Nostalgia is always accompanied by a bittersweet feeling. After all, one can never quite go back to everything just the way it was before.
Composer Omar Surillo wrote two musical pieces inspired by his memories of growing up on the island of Puerto Rico.
The first, "Isla Verde," is named for Surillo's old neighborhood. It’s a more subdued, complex piece than its festive little brother, "Pitorro," inspired both by the Puerto Rican music Surillo grew up with, and the influence of the French composer Olivier Messiaen.
Like many Puerto Ricans living away, Surillo can’t visit home as often as he’d like. Instead, "Isla Verde" brings Surillo’s memories of home and childhood to the listener.
The Victory Players:
Tianhui Ng, music director
Angela Santiago, ensemble manager
Nathan Ben-Yehuda, piano
Clare Monfredo, cello
Giovanni A. Perez, flute
Robert Rocheteau, percussion
Eric Schultz, clarinet
Elly Toyoda, violin
Surillo is an award-winning composer, producer/engineer and multi-instrumentalist. He studied music at Stetson University and at Yale. Aside from his work as a teacher and composer, Surillo is a performer often called on to collaborate and record music in multiple genres. He is currently a faculty member at Dallas College.
You can watch an interview with Surillo below, with a transcript in both English and Spanish.
Spanish language translation: Damaris Pérez-Pizarro
El Puerto Rico is a collaboration of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts (MIFA), New England Public Media and GBH Music, which originally published a version of this post.