Villa-Lobos International Music Festival

CHAMBER MUSIC

The arts, specifically classical music, are “heating” up in January with Latin American chamber music featuring trios, a string quartet and a cello ensemble performing music by Villa-Lobos and other Latin American composers The Eighth Annual Villa-Lobos International Music Festival is coming to Southern California and Coronado has joined the festival, hosting three of twelve scheduled concerts this month Artists will be coming in from Brazil, Chicago, Alaska and Los Angeles to perform Latin American chamber repertoire for the Coronado community The festival is part of the Coronado Cultural Arts Commission’s 2022-23 Coronado Classical Music Concert Series through March which includes concerts with the Crown City Chorale, Villa Lobos, a Valentine’s Opera concert with Gabriella Rodmac and Filipe Prada, Musica Vitale and the Coronado Philharmonia Orchestra

HECTOR VILLA-LOBOS

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887 –1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music ” Villa-Lobos has become the best-known South American composer of all time. A prolific composer, he wrote numerous orchestral, chamber, instrumental and vocal works His music was influenced by both Brazilian folk music and stylistic elements from the European classical tradition

EIGHTH ANNUAL MUSIC FESTIVAL

This is the first time the festival will perform in Coronado, though they have been active in Southern California annually since 2015 and have performed in Encinitas, Carlsbad, Pasadena, Los Angeles and Riverside. The City of Coronado, the Coronado Public Library and the Cultural Arts Commission is excited to sponsor and support these three concerts provided free and open to the public thanks to generous funding from the Friends of the Library and the Coronado Community Grant program.

VILLA-LOBOS FOUNDATION

living Latin American composers are premiered each year The cello is always present in each concert as Villa-Lobos was himself a cellist and composed prolifically for the instrument.

Villa-Lobos was founded by Lars Hoefs, cello professor at Sao Paulo State University in Campinas Brazil Hoefs is the artistic director and cellist of the Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festival, and his father lives in Oceanside where the foundation has it base, and where festival rehearsals occur and where guest musicians from abroad are housed The organization’s mission is reflected in the musical repertoire chosen and presented at festival concerts Works by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos are always included and serve as an artistic anchor for the festival, and new works by

Originally from Appleton, Wisconsin, Lars earned his high school diploma at the North Carolina School of the Arts, a Bachelors from Northwestern University studying with Hans Jorgen Jensen, and both Masters and Doctorate degrees from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles where he studied with former Los Angeles Philharmonic principal cellist Ronald Leonard. At Sao Paulo State University in Campinas, Lars founded and leads the Unicamp Cello Ensemble, a c cello orchestra consisting of h former cello students. The Un Ensemble has performed at B prestigious festivals and conc 2016 they recorded a CD of w recordings, featuring Lalo Sch Divertimento, and toured thr state of Sao Paulo.

Bringing the 2023 Villa-Lobos International Chamber Music Festival to Coronado will introduce beautiful and fascinating Latin American chamber music that most Coronado residents have not, and probably would never encounter, and residents will have an opportunity to interact with the highest-level of international musicians.