The Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid, commissioned NOVARS composer Ricardo Climent, to write a piece for virtuoso Mexican flutist Horacio Franco, as part of its XXth anniversary celebrations. Horacio Franco is one of the most acclaimed Mexican musicians and contemporary artists and as a recorder player, a world-wide distinguished figure. Premiere: 15th October 2009, Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Madrid. See the full concert programme here.
Concert 2: 19th October 2009, Teatro Tres Cantos, Madrid.
Horacio Franco is a Mexican flautist and recorder player. He studied in the National Conservatory in Mexico City and later in the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, Holland, today Conservatory of Amsterdam, with Marijke Miessen and Walter Van Hauwe, where he received the rank of “cum laude soloist”. Franco is a very active musician, who has widely changed the repertoire of the recorder from the traditional forms of medieval, Renaissance music and baroque - including Latin American colonial music - to contemporary, folkloric and popular. He has an ample repertoire of contemporary music written specially for him by Mexican and foreign composers: Graciela Agudelo, Kart Bellinghausen, Sergio Berlioz, Sergio Cardinal red, Daniel Catán, Jorge Cordova, Luis Courteous Jaime, Felipe De Jesus, Juan Fernando Durán, Itziar Fadrique, Maria Granillo, Rosa Gurayeb, Rafael Hubberman, Martha Lambertini, Ana Lara, Mario Lavista, Arming Moon, Antonio Navarro, Gabriela Ortiz, Hilda Paredes, Rodolfo Ramirez, Ricardo Risco, Marcela Rodriguez, Eduardo Soto Millán, Salvador Torre, Eugene Toussaint, and Michael Wolpe. During his tours through Europe, United States, South America and Israel he has given numerous master classes; in England and the United States he has participated in projects of education, as well as in projects to support marginalized and unprotected sectors of society.
In the beginnings of his career he was founder member of the “Hotteterre Trio”, conformed from 1986 to 1994 with Luisa Durón and Bozena Slawinska, with those who he recorded 2 discs. They offered numerous concerts in all Mexico, participated in Festivals like the Cervantino, Festival of the Historical Center of the Mexico City, Cultural Festival of Sinaloa; abroad they played in Oregon Bach Festival, The Festival Music Society of Indianapolis, in several cities of Belgium and the Festival Europalia 93.
Franco was founding director and conductor of the vocal and instrumental ensemble “Cappella Cervantina”, from 1993 to 1998, they made several recordings and numerous tours of concerts in Mexico and several cities of the United States and Europe, where he conducted the The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in London in 1997. Formed like an academic project within the National Conservatory of Music, Franco formed it as an alternative educational program for barroque and contemporary music, the “Capella Cervantina” released several works especially written for them by Mexican composers and presented versions just transcribed of Mexican colonial works. They offered numerous concerts in all Mexico at the most important Festivals; abroad they appeared in Chicago, in France in the “Festival les Chemines du Baroque” and in several places of the Great Britain.
