Press

For PostClassical Ensemble, it is not enough to complain about the monotony, or the ethnic or social bias, of symphonic programs. [Horowitz and Angel Gil-Ordóñez] devise alternatives… They produce stimulating evidence the music belongs to life and to the cultural and political environment of the times in which it was created… Classical music needs to leave the confinement of concert halls.

The Indonesian gamelan will be the centerpiece of PostClassical Ensemble’s latest musical creation, Cultural Fusion: The Gamelan Experience, on Jan. 23 at the Washington National Cathedral.

The Conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez and Perspectives Ensemble have recorded two of Manuel de Falla’s dramatic works –El retablo de Maese Pedro and El Amor Brujo (in its 1915 version). Esperanza Fernández, one of Spain’s leading exponents of flamenco art, joined the ensemble for El Amor Brujo. Sessions for this Naxos release, due in April, took place at the end of summer in Scarsdale, New York.

When patrons of the 40th annual Havana Film Festival in Cuba enter the city’s Cine la Rampa on December 8, they’ll be treated to an unexpected viewing experience – a conductor and an orchestra beneath the venue’s large projection screen. DC-based conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez will lead Cuba’s Mozart Lyceum Orchestra of Havana in a live performance of the score to classic Mexican neo-doc, Redes.

At our performance, the chorale was consecrated by stained-glass windows. Angel Gil-Ordóñez is a sovereign conductor of all and any slow-motion music. Our exceptional concertmaster, Nati Draiblate, was the violin soloist.

Extending for 530 feet, the nave of Washington National Cathedral, the world’s sixth largest, can easily accommodate several orchestras. On Jan. 23, it held three: PostClassical Ensemble, directed by Angel Gil-Ordóñez; the Indonesian Embassy Javanese Gamelan, directed by Pak Muryanto; and the Indonesian Embassy Balinese Gamelan, directed by I. Nyoman Suadin.

These days, the word fusion, especially in the context of food but also in discussions of the arts, has become a cliché. But here was a vivid, persuasive argument in favor of embracing a fluid world culture.

Adventurous programming is a hallmark of the Post-Classical Ensemble. This “experimental music laboratory,” now in its 15th year, explored the profound influence that gamelan has had on Western classical composers in a three-hour concert at the cathedral, its new home, on Wednesday night.

The result of this recording is simply magnificent. Tim Fain and Michael Borinskin are soloists of great class, and Angel Gil-Ordóñez does an extraordinary job at the helm of his PostClassical Ensemble of Washington.

The performances are irreproachable, which make this recording the best introduction ever registered to the work of Harrison.

Three intriguingly special works, extremely well served by the performers. The recording is altogether first class and one superb homage to Lou Harrison for his 100th birthday.

Lou Harrison had a pioneer’s imagination, not least regarding what might be walloped in the name of music – his Violin Concerto calls for flowerpots, plumber’s pipes and clock coils in the percussion. What’s more striking in this performance by Tim Fain, the PostClassical Ensemble and conductor Angel Gil-Ordóñez is the brilliance of his writing for violin, a collision between itchy dance rhythms and soaring lyricism.

El maestro madrileño cumple 25 años de carrera en Estados Unidos, donde trabaja como profesor en la Universidad de Georgetown y dirige desde 2003 el PostClassical Ensemble.

People respect you if you know what you are asking them to do. Then you have to be able to convey what you want. All simply. Through gestures and communication that goes beyond language. I think the orchestra is the most extraordinary achievement of humanity. Can you imagine something more sophisticated than that? One hundred people without verbal communication playing together for one hour? That goes beyond everything. Beyond thinking. To me [it] is the most incredible achievement. People making music together. It’s a miracle.

In March, 12 Georgetown University music students went to Cuba to work with musicians at Lyceum Mozartiano de La Habana. This Saturday, the Cuban musicians will return the favor, performing a free concert at Gaston Hall with their DC counterparts. Washingtonian spoke with Georgetown music director and professor Angel Gil-Ordóñez about the program.

One of Naxos’ April highlights is an all-Lou Harrison CD from the Washington, D.C.-based PostClassical Ensemble; the highlight of the CD is a recording of Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and 5 Percussionists.

This two-part podcast presents the music of “The Great Composer You’ve Never Heard Of” as author and music historian Joseph Horowitz, Maestro Angel Gil-Ordonez and Exploring Music’s Bill McGlaughlin host this program devoted to the life and music of the 20th-century composer Silvestre Revueltas. This broadcast includes PostClassical Ensemble’s recording that reconstructs the soundtrack Revueltas composed for the 1936 film Redes.

This two-part podcast entitled Schubert ‘Uncorked’ — a subversive reconsideration of a famous composer includes two broadcast premieres: Schubert’s Arpeggione Concerto and Schubert songs with bass trombone, along with the slow movement from Bruckner’s String Quintet and two movements from Daniel Schnyder’s Bass Trombone Concerto. With David Taylor (bass trombone), William Sharp (baritone) and PCE conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez.

Hear music by the PostClassical Ensemble and Angel Gil-Ordóñez’s remarkable story on this week’s episode, along with opening tracks by the Sultans of String and the wonderful Lila Downs, a prior musical collaborator with the Ensemble. Antidote is broadcast live every Tuesday at 9 am on WERA 96.7FM, and streams live on www.wera.fm, Sundays at 4 pm.

PostClassical Ensemble (PCE) celebrates the music of the “most under-rated 20th-Century American composer,” Bernard Herrmann. Author, music historian and co-founder of PCE Joseph Horowitz co-hosts this bi-monthly program with PCE Director Angel Gil-Ordóñez and Exploring Music Host Bill McGlaughlin. This week’s broadcast includes performances by PostClassical Ensemble of Herrmann’s Clarinet Quintet, Sinfonietta, and Psycho Narrative, as well as music from his radio play Whitman and his Cantata Moby Dick.

Mirador Cultural TV interviews the internationally renowned Spanish-American conductor Ángel Gil-Ordoñez, as part of the Christmas Gala concert that the Orchestra and choirs of the Trinitate Philarmonia offered to the Leonese audience at the Renacimiento Auditorium on Wednesday, December 19, 2018.

My professional work as a conductor has been always accompanied with a dedication to young musicians. In this video I present some thoughts about the importance of music education for the youngest, for the underprivileged, and for those whose future professional life won’t be related to artistic activities.

A group of Cuban musicians is set to join students from Georgetown University for a first-of-its-kind orchestra performance. News4’s David Culver reports how the concert is meant to bridge the longheld divide between two nations. Music for US-Cuban Relations is an International Cultural Exchange Project created by Angel Gil-Ordóñez between the students and faculty of Georgetown University and members of Lyceum Mozartiano de La Habana, which consists of travel between the two countries and joint musical presentations in Havana, Cuba. The first edition of the program took place in March of 2017 and in Washington, D.C. in April of 2017.