For 20 years, The Dalí Quartet has placed music by Latin American composers in the spotlight, alongside standard string quartet works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and others.
This fall, The Dalí Quartet, Chamber Music America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year, brings the flavor of Latin America to central Ohio for a landmark concert and an array of community events.
The Dalí Quartet will perform on the 2024-25 season-opening concert of the Central Ohio Symphony, Saturday, Oct. 12 at 7:30 in Ohio Wesleyan University’s Gray Chapel. Central Ohio Symphony Music Director Jaime Morales-Matos will lead the musicians in works by Sonia Yvette Morales, Juan R. Ramírez, Bernstein, William Grant Still and Beethoven.
The concert marks two significant milestones – The Dalí Quartet’s 20th anniversary, and the first time quartet cellist Jesús Morales and his sister, composer Sonia Yvette Morales, will share the stage with their brother, Morales-Matos.
“This is amazing for us,” Jesús Morales said during our video interview, “it will be three of us together for this performance.”
The quartet musicians will perform as a featured ensemble and also side-by-side with members of the Central Ohio Symphony and the Delaware Players in William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.
While in Delaware, the quartet musicians will also work with musicians in the Delaware City Schools on how to play the nuances that give Latin American music its distinctive flavor.
“One of the things that we always like to do is not only introduce them to the different styles of music that we play, Latin American music. But a lot of this music also has special effects, and those we really need to be able to demonstrate and teach them how to do,” Morales said. “We’re just looking forward to being able to work with the music with the students, to make sure that they get the flavor of what the rhythm actually feels like.”
Named after the Spanish artist Salvador Dalí, The Dalí Quartet is comprised of musicians hailing from Puerto Rico, Venezuela and the U.S. Through its commissioning program, the ensemble has catalyzed the creation of a substantial body of new quartet works by contemporary Latin American composers.
Listen to my conversation with Jesús Morales to learn more about the quartet’s unique mission and the Latin-flavored musical works the quartet musicians will bring to central Ohio.
Transcript of interview:
Jennifer Hambrick: The Dalí Quartet will be performing two Ohio premieres on the opening concert of the 2024 -25 season of the Central Ohio Symphony, in Delaware, Ohio. We’ll talk about those works, actually, in just a few minutes. But first, let’s talk, if you don’t kind, about the Dalí Quartet itself, which has a distinctive mission. Tell us, if you would, about the mission of the Dalí Quartet and how it manifests onstage and offstage.
Jesús Morales: Well, the quartet began exactly 20 years ago, in the fall of 2004, so we’re starting our 20th-anniversary tour this season. So, one of the reasons why the quartet was formed is because they also wanted to include a lot of the Latin American music, repertoire, alongside the standard classical music. So, thankfully, we’ve been able to achieve quite a lot of new compositions that we have been able to commission, and also bring other works by more mainstream composers like Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, and the Spanish composers Turina and Arriaga. But also, we are going to be performing some works by my own sister, Sonia Morales. We just did a premiere of another string quartet written for us by Gilbert Galindo from last year. We’ve also performed a lot of music by Efraín Amaya, who’s a Venezuelan composer, and Juan Ramírez, who we’ll also be performing in the fall. But he arranged that suite that we will be performing both for orchestra and also just for string quartet. So, we’ve been very lucky to play those alongside other works by Beethoven, Mozart, et cetera.
Jennifer Hambrick: As you mentioned, one of the new works that the Dalí Quartet will be performing for the first time in Ohio, at least, giving the Ohio premiere of with the Central Ohio Symphony, is Fiesta No. 2 by Sonia Yvette Morales. So, tell us about this work and how it came to be in your hands.
Jesús Morales: Well, this is an absolute privilege because it was commissioned also with the orchestra Lumos from Stamford, Connecticut. And it’s a work for string quartet and string orchestra and percussion. So, we need to have the Latin percussion involved because, being called Fiesta, which means party, Sonia Morales, my sister, actually includes very different dances from the Caribbean and South America. Starting with a bolero, we also have some salsa, we will have some tango, and a danza. So, she usually incorporates two of the melodies in all of these styles, so that you can get a flavor of all of these different dances from the Caribbean and Latin America. And it will be the first time – this is amazing for us – that we will actually be sharing the stage with my brother Jaime, who’s the conductor, performing a piece by my sister with the Dalí Quartet. So, it will be three of us together for this performance.
Jennifer Hambrick: A little family reunion there, right.
Jesús Morales: Exactly, yes.
