Local musician has piece commissioned by LSU

Friday, Aug. 21, 2015

OGDEN — Utah composer Alfonso Tenreiro was commissioned to compose a classical piece of music for the Louisiana State University Symphony Orchestra; it will debut Sept. 15 in the LSU Union Theater with Carlos Riazuelo as conductor.

Tenreiro, Saint Joseph Catholic High School’s music director since 1998, composed “Remembrance” about the culture and people of Venezuela.

Tenreiro and Riazuelo met early in their careers and worked together several times in Venezuela, their home country. Tenreiro was commissioned by the Caracas Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela from 1988 through 1992 and Riazuelo was the conductor during that time.  

To be asked to compose a piece “is the highest honor any composer can receive,” Tenreiro said. “It is also an honor for the orchestra to have the composer in the audience; the composers have usually passed on.”

Tenreiro misses the Venezuelan culture and music, he said; with “Remembrance” he “consciously added in the Venezuelan rhythms because I want American musicians or others who play this music to get a feel for them.” 

While explaining Venezuelan music, Tenreiro played a cuatro that was given to him by his father. The cuatro is a small Latin American guitar with four strings, for which it was named.

Venezuelan music has the Merengue Venezolano, a dance beat, said Tenreiro as he strummed the cuatro. “It can also give a Moroccan sound, which is a percussion string sound, or the cuatro can sound like a harp,” he said.

Tenreiro also demonstrated on the classical guitar, strumming chords and said he “included the syncopations and rich folk rhythms of the Venezuelan culture in symphonic writing without them being a folk song.” 

If Tenreiro were to put words to “Remembrance,” he said he would add nostalgia and melancholy, happiness and excitement, all expressed through fun rhythmic patterns. 

“The liturgical experience, whether it is a Gregorian chant, choral or polyphonic music … also influences the way I write music,” Tenreiro said. 

“Remembrance” will take on a life of its own as the LSU symphony plays it for other audiences and as other symphonies perform it, said Tenreiro. 

The piece was commissioned by Janice Pellar, an LSU School of Music graduate who has started an entrepreneur program for music or drama students. “With the harsh reality that 80 percent will not make their living in that field, our goal was to teach them how to translate their skills into other endeavors,” Pellar said.

Pellar is also a friend of Tenreiro’s brother, Edgardo; she chairs the Baton Rouge General Hospital board where Edgardo Tenreiro chief operating officer.

“When the concept of Alfonso writing a piece for the LSU symphony came up, I gave them my criteria,” she said. “The piece had to be beautiful, rich sounding, and it had to showcase the capabilities of the LSU Symphony Orchestra.”

Pellar said she is eager to meet Alfonso Tenreiro. “If he is like his brother, he will be a lot of fun.”

Tenreiro, who is also the music director at Saint Florence Mission in Huntsville, has been commissioned to write more than a dozen pieces in Venezuela and the United States. In 2000, he wrote a “Requiem” for The Cathedral of the Madeleine Choir; in 2001 the Diocese of Salt Lake City commissioned him to write “Misa Magdalena” for chamber orchestra, chorus and congregation. In 2009, Tenreiro wrote “Ave Maria” for the Salt Lake City Artist children to perform; his music premiered in the 2011 Park City Music Film Festival in the short film “Adler’s Bus Stop.” His harp concerto was also featured at the Utah Arts Festival.