Derek Bermel's Mango Suite
Based on the beloved coming-of-age novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, Derek Bermel’s Mango Suite re-tells the story of young protagonist Esperanza Cordero. Three stirring works by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla with special guest flamenco dancer Griset Damas Roche brought the PSO season to a thrilling conclusion.
“Derek Bermel is the quintessential 21st-century musician… staggering eclecticism from a true musical renaissance man.”
– Gramophone Magazine
Program
Derek BERMEL / Mango Suite*
FALLA / El amor brujo
FALLA / The Three Cornered Hat, Suite No. 1
FALLA / La vida breve, Spanish Dance No. 1
*Princeton Symphony Orchestra Co-Commission
All ticket holders were invited to a post-concert reception at the Princeton University Art Museum where they could view the Museum's Gainsborough Family Album and Miracles on the Border exhibits.
The Mango Suite Project was supported in part by an award from the National
Endowment for the Arts.
This concert was made possible in part through the support of Yvonne Marcuse.
Performers
Rossen Milanov, conductor
Paulina Villarreal, mezzo-soprano
Griset Damas-Roche, flamenco dancer
Mexican mezzo-soprano Paulina Villarreal is a prominent recitalist, cabaret, operatic, and musical theater singer around the United States and Mexico. She was recently named one of the Top Prize winners at the prestigious international Lotte Lenya Competition and at the Comic Opera Guild Competition. Ms. Villarreal has been a soloist and guest artist in important companies and orchestras around the United States including Opera Saratoga, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Fusion: New Works, the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center, the Boston Pops, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
Griset Damas Roche was born in La Habana, Cuba, and began a ballet career in the Escuela Alejo Carpentier and then in the Escuela Nacional de Arte in La Habana. Her teachers were trained in the Russian Ballet. As a teenager, Griset auditioned for the Ballet Español de Cuba and won the only available spot, starting a new career as Flamenco and Classical Spanish dancer. In 1998 she started teaching Flamenco workshops. She became the owner and director of her own studio, while she continued growing as a dancer and choreographer. She created her own company of Spanish Classical Dance and Flamenco, which won prizes in specialized competitions in Bogotá. In 2015, she moved to Ohio, where she maintains a dance studio while still performing professionally.
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