"MUSICA en la Casa" has just brilliantly ended its 2011 series of concerts with Niurka González on flute and Joaquín Clerch on guitar performing to a packed and highly moved audience in Casa de las Américas’ Che Guevara hall.
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The concert given by these talented musicians was a fine New Year gift and will be remembered for a long time, thanks also to Casa and its customary practice of organizing cultural and artistic events of high quality.
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The ambitious program included works by Franz Schubert (1797-1828), Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992), Manuel de Falla (1876-1946), Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) and Enrique Granados (1867-1916).
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In addition to their talent and studies, González and Clerch have a tremendous respect for the profession, hence their dedication and tenacity in rehearsing for every public performance.
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On this occasion, they decided to unite the flute and the guitar, which meant intensive rehearsals, at times lasting all day.
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Niurka González, who won first prize in the Paris Conservatoire contest (1997) and graduated from the Havana Advanced Institute of Arts with a Golden Diploma (1999), was still a student when the eminent French flutist Alain Marion heard her and wrote in Barcelona:
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"I can affirm that Niurka González has a unique and exceptional talent, given her qualities as an instrumentalist and musical gift. It is actually quite rare to hear someone so complete at such a young age (…) and I think that I can affirm that she will become the great South American flutist of the future."
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She has left similar impressions in the wake of recitals in various cities in the Americas, Europe and Asia. Her first CD recording in 2003, Flauta Virtuosa, was awarded the First Work prize in the Cubadisco 2004 competition. She also participated in recordings of the works of Leo Brouwer on the albums Homo Ludens and Paisajes, Retratos y Mujeres.
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Neither is it any secret that Joaquín Clerch was acknowledged in his adolescence as having exceptional talent. One of his professors, Eliot Fisk observed:
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"Without any doubt, Joaquín Clerch is one of the most important, or possibly the most important, guitarists of his generation."
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He has won prizes in various contests, including the Andrés Segovia (Granada), Heitor Villalobos (Río de Janeiro), Printemps de la Guitare (Charleroi/Brussels) and the Munich ARD. He has also performed in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Frankfurt Alter Oper, the Madrid Auditorio Nacional de Música, the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels, on Radio France de Paris, and at Cuba’s National Theater.
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Currently a professor at the Robert Schumann Music University in Dusseldorf, Clerch has given solo performances with the symphony orchestras of Cuba and other countries, and with philharmonic orchestras in Spain, Bogotá, and the Grand Canaries.
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Niurka González’ flute and Joaquín Clerch’s guitar: a master concert in Casa de las Américas.
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Source: Granma
Available at: http://www.granma.cu/ingles/culture-i/29dic-Flute.html