Joaquín Rodrigo: Aranjuez My Love

The Flamenco Poets Society’s Café Cantante Series commemorates the 20th anniversary of the death of noted composer and pianist Joaquín Rodrigo.

The Flamenco Poets Society began its annual Café Cantante series in 2007 to introduce audiences to the relationship between poetry, music and dance within intimate settings. This year it celebrates the music of Joaquín Rodrigo (1901–1999), one of the greatest composers of piano music from Spain. Although becoming blind at age three, he wrote highly original piano music of great brilliance and passion and is best known for Concierto de Aranjuez and the Fantasia para un gentilhombre.

About the artists

Hsin-Jung Tsai is a musician, composer and pianist. She studied at CUNY graduate center in New York and has performed at Carnegie Hall. She has worked for films and theater throughout Asia and the U.S. and received composition awards and grants from the Asia American Research Institute. Tsai resides in Houston and for several years served as the administrator for the Houston Composers Salon. She is currently the Artist-in-Residence for The Flamenco Poets Society, Café Cantante Series and will play the 2nd movement of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez for piano.

Shawn Renzoh Head is a musician, composer and Master Shakuhachi performer. He earned his Shihan degree at 22 and became the youngest non-Japanese Shihan in shukahachi. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He has traveled throughout Japan, Taiwan, and the U.S. as a soloist and lecturer. He continues to build a bridge between the east and west by composing his own works and commissioning others to build the repertoire for shakuhachi. He will interpret Rodrigo’s Cuatro Canciones Sefardies on Shakuhachi accompanied by Hsin-Jung Tsai on piano.

Alex Kalamarides was born in Athens, Greece and is Managing Director and General Partner of IntelliClear Inc. For over twenty-five years Alex has organized very popular annual poetry events for the Hellenic Professional Society of Texas celebrating Greek poets such as Constantine Cavafy, Nikos Kazantzakis, and Yannis Ritsos. Dr. Kalamarides will be the guest reader for the society’s Café Cantante Series 2019 featuring the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), perhaps the most important Spanish poet and dramatist of the twentieth century. Lorca is credited with revitalizing Spanish poetry and theater, and composed such masterpieces as Romancero gitano (Gypsy Ballads) and Llanto por Ignacio Sánchez Mejías (Lament for a Bullfighter), Bodas de sangre (Blood Wedding) and Yerma.