Maria de Buenos Aires

Horacio Ferrer was born in Montevideo into an educated family, son of Horacio Ferrer Perez, a Professor of History, and Alicia Escurra Francini, who was 11 years older than his father and spoke four languages. He had a close relationship with his brother, Eduardo, to whom he dedicated several of his lyrics.

The family paid frequent visits to his mother’s brother in Buenos Aires, Argentina where Ferrer learnt to play tangos on the guitar by ear. Later his uncle would introduce him to the bohemian nightlife of the city.

He studied architecture and engineering for eight years but never graduated. In the 1950s, when he was in his early 20s, he helped to produce the weekly radio programme Seleccion de Tangos in Montevideo which aimed to promote new developments in tango. Out of the programme grew El Club de la Guardia Nueva which he founded in Buenos Aires in 1954 to organise concerts in Montevideo for those musicians who were helping to revolutionise tango, such as Aníbal Troilo, Horacio Salgán and particularly Astor Piazzolla and his famous Octeto Buenos Aires. Ferrer’s first meeting with Piazzolla in 1955, after Piazzolla returned from France, would prove an important turning point in Ferrer’s life.

For a period of seven years he edited, illustrated and directed the magazine Tangueando, while the tangos and poems he was writing at that time remained unpublished. Between 1956 and 1959 he studied the bandoneon and joined a small tango orchestra as a bandoneonist. He published his first book in 1959 entitled El Tango: su historia y evolución and until 1967 broadcast programmes about the history of tango for Sodre, one of the radio stations of the official Uruguayan network.

After quitting his studies on architecture he worked as an editor for supplements of the Montevidean morning newspaper El Dia. His career as a tango lyricist began with a request from the renowned Argentine bandoneonist Anibal Troilo to write lyrics for Piazzolla’s tango La última grela.

In 1967 he wrote an anthology of poems, Romancero canyengue. Upon hearing a recording of Ferrer reciting these poems, accompanied by the guitarist Agustín Carlevaro, Piazzolla invited him to collaborate on the writing of the opereta María de Buenos Aires. The work was premiered in 1968 in the Sala Planeta in Buenos Aires with Piazzolla and a ten-piece orchestra, the singers Héctor de Rosas and Amelita Baltar and with Ferrer as reciter in the role of El Duende.

Piazzolla and Ferrer now started to compose a series of tangos, with a clear social commitment, such as the well-known Chiquilín de Bachín and Juanito Laguna ayuda a su madre. In 1969 they composed a series of tangos in the form of ballads, among which stands out Balada para un loco, performed for the first time with the singer Amelita Baltar in the Buenos Aires Tango Festival . Although the performance caused a dispute to break out between supporters and opponents of nuevo tango, the work immediately became a popular success and has remained one of the most representative songs of Buenos Aires. Other songs written by the Piazzolla-Ferrer duo at this time were Canción de las venusinas, La bicicleta blanca and Fábula para Gardel, included in the album Astor Piazzolla y Horacio Ferrer en persona.

In 1970 Ferrer wrote El Libro del Tango. Arte Popular de Buenos Aires, and followed it in 1980 with an enlarged three volume edition of more than two thousand pages which is one of the most detailed studies of tango and became a standard reference work on the subject. He worked with a series of renowned tango musicians such as Roberto Grela, Leopoldo Federico and Paul Garello and with Horacio Salgán he composed the Oratorio Carlos Gardel in 1975. The following year he wrote lyrics to Loquito Mio with Julio De Caro, Esquinero with Pedro Laurenz, El Hombre que fue ciudad with Armando Pontier, Yo payador me confieso with Osvaldo Pugliese and Tu penultimo tango with Anibal Troilo. Ferrer is responsible for the lyrics of other tangos, including Balada para mi muerte, El gordo triste (written by Piazzolla as a tribute to Anibal Troilo) and El hombrecito blanco.

In 1983 he acquired Argentine citizenship, and was president of the Academia Nacional de Tango in Argentina from its foundation in 1990. He died on December 21, 2014 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Conductor Scott Terrell was appointed Music Director of the Lexington Philharmonic in 2009. During his tenure, Mr. Terrell has re-invigorated and raised the artistic level of the ensemble, expanded collaborations, increased subscriptions and challenged its musicians and audiences with a greater diversity of repertoire and programs. Several major gifts were acquired because of Terrell’s artistic vision and direction resulting in the establishment of an Emerging Artist Chair and a Composer-in-Residence chair.

