Grammy-winning soprano Ana María Martínez, celebrated for her “poignant emotional intensity” (Chicago Tonight), brings her luminous artistry to an evening of classical song. Joined by Kevin Murphy, esteemed pianist and artistic director of the Steans Music Institute Singers Program, Martínez explores this deeply expressive genre, where poetry and music intertwine to create vivid, emotionally charged microdramas.
The singer highlights the music of fellow Puerto Ricans Héctor Campos Parsi, an accomplished poet who set his own odes to sky and water to song; Monsita Ferrer, the prolific writer of waltz-like danzas; and Rafael Hernández Marín, whose multi-instrumental talents helped bring jazz to Europe and gave Puerto Rico an unofficial national anthem (“Preciosa”). Martínez also performs the famed song cycles of Spaniards Manuel de Falla (Siete canciones populares españolas) and Joaquín Turína (Poema en forma de canciones), and the tragic theatrical aria “Maria la O” by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona.
