Rescuing the work of Mexican composers

The trajectory of Cuarteto Latinoamericano , a string quartet from Latin America formed by Chilean brothers Álvaro, Arón and Saúl Bitrán, and Mexican Javier Montiel, is invaluable. For almost 40 years, they have devoted themselves to spreading and rescuing music from Latin American composers .

This rescue, according to Arón Bitrán, has also been possible thanks to the support and collaboration of the National Musical Reasarch, Documentation, and Information Center (CENIDIM).

“Throughout the years we have been collecting Latin American music and we've realized that if this music isn't played is because it's hard to come by the sheet music; most of them aren't available on print or editions are sold or at private collections,” explains Bitrán.

Given this situation, the string quartet has built a virtual library on their website where they have uploaded sheet music from a wide range of composers, particularly editions of the Mexican repertoire.

As part of this effort, they recovered the scores of Quartetto studio classico, op.14 by Guadalupe Olmedo; Quartet in E minor by Alfredo Carrasco; and Quartet No. 1 by Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras.

“With the support we receive from the FONCA [National Fund for Culture and Arts] we're able to assign part of the funds to these editions. In the first stage, which we hope we're able to continue, we selected the works of these three Mexican composers because we find them exquisite; they have an undeniable quality and are representative of three very different periods. These are unknown works we played using photocopies,” explains the violin player.

The presentation of the musical scores took place last May 11 at the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City and today they will offer a concert once more at this venue to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Debussy.

am