Jennifer Hambrick: And Jaime is Jaime Morales-Matos, who is music director of the Central Ohio Symphony. So, that’s exciting, that all three of you will be on stage. You will also be performing, as you mentioned, the Ohio premiere of Suite Latina by Juan R. Ramírez, so tell us about this work.
Jesús Morales: Well, Juan Ramírez is actually a dear friend of ours. He’s a Mexican composer and violinist. He’s been playing in the – this will be, I think, finishing his 50th season with the Atlanta Symphony. So, this work came about maybe about 20 years ago. But he has also two versions that we actually perform – just with string quartet and also with orchestra. We’ve been able to work on this piece with him. We’ve visited him in Atlanta a couple of times. And it’s an absolute joy. We also played it when we did the premiere of my sister’s piece with the Lumos Orchestra, so he was also present. So, we’ve been evolving with this piece for a while. And the title, it’s a suite that has many different dances within each movement. It’s in three different movements, and the first one is more dedicated to the Caribbean kind of music because we’ll have some mambo, which we usually associate that with West Side Story. But it’s a full mambo that way, and the main part is a guajira, which is also a very different dance which has a continued bass line that just keeps repeating itself, and then we will have improvisations by each of the other members of the quartet. So that’s also a very fun form that we will be doing. But it starts with a very slow tune, kind of like a bolero kind of thing. So, it’s very melodic, very quiet, but it’s also very abrupt with the mambo, it just keeps coming in and out. Now, the second movement is based on Piazzolla, more like the slow dance from the tango, more like a milonga, which is the slower part. In the middle, then it gets into a full, angry tango, very passionate. And then the last movement, it’s also a very fun Caribbean dance.
Jennifer Hambrick: And William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama is also on the program, and you and your colleagues in the Quartet will be performing, I gather, alongside members of the Central Ohio Symphony – so actually in the orchestra – also alongside members of the Delaware Hayes Players. Tell us about William Grant Still’s work.
Jesús Morales: Well, this piece also is more like a suite. It has different dances. At this moment, I forget which movements we’re playing. I think it’s probably the first and the last. But, I mean, we’re mainly just looking forward to being able to work with the music with the students, to make sure that they get the flavor of what the rhythm actually feels like. … So, this is one of the things that we’re very much looking forward to working with the students to make sure that we can, as a whole, be able to enjoy these works.
Jennifer Hambrick: Sure, and you mentioned the students, and the students, of course, would be the Delaware Hayes Players. But this brings me a very nice segue, actually, to my next question, which was going to be about the outreach that I understand you will be doing while you’re here in central Ohio working with the Central Ohio Symphony and also working with students in the Delaware City Schools. It sounds like you will be reaching hundreds of students. What are you going to be doing with the students?
Jesús Morales: Well, one of the things that we always like to do is not only introduce them to the different styles of music that we play, Latin American music, with the rhythms. But a lot of this music also has special effects, and those we really need to be able to demonstrate and teach them how to do. They’re always a lot of fun to do, but most of the time they’re hard to figure out if you have never seen these before. So that’s one of the things that we always emphasize, making sure that everybody learns the special effects that we might need to incorporate in the music. But also, depending on their level of advancement, there’s also different repertoire that we like to play, from the very classical Latin American music, like a movement of a Ginastera quartet or Villa-Lobos, as well as a nice Piazzolla tango or a bolero by Carlos Gardel. So, we just like to be able to present them with different styles of music and how they translate from the popular genre to the classical genre.
Jennifer Hambrick: Sure, sure. And as you pointed out sort of toward the beginning of the interview, it’s not necessarily a given at this point in time, at least, that musicians who might have played a Mozart string quartet movement or a Haydn string quartet movement have necessarily played anything by Piazzolla. So, the students will potentially be being exposed to this repertoire for the first time. And that’s … expanding their horizons, I should say, in an exciting way, potentially. We’ve had a fairly wide-ranging conversation about your upcoming visit here in central Ohio. Anything else that you would like to add to what we’ve already discussed?
Jesús Morales: Well, for me it’s an absolute pleasure to be able to bring my colleagues in the quartet to Delaware, Ohio, not only to play with the symphony, because it’s been – I think this is my fifth time coming to play with the Central Ohio Symphony. I’ve always loved it. I think my first performance there was in 2007, and the last one, I believe, was in 2015. So, I’m very, very happy to be able to come back … and just being able to visit the town. And it’s incredibly – privilege that I feel to be able to share the stage with my brother, also performing a piece by my sister. So, this is a very special occasion. And I also lived in Ohio for a very long time. I lived in Amelia, Ohio, graduated from that high school. I went to the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Cincinnati Conservatory, so I still have a lot of roots in Ohio. So, I’m very happy to be able to – to come home.
