Frank: Conquest Requiem / Ginastera: Cantata Criolla

Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Conquest Requiem” illustrates the complexities of colonization, identity, and survival through the story of La Malinche, a Nahua woman from the Gulf Coast of Mexico who was sold to the Spanish as a young slave. This powerful work, which blends Western liturgical traditions, indigenous Nahua poetry, and Latin American influences, addresses the fundamental question of how to grapple with a legacy of historical violence that continues to shape current issues today. Antonio Estévez’s highly popular “Cantata Criolla”—considered one of the greatest 20th-century choral works in Latin America—is the composer’s most famous piece. Gabriela Lena Frank’s work “Hilos” was released in 2011 on a Grammy-nominated album that was received with enthusiasm by ClassicsToday.com: ‘Gabriela Lena Frank is the real deal: a modern composer with a personal style who manages to integrate a wide array of sounds and performance techniques into a unified language... This is simply good music’. By now, every release of a new contemporary work by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Giancarlo Guerrero has become an event—such is the success of this ensemble. The recording of Michael Daugherty’s “Metropolis Symphony” won several Grammy Awards and was described by ClassicsToday.com as ‘incredibly entertaining’; the press also praised an album featuring the “Fifth Symphony” and two other works by Christopher Rouse.