Composer and violinist Ittai Shapiraʼs Concierto Latino represents the intertwining of different strands of his life: the musical and the personal.
As the workʼs title suggests, Latin music was the primary musical influence feeding into Shapiraʼs concerto. Having amassed an expansive knowledge of the classical violin repertoire, including contemporary works, Shapira sought musical refreshment in the form of a musical style with which he was less familiar – Latino music from across the globe. With no need to focus solely on the ʻclassicalʼ spectrum, Shapiraʼs influences include composers Villa Lobos, de Falla and Golijov, as well Columbian singer Shakira and the Cuban music of the Bueno Vista Social Club.
The work itself - the Concierto Latino - was begun following a dramatic incident when Shapira was attacked by a gang of seven or eight men one freezing winterʼs night in New York City. Dismissing the incident on release from hospital, Shapira began to experience a series of daily headaches, accompanied by hazy sounds. As he began to write these sounds down, ha saw a brief neural snapshot of himself falling on the ice; and, as the composition unfolded, so did the memories. By 2007, Ittai Shapira has pieced together the fragments of his experience, and in the process, had begun his Concierto Latino.
The opening movement, The Attack, stems from those initial bursts of sounds heard following the incident; and the second movement, Lament - opening with a wistful oboe solo - is a reflection on the assault. Finally, the third movement, Party, develops into a series of dances based on popular Latin styles - the Conga, the Salsa, and the Rhumba.
These dance styles celebrate recovery with all the passionate vitality and joie de vivre one would expect from someone who has been through an extraordinary experience and emerged the other side, stronger, and with a deeper appreciation of life.
In his dual role as a violinist-composer, ittai Shapira is a rarity in the 21st century. He made a critically acclaimed Carnigie Hall debut in 2003, played on the Jerry Lewis Telethon in 2006 reaching an audience of 55 million, recorded The Runaway Bunny with the RPO and Brooke Shields, and is the dedicatee of no fewer than fourteen concertos. Living in New York, Shapira continues to explore the mainstream repertoire and to collaborate with some of todayʼs most respected composers.
