Carmen-Helena Téllez

An artist who knew himself

June 11, 2019 by carmen helena tellez

I have been pretty much in shock after hearing of the departure of my colleague and teacher Sven-David Sandstrom, yesterday June 10. I have spent 24 hours reading and sharing all the tributes online without the will power to comment myself. I had spent all day yesterday saying farewell, one way or another, to colleagues and friends, and even to a doctoral student after a very successful defense. But I did not quite expect to receive the news at the […]

Categories: contemporary music, music composition, new choral music • Tags: Sven-David Sandstrom

Two oratorios sing the trials of our society and prayers of reflection

May 5, 2019 by carmen helena tellez

I am delighted to announce that Ensemble Concept/21 has invited the Euclid Quartet, Kosmologia, and the Notre Dame Children’s Choir to premiere the oratorios The Tower and the Garden by Gregory Spears and Beatitudes by Jorge Muñiz, under my direction, next Friday, May 10, at 7 pm, in the Campus Auditorium of Indiana University South Bend. This project joins together two important sponsors of creativity in this country– The New Frontiers Program at Indiana University, and the Ann Stookey Fund […]

Categories: art and religion, art and society, gesamtkünstwerk, intermedia, music composition, new choral music, new forms of presentation, new opera and music drama, postclassical music, sacred music • Tags: CARMEN HELENA TELLEZ, Denise Levertov, Gregory Spears, Jorge Muñiz, Notre Dame Vocale, Thomas Merton

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Celebrating Crumb

April 16, 2019 by carmen helena tellez

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/arts/music/george-crumb-90th-birthday.html We begin what I hope will be a oceanic wave of homages to George Crumb, who is turning 90 years old. When I was very young, he was among the living composers who ignited my love of newly composed music belonging to our time. Somehow he was both ancient and utterly futuristic. I thank the teacher who first pointed me to him, Dr. Mary Wennerstrom, at Indiana University. It has been the love of a lifetime.

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A beautiful project, full of meaning and timeliness!

January 2, 2019 by carmen helena tellez

Pianist Yael Weiss has embarked in a thoughtful and timely project in preparation for the 250’s anniversary of Beethoven’s birth in 2020. At some point she reached out to me about women composers from Venezuela and Cuba, but at that moment I did not realize the full impact of her concept. Beethoven was, after all, a man who espoused and defended the ideals of liberty and justice; the famed anecdote tells of his tearing the original dedication of his Third […]

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Happy Holidays to all…with great music!

December 23, 2018 by carmen helena tellez

Categories: art, art and religion, cht art work, Uncategorized • Tags: angel, angel art

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Sharing my notes about Robert Kyr’s Paradiso

December 22, 2018 by carmen helena tellez

In 2015, I visited my colleague, Associate Professor of Liturgical Studies Michael Driscoll, for a casual conversation in his office at the University of Notre Dame. I was struck by a new book on his desk. It was a volume edited by Notre Dame’s Associate Professor of Italian Studies and Dante Studies Vittorio Montemaggi, titled Dante’s Commedia: Theology as Poetry. It immediately sparked in me a curiosity to find if the Commedia could become […]

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Bernstein’s birthday and his legacy

August 25, 2018 by carmen helena tellez

Today Google has a charming and ingenious homage to Leonard Bernstein, with cartoons of him in action. It is a good occasion to ponder the role of artists in our society–who gets to leave a mark in the culture, and is it always the one who eschews popular taste and sentiment for high academic complexity…or vice versa. I say, great music is not in the style… https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=O8fQyb6tkdk

Categories: art and paradox, conducting, contemporary music, context affects perception, context and perception, music composition, new conductor, Uncategorized • Tags: high and low, Leonard Bernstein

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Mozart’s Magic Flute has an alter ego…

June 18, 2018 by carmen helena tellez

In the ongoing production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Teatro Nacional Sucre of Quito, Ecuador, the opera takes a new garb in my transcription for an orchestra of Andean instruments, following the foundational concept of 2008 by the music director of the Orquesta de Instrumentos Andinos, Segundo Condor, who died without completing it. The process enjoyed wonderful assistance by artists affiliated to the Teatro and the Orquesta, Tadashi Maeda and Leonardo Cárdenas, among others. The paradigm of the […]

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1968 and its impact…remembering a great conference

May 4, 2018 by carmen helena tellez

Last weekend, April 26-28, I was fortunate to participate as an invited presenter on Arvo Pärt in the conference “1968 in Europe and Latin America”, organized by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at Notre Dame. Brilliantly designed by Professor James McAdams, somehow the conference helped me understand the direction of my life and the values I hold. It was amazing to trade insights with a fantastic roster of speakers and engage in a conversation about Hans Werner Henze with […]

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