Fiesta!

THE COMPOSER — The musical career of Jimmy López Bellido began in his native Peru, but he has since become a truly international artist. From a young age, López was intrigued by his sister’s electric keyboard, but it wasn’t until he was 12 and encountered Bach that the spark of a future composer was ignited in him. López eventually sought training in Finland and the United States, where the music of Sibelius and Mahler began to influence him deeply. Lopez can now, at 45, look back on relationships with the finest orchestras and festivals in the world. Among his many high-profile successes was an opera based on the bestselling book Bel Canto for Chicago Lyric Opera in 2015. It was broadcast nationally on PBS two years later.

THE HISTORY — López’s most popular work, by far, is Fiesta!, subtitled Four Pop Dances for Orchestra. He couldn’t have known this piece would be his Bolero or his 1812 Overture when he wrote it in 2007, but he does admit now in interviews that its popularity has “paid for many meals.” Since he completed the score, Fiesta! has been performed over a 100 times worldwide and continues to be programmed regularly. Here’s what López wrote about it in 2008: “During recent years, eclecticism has become an important part of my musical language. The challenge of creating musically sensible interactions out of the juxtaposition of apparently incompatible musical sources—some of which result in unexpected contrasts—fascinates me. Fiesta! draws influences from several musical sources including: European academic compositional techniques, Latin American music, Afro-Peruvian music, and today’s pop music. It utilizes elaborate developmental techniques while keeping the primeval driving forces still latent in popular culture.” He went on to remark, “This is the first piece where I have made explicit use of elements from popular music, but it is certainly not the first time it’s being done. Composers from the past, especially during the Baroque, would write suites that would consist of a series of dances with names such as allemande, gigue, sarabande, etc. These dances were very popular at European courts: the nobles would gather and dance to the accompaniment of a small, instrumental ensemble-in-residence. Later on, some composers decided to use these dances and make them more sophisticated. That was part of my intention when picking up the genres that I mentioned earlier. I believe they have enough potential to justify further development, but always keeping those primeval driving forces present in them.”

THE WORLD — Elsewhere in 2007, Apple introduced the first iPhone, J.K. Rowling released the final book in the Harry Potter Series, Pratibha Patel was sworn in as India’s first female president, and Pablo Picasso’s Portrait of Suzanne Bloch was stolen from the São Paulo Museum.

THE CONNECTION — This is the first time Jimmy López’s Fiesta! has been performed on a Sarasota Orchestra program.