joaquin Nin-Culmell (1908-2004). The concert, free an open to the public, will take place on March 6, 2005, at 8:00 pm in IU School of Music's Auer Hall, and will be conducted by the LAMC and CVE's Director, Carmen Helena Téllez.
Born in Berlin, Germany, Nin-Culmell inherited the cultures of his parents, Spain and Cuba. He was the member of an artistic and well-traveled family. His father was the also famous composer Joaquín Nin, his mother the singer Rosa Culmell, and his sister the writer Anaís. He attended the Schola Cantorum and the Paris Conservatory, receiving a first prize in music composition there in 1934. He was also the last known student of the great Manuel de Falla.
Nin-Culmell moved to the United States in 1939 and taught at Middlebury College in Vermont for two years before joining the music department of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. He stayed at Williams for a decade, then moved to UC Berkeley in 1950. In California, in addition to academic duties, he conducted the University of California Symphony orchestra and appeared as a pianist with numerous musical groups in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Nin-Culmell embraced both his multi-cultural inheritance from Spain and Cuba and his French training, in a style characterized by uncommon tenderness and elegance. His legacy as a illuminator of folk melodies in the context of the concert stage has been followed by the younger generation of Latin American with renewed vigor. This continuing tradition will be represented at the concert in works by Roberto Sierra and Guido López Gavilán.
The concert will include the special appearance of pianist Edmund Battersby, IU School of Music faculty and personal friend of the composer. Professor Battersby will perform Nin-Culmell's Tonadas for piano solo which he recorded for Koch International. The recital will also include the participation of pianist Jordi Torrent, First Prize Winner of the 8th Annual Competition in Performance of Music from Spain and Latin America, who will perform the set of Chansons Populaires Sephardiques with soloists from the CVE.
For more information of Joquin Nin-Culmell, please visit Latin American Music Center's Newsletter LAMúsica Volume 6, Number 1 (January, 2004)
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