Maestro Terrell has simultaneously maintained a healthy schedule of recent guest conducting with the Colorado Symphony, Aspen Music Festival and School, and Philadelphia Orchestra. Future engagements include the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and a debut leading Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Arizona Opera.

Since 2009, many of the world’s foremost artists have performed with the Lexington Philharmonic. They have included Dame Evelyn Glennie, violinists Midori and Nadja Solerno-Sonneberg, pianists Inon Barnatan and Joyce Yang, and cellist Johannes Moser. Past projects have included a highly successful concert production of Piazzolla’s tango opera, Maria de Buenos Aires as well a live screening of Charlie Chaplin’s film, Gold Rush. Ensembles known for unique concert presentations, such as Time for Three and Eighth Blackbird, and have been regular guests. Future projects include Philip Glass’ Icarus for film and orchestra, Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto, and a semi-staging of Osvaldo Golijov’s Aindanamar.

Terrell has led with many prestigious international organizations including Opera Colorado, Minnesota Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Milwaukee Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Spoleto Festival, Colorado Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Richmond Symphony, South Dakota Symphony, Kalamazoo Symphony, Wheeling Symphony, Greater Boston Youth Symphony, Amarillo Symphony, and El Paso Opera.

Maestro Terrell made his highly successful European debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, leading a two-week Bernstein festival including orchestral performances as well as vocal recitals where he served as both pianist and host. Leading an extremely talented international cast, Terrell conducted selections from On the Town and West Side Story, as well as concert performances of Candide. Further demonstrating his mastery of operatic repertoire, Terrell debuted with Opera Colorado in 2002, leading an acclaimed production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. In 2006, he received international rave reviews when he returned to Opera Colorado to lead Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio. He has led numerous programs at the Spoleto and Piccolo Spoleto Festivals including: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring with the Charleston Ballet, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors. Additionally, he led the Minnesota Opera’s production of The Marriage of Figaro.

Previously, Terrell served as Resident Conductor of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra where he was artistic director and conductor of the Backstage Pass Series, Pops Series, and Out of the Box concerts. While Assistant Conductor of Minnesota Orchestra from 1998-2003, Terrell conducted hundreds of the Minnesota Orchestra’s performances including Casual Classics, Pops, Family Concerts, Young People’s Concerts, Composer’s Institute, and Sommerfest Concerts. Mr. Terrell made his subscription performance debut when filling in last minute for ailing conductor, Hans Vonk. He also conducted the orchestra’s semi-staged opera productions of Bernstein’s Candide, and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors.

In the summer of 2000, Terrell was chosen as a fellowship conductor for the inaugural season of the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival under Music Director, David Zinman. At the conclusion of that summer, he was awarded the Aspen Conducting Prize, an award recognizing exemplary musicianship and promise.

An El Paso Texas native, Mexican-American Baritone Luis Alejandro Orozco has been praised for his “voluminous baritone and beautiful legato.” Luis begins the 2018/19 season with Mill City Summer Opera as Escamillo in Carmen. He also returns to Opera Santa Barbara and Anchorage Opera as Marcello in La bohème and makes his debut with Pensacola Opera as Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas. Orozco was a recent guest soloist with the Evgeny Svetlanov State Symphony in Moscow for Leonard Bernstein’s 100th anniversary tribute concert. Previous notable appearances include performances with, Cincinnati Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Michigan Opera Theater, New Orleans Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Florentine Opera, and Washington National Opera. He is also known as the leading interpreter in the United States for the role of El Payador in Piazzolla’s Maria de Buenos Aires.

Orozco is as graduate of the artist diploma program at the University of Cincinnati’s College- Conservatory of Music. During his tenure there, he was seen in such performances as the title role in Don Giovanni, title role in Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Il Conte di Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, and baritone soloist in Orff’s scenic cantata Carmina Burana. As a member of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis’s Gerdine Young Artists Program he participated in the world première of Terrance Blanchard’s jazz opera, Champion. Mr. Orozco is also an alumnus of Des Moines Metro Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program where he was seen as Escamillo in La tragédie de Carmen and Baron Duphol in La traviata. Additionally, Mr. Orozco is a winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the Indiana District and Tri-State District.