Carlos Rubio
For Carlos Rubio, playing his native Latin American music is “very close to the heart.”
“That’s what we grew up with, and now we get to share it,” said Rubio, who is scheduled to play with the Dalí Quartet next month as part of the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra’s ongoing Masterworks program.
For two performances in February, the HSO presents the Dalí Quartet featuring second violinist Rubio and Adriana Linares, viola. Both are Venezuela natives now living in the Philadelphia area who also perform with the Harrisburg Symphony.
Rounding out the Latin-oriented group are Puerto Rico native Jesús Morales, cello, and U.S. native Ari Isaacman-Beck, first violin.
The quartet is premiering a new work for string quartet and chamber orchestra by Anna Clyne, a Grammy-nominated composer, at the Forum in Harrisburg next month. The program also includes a Tchaikovsky composition based on Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and “Symphony No. 6” by Dmitri Shostakovich.
“This concert has so many levels of ‘feel good,’” said HSO Music Director Stuart Malina.
To begin with, the premier of a new work is always electrifying, he said.
“Second, presenting the Dalí Quartet is very exciting considering the trajectory of their success and their local connections,” he continued. “Finally, and perhaps most satisfying to me, is sharing the stage with Adriana and Carlos, two beloved members of our orchestra and dear friends.”
Adriana Linares
Linares said that she’s “very proud to share our music” with American audiences.
“The music makes me feel very tender,” she said. “I feel its beauty, tenderness or happiness from dance. I feel all kinds of emotions whenever we play.”
Linares likes performing as part of a quartet, she said, because, “I get to play a soloist voice and still have a quartet to fall back on.”
In addition to her work with the Dalí Quartet, Linares is founding president and artistic director of the Arts & Community Network (ArCoNet), a nonprofit organization founded in 2012 and based in North Wales, Pa. Under ArCoNet’s umbrella, Linares has launched several music programs that include a 120-student string academy, a youth and chamber orchestra, solo boot camp retreats and other partnerships and collaborative projects.
Linares holds a master’s degree in viola performance from Temple University, where she studied with violist and Curtis Institute of Music President Roberto Diaz. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University where she studied with violist Atar Arad.
Likewise, Rubio said that he likes performing in a group of four because “you get to play in your own voice, and talk to each other and share and combine ideas.”
“I love the ambiance of it,” he said. “We’re four people playing together, and we get to put all of our feelings into it.”
Rubio began his musical career as a member of Venezuela’s Youth Orchestra System. With the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, he toured France, Japan, the United States, Mexico and Spain. He also was awarded the grand prize in the Spanish and Latin American Music Competition at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and was distinguished as the Ohio Latino Arts Association’s “Performing Artist of the Year.”
Rubio also performs with the Philly Pops and the Harrisburg and Lancaster symphony orchestras.
“It’s a different audience for us here,” Linares said. “In the U.S., our audiences are a little bit older than what we see in South America. In South America, we see a lot more children and college students and young adults… It’s music that not a lot of the people here would have heard of, so there’s more surprise. Maybe in Latin America, they scream a little more. Here, they just act very surprised.”
The Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra and the Dalí Quartet perform Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 11 at 3 p.m. at the Forum, 500 Walnut St., Harrisburg. For tickets, visit www.harrisburgsymphony.org. For more information on the Dalí Quartet, visit www.daliquartet.com.
Images courtesy of Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.
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