"Mayor's 801 Plum" Concerts, Serving Hot Salsa, Cool Classical
It's classical music's golden quest. Maintaining its centuries-old tradition, while keeping current with a changing world.
Dick Waller, artistic director of Cincinnati's Linton Chamber Music Series had precisely that in mind when he created the "Mayor's 801 Plum Concerts” in
1995. Held in Cincinnati city council chambers and aimed squarely at the 21 to 40-year-old age group, the eclectic, early evening series was inching toward
that goal when it was discontinued in the wake of Cincinnati's April, 2001 riots.
Six years later, 801 Plum is back and more ambitious than ever. Sparked by newly-appointed program director Tracy L. Wilson, the series was re-launched
in April with Black Violin, a classically trained violin/viola duo that mixes hip-hop and jazz with classical music. The series has salsa on its plate for its
season finale.
Stars of "Cool Classical, Hot Salsa” at 7 p.m. Friday in council chambers, are percussionist Rolando Morales-Matos, trombonist Jaime Morales-Matos, violist
Denisse Rodriguez-Rivera and pianist/composer Sonia Morales-Matos.
Their program comprises Italian baroque composer Benedetto Marcello's Sonata in A Minor arranged for marimba, trombone and piano, Sonia Morales-Matos’ Romance for marimba, viola and piano, Rolando Morales-Matos’ "Off the Earth” for hand percussion, Concertino for Trombone, Strings and Percussion by Brazilian composer Jose Duda and, to conclude the evening, a Latin set for mixed ensemble (keyboard, bass, congas, trombone, marimba and percussion) complete with salsa dancing.
Rodriguez-Rivera, a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, profiled the Morales-Matos family, a prodigious set of siblings from Puerto Rico, some
with Cincinnati connections:
"There are six. Mariano, the oldest, is a composer, pianist and violinist who does all kinds of music.
The second, Sonia, lives here in town. (Sonia has degrees in composition and jazz from Boston's Berklee College of Music and Indiana University
and is currently working on commissions for a clarinet concerto and an opera.)
Jaime went to Indiana University and CCM (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music). He is teaching trombone at Miami University and is a conductor. He has an orchestra near Columbus called the Central Ohio Symphony and conducts in South America. (Jaime has performed with the CSO,
Cincinnati Pops, Columbus Symphony and Dayton Philharmonic.)
Rolando is a percussionist who has been everywhere. He plays very frequently with the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Orchestras. He's the assistant conductor and percussionist of 'Lion King’ (Disney) and teaches at Curtis (Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia). He's very famous for Latin
music.
Ricardo was first clarinet in the Met (Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and now is first clarinet in the Philadelphia Orchestra. (Ricardo was guest artist in
Copland's Clarinet Concerto with the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra in March.)
There is also Jesus who was principal cellist of the Puerto Rico Symphony, then moved to Utah. His wife just got assistant principal second (violin) in Philadelphia.”
Rodriguez-Rivera, who is married to Jaime, began viola at 11. "I met Jaime in high school through his two younger brothers, Ricardo and Jesus. We all went
to the same high school (Escuela Libre de Musica in San Juan). All Puerto Rican musicians you see anywhere went to that school.”
After studies at Yale University, Denisse went to CCM. Before joining the CSO in 1996, she was principal viola of the Toledo Symphony and the Dayton
Philharmonic. She and Jaime have three children, 11, 8 and 4, all born in Cincinnati and being raised "in the family business,” she said.
"Cincinnati has been good for us, but I do miss Puerto Rico. We go every year.”
Joining the family on the concert will be violinists Harvey Thurmer and Marion Peraza Webb, cellist Theodore Nelson, bassist Aaron Jacob, Victor Velez on
congas and Luis Samuel Paris on percussion. Emcee will be Sasha Rionda, anchor/reporter for Local 12's "Nuestro Rincon."
The evening begins with happy hour at 5:30 p.m. catered by McCormick & Schmicks Seafood Restaurant with music by the Nicholas Radina Latin Trio.
Tickets for "Cool Classical, Hot Salsa” are $20. Call the Aronoff Center ticket office at (513) 621-2787, or visit www.CincinnatiArts.org.
(first published in The Cincinnati Post June 1, 2007)