February 2, 2021, 7:30 pm
The performance will be Live Streamed on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2021 at 7:30 pm, on MAS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SOSUMAS
González-Marín Duo
The González-Marín collaboration started as many other great projects, over a coffee. The root of the workshop was a conversation where we were discussing teaching, tradition, classical and popular music.
During all these years teaching voice at the University of Puerto Rico, voice professor and singer Fabiana González have found that is hard to teach the use of the vocal apparatus with the standard classical repertoire solely because Puerto Rican students don’t relate with the music presented, the language and the style of the repertoire. Another problem she faced was that the classical repertoire uses extended registers that are hard to manage at the beginner level.
On her experience as a professional singer, Prof. González think about the singing voice as an extension of the speaking voice. She believes in training voices from a point of reference close to the student’s background, meaning tradition, language and range. After discussing this with Maestro Marín, Prof. González started using bolero as a tool of teaching bel canto with her Puertorrican students. From that seminal paradigm, she has learned that, although bel canto and bolero repertoire are two different styles, applying the repertoire of the bolero that comes from the tradition of “troubadour” voice range, the students learn to use the chest voice first, in order to build the extended registers and at the same time, he/she is exposed to the cultural tradition that is enclosed on the style.
Fabiana González
Puertorican mezzo-soprano Fabiana González is quickly gaining attention throughout the United States and Europe for her “superb combination of tonal warmth and rhetorical directness” (San Francisco Chronicle). She received a bachelor’s degree from the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and a Master’s Degree in Early Music at Yale University under the tutelage of James Taylor. She is currently completing a Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree at the University of North Texas, where she has worked closely with vocal pedagogy expert Stephen Austin. In the fall of 2015 Ms. González received a research grant from the University of North Texas to study with Bavarian fortepiano virtuoso, Christoph Hammer in Augsburg, Germany. She currently resides in San Juan, Puerto Rico where she teaches voice and vocal pedagogy at the San Juan Children’s Choir and at the University of Puerto Rico. In 2016 she sang a series of solo concerts as part of a tour of Finland which included a solo performance in the Aino Acktén Chamber Music Festival. She has performed with the Dallas Bach Society and the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in San Francisco as well as with the Leopold Mozart Zentrum Orchestra in Augsburg, Germany. Several chamber-music highlights include performances with The Rose Ensemble in collaboration with the Minnesota Orchestra and concert tours of Germany, Austria, Croatia, Peru, and Puerto Rico with the Fantasmi Ensemble. She has sung under the baton of Masaaki Suzuki, Andrew Megill, Dale Warland, Simon Halsey, James O’Donnell, Simon Carrington, James Richman, Richard Sparks, and Paul Leenhouts. She has performed with vocal ensembles including Orfeón San Juan Bautista, Yale Schola Cantorum, UNT Collegium Singers, the Thirteen Choir, Choral Pickup, and the South Dakota Chorale.
Luis Marín
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Luis Marín began studying piano at the age of seven. At 20, Luis went on to study at Berklee College of Music, working on his natural craftsmanship with Bill Davis, Ray Santisi and Jeff Covell. During his 30 years on the music scene, he has worked with such talents as Jazz and Salsa icons as Andy Montañez, Cheo Feliciano, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Celia Cruz, Willie Colón, Oscar D’León, Luis Enrique, Fania All Stars, Puerto Rico All Stars, Descarga Boricua, Orquesta del Día Nacional de la Salsa, Juan Luis Guerra, Victor Manuelle, Ruben Blades, Eddie Palmieri, David Sanchez, Justo Almario, Ignacio Berroa, Eddie Gomez, Kenny Werner, Mario Bauzá, Tito Puente, Chick Corea, Dave Valentin, Chucho Valdés, Mario Rivera, Israel “Cachao” López, Eddie Palmieri, Giovanni
Hidalgo, Brian Lynch, among others, on both live presentations and musical recordings. In 1999 Luis Marín recorded his first album in the jazz scene, “Inconsolable”, which was received by the critics as one of the most important jazz albums in the local scene. In 2003 Luis released a live recorded album ” Live at Niuyorican Cafe Vol II” which has been reissued in digital distribution on major outlets around the world. His third release “The One” showcase his talent on a magical trip of diverse musical influences, exciting and introspective rhythms and heartfelt melodic and harmonic messages from the heart. For many years, Luis Marín shared his music and knowledge teaching at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of
Music, in which he served as Department Chair and as an active piano jazz, ensembles and Big Band teacher. Nowadays he is a recognized clinician in the Latin American academic circuit, and a sought-after pianist in the popular music market as well. sharing his talent with music students in the U.S. and Latin America.
