It was an honor to perform at the celebration of 75th years of the Chemical Engineering Faculty at the National University of Colombia. This was this past September 14th and I performed music by Sor, Lennon-Mc Cartney, Tárrega and Campo Vives/Zuleta.
To conmemorate musical anniversaries of this year I wrote some articles on West Montgomery, Bach and Liszt. This taught me wonderful things about them. It is possible to access these articles by visiting Strings By Mail blog.
At last, I had some spared time and went to the zarzuela season of Arte Lírico. We enjoyed The Merry widow and La Rosa del Azafrán under the conduction of Luis Fernando Pérez. Awesome experience!
On June 24th I was invited to play at the House Concert Series in Santa Bibiana in Bogotá. This concert allowed me to review classic pieces of the repertoire such as Recuerdos de la Alhambra, or Barrios Vals Op. 8 No. 4. I did also play pieces from my Cd “Songs of my Life” such as Yesterday and Fantasia Caribe No. 1 after La gota fria by Rafael Campo
VIves. It was an awesome afternoon with a warm and attentive audience.
As part of teaching activity we did our Spring season recital. The students of the Conservatory of music performed pieces on soloist, cuartets and duos. We heard music by José Luis Merlin, Jean Paul David, Kevin Cope, among others! They played wonderfully and the audience was very pleased with their rendition.
On May 6th, I had the opportunity to perform at Tango Discos y Libros in Bogotá. I was glad to play some pieces from my new Cd Songs of my Life and to sign some CDs. This was possible with the support of Classical Radio Station HJUT 106.9, and the good friends José Daniel Ramirez Combariza and Rogelio Delgado, Director.
At last sharing some of the nice activities I got to perform this past semester: Here, my participation at the Universidad Nacional video to introduce the Bogota’s branch of the University. I performed an excerpt of Schubert “Die Post”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DSPdGhjrcw&list=PLEcJIvifbL19gH6ZocWelPKmKpDuMSOIj
Dear friends! This coming Saturday I will be signing my recent Cd Songs of my life/Canciones de mi vida at Tango Discos. I will have the great company of my long time good friend Daniel Ramirez Combariza who is an active cultural manager and musical producer at HJUT 106.9 radio station. Please share with your friends who love music!
Queridos amigos! este sábado 6 de mayo a las 3 pm estaré firmando mi nuevo disco Canciones de mi Vida/Songs of my Life en Tango Discos de la Carrera 15 No. 88-63 Estaré acompañada de mi gran amigo de toda la vida Daniel Ramírez Combariza gestor cultural y colaborador de la emisora HJUT ! Comparte esta información con tus amigos!
It has been very nice to read this extensive article on my new CD Songs of my Life/Canciones de mi vida appeared on Acoustic Guitar Magazine. Big thanks to Blair Jackson for listening my Cd and share his thoughts with ACM readers! http://acousticguitar.com/irene-gomez-songs-of-my-life-canciones-de-mi-vida-review/
I have been very excited to release my fifth CD which is a selection of songs that have been meaningful at some point of my life. Thus, I this CD offers a vartiety of pieces in nice arrangements from Toru Takemitsu or Roland Dyens among others. Some of the songs that I perform are Yesterday (Lennon-Mc Cartney), Göttingen (Barbara) or Ne me quitte pas (Jacques Brel). I have also included the wonderful Fantasía Caribe No. 1 based on “La gota fria” written for guitar by Colombian composer and guitarist Rafael Campo Vives. At the moment the CD is only available in Colombia through Tango Discos. However soon it should be available worldwide and the plattforms.
Yesterday is like a hymn of our times. It was recorded in London on June 15th 1965. One of the features that made this song such an everlasting success is, that besides the beatiful melody, it includes a string quartet, a fact rarely seen in a long play of popular music. I have really enjoyed learn this fantastic arrangement of inconmensurable Toru Takemitsu. I hope you enjoy too the version I made from my home some weeks ago.