Cancionero de Luto (Mourning Songbook), is a multilingual ecumenical requiem composed by Armando Bayolo featuring the MIFA Victory Players and the Yale Choral Artists.
The broadcast premiere of the work will be Sunday, March 8 at 4pm on Classical NEPM.
Composed in response to the Uvalde school shooting in 2022, Cancionero de Leto was created to fill the need for a music of grief that embraces a number of humanist and spiritual traditions. The work is in nine movements and features texts in six languages by Matsuo Basho, Ken Ueno, Seneca, Octavio Paz, Charles Baudelaire, and from the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Composer Armando Bayolo studied composition at the Eastman School, Yale University and the University of Michigan. He has received commissions from a number of organizations including from Yale University and the Soli Chamber Ensemble for Cancionero De Luto. Armando is currently on the faculty of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
Armando’s comments on the background of Cancionero de Luto.
MIFA Victory Players:
Tianhui Ng, Music Director
Nathan Ben-Yehuda, piano
Julie Fitch, flute
Linda Hwang, cello
Robert Rocheteau, percussion
Eric Schultz, clarinet
Samuel Vargas, violin
Yale Choral Artists:
Dr. Jeffrey Douma, Director
Sopranos:
Arianne Abela
Molly Netter
Maura Tuffy
Yiran Zhao
Altos:
Eric S. Brenner
Kate Maroney
Clifton Massey
Megan Roth
Tenors:
Colin Britt
Noah Horn
Steven Soph
Gene Stenger
Basses:
Will Doreza
Paul Max Tipton
Jonathan Woody
This performance of Cancionero De Luto was recorded in June 2025 at Sprague Hall at Yale University by the Yale School of Music Media Production Department.
The MIFA Victory Players are a project of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts’ Victory Theatre in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The Executive Artistic Director of MIFA is Donald T. Sanders.
This program was produced by John Voci for the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts.
Other NEPM features on Armando Bayolo:
Video of the Victory Player’s performance and an interview with Armando Bayolo regarding his composition Nadie suede dar lo sue no lo Tiene from The Victory Players 2021 project El Puerto Rico.
Podcast episode from El Puerto Rico featuring Armando and “Nadie suede dar lo sue no lo Tiene.”