PostClassical Ensemble: Mexican Revolution
PostClassical Ensemble
Event Attributes
PostClassical Ensemble (PCE) presents vibrant cross-disciplinary programs that give audiences deeper context for musical works and the times in which they were written. This season PCE will present Mexican Revolution, a multi-event, multimedia program that explores themes of human rights and cultural expression.
The first half of the May 10 performance is a bilingual multimedia presentation narrated by WBJC’s Jonathan Palevsky and features songs from the Mexican Revolution performed by the legendary singer Eugenia León and PostClassical Ensemble.
In the second half of the program, audiences experience the Mexican film masterpiece Redes (1936), an iconic product of the Mexican Revolution, accompanied by Silvestre Revueltas’ scorching symphonic score performed live by PCE.
Redes is a 60-minute black-and-white film with lush cinematography by renowned photographer and cinematographer Paul Strand; it was co-directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann, who later directed High Noon, From Here to Eternity and A Man for All Seasons. In telling the story of poor fishermen victimized by monopoly control of their market, Redes argues for organized resistance as a necessary means of political reform. PCE will also record the score for a future relase on the Naxos label.
This event is part of our Civil War to Civil Rights: The Well-Being of a Nation series.
AFL-CIO lobby display
On display May 4-11, 2014 in our lobby
In conjunction with our presentation of PostClassical Ensemble's Mexican Revolution performance on May 10, the University of Maryland Libraries are proud to feature posters and selected items from the archives of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO).
Learn more about The George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archive at the UMD Special Collections and University Archives.
Other events
PostClassical Ensemble is organizing events related to the Mexican Revolution taking place at various locations off-campus:
Book Club: John Steinbeck's Mexico
Saturday, April 5, 2014 . 10:30PM
Mexican Cultural Institute
Features the Marlon Brando film Viva Zapata (1952), scripted by Steinbeck and directed by Elia Kazan. The assigned book is John Steinbeck’s Zapata (including two screenplay treatments). We’ll be considering how Hollywood treated “Mexico” during the Red Scare. With commentary by John Tutino of Georgetown University. More information and RSVP with PostClassical Ensemble.
Conference: The Mexican Revolution
Friday, April 11, 2014 . 1-6PM
McNeir Hall, Georgetown University
Curated by John Tutino. Including live music, conducted by Angel Gil-Ordoñez. More information is on PostClassical Ensemble's website.
Presentation: Revuletas and Mexican Identity
Wednesday, May 7, 2014 . 6:30PM
Mexican Cultural Institute
A multimedia presentation by the pre-eminent Revueltas scholar Roberto Kolb. More information is on PostClassical Ensemble's website.
Martin Scorsese on Redes
"A very special film…Strand brought his camera eye,…Zinnemann brought his tremendous sensitivity to actors,…and with his score Revueltas gave the film a terrific majesty and grandeur."
— MARTIN SCORSESE
Excerpts from Redes
These excerpts from Redes demonstrate the marriage of music and iconic imagery, a peerless collaboration between the composer Silvestre Revueltas and cinematographer Paul Strand.
Review by The New York Times
This review is of MONTSALVATGE: ’Madrigal‘ and Other Works, a recording conducted by Angel Gil-Ordoñez, Music Director of PostClassical Ensemble.
The Spanish composer Xavier Montsalvatge is no household name, but you couldn’t ask for a better introduction to his elegant, refined and piquant oeuvre than this vibrant collection by New York City’s Perspectives Ensemble.
— The New York Times, February 5, 2014
Review by The Washington Post
The score is dramatic but not melodramatic. A child has died and the opening funeral march is as flavored by folk culture as by grief.
— JOAN REINTHALER, The Washington Post, May 11, 2014