Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra to Present World Premiere of Juan Pablo Contreras' LUCHA LIBRE!

Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra's groundbreaking Sound Investment commissioning program, established to engage audiences in developing a new piece of music composed especially to suit its unparalleled musical talents, features Los Angeles-based artist Juan Pablo Contreras, who recently received a Latin Grammy Best Arrangement nomination for the title track of his debut orchestral album Mariachitlán, as its 2019-20 Sound Investment composer. Contreras' new work, spotlighting the Mexican wrestling he watched growing up in Guadalajara, is called Lucha Libre! in tribute to this unique cultural phenomenon. The composition, subtitled Sinfonia Concertante for Chamber Orchestra, focuses on a "battle" among LACO's master musicians, whose instruments represent Contreras' favorites of the iconic Lucha Libre characters. The piece will have its World Premiere at LACO's orchestral concerts on March 28 and 29, 2020, following several exclusive salons for Sound Investment members, including the next one on Wednesday, December 11, 2019, 7 pm, in downtown Los Angeles.

Contreras succeeds Sarah Gibson as the latest in a line of sought-after, contemporary Sound Investment composers, among them Pulitzer Prize-winner Ellen Reid, now LACO's Creative Advisor and Composer-in-Residence, Matthew Aucoin, Ted Hearne, Hannah Lash, Andrew Norman, Timo Andres and Derek Bermel, as well as others dating back to the first Sound Investment commission in 2001.

"When Sound Investment began in 2001, well before the 'crowdsource' concept existed, it offered the innovative idea that LACO patrons could become insiders to the creative process by getting to know a composer and seeing how a new work comes together," says Ruth Eliel, LACO Board Vice Chair. "It has proven to be a very popular way for individuals to get close to the music."

Sound Investment members experience the rare opportunity to observe first-hand the development of a new work from the composer's earliest ideas to the finished composition. The program's intimate salons throughout the season feature behind-the-scenes discussions with the composer about the creative process and unique reading sessions of the work-in-progress, among other benefits. $300 Membership also includes a pair of tickets to the work's world premiere and the donor's name listed on the dedication page of the printed score. The $500 Sound Investment Plus Membership additionally includes a signed copy of the printed score.

As part of LACO's long history of audience engagement and a commitment to inspiring a love of classical music, students who take advantage the Orchestra's "Campus to Concert Hall All Access Pass," which provides admission to all LACO concerts during the season for just $30, are invited to salons as an added benefit.

Juan Pablo Contreras, "one of the most prominent young composers in Latin America" (Milenio), is recognized for combining Western classical and Mexican folk music in a single soundscape. His work has been performed by major orchestras, including Mexico's National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, Venezuela's Simon Bolivar Orchestra, the Mexico City and UNAM Philharmonics, the orchestras of Boca del Río, Guanajuato, Oaxaca, State of Mexico and Jalisco in Mexico, the Salta and Córdoba Symphonies in Argentina, the Victoria Bach Festival Orchestra and the Waco Symphony Orchestra in the United States. Contreras has received commissions from Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, The Riverside Choir, Carlos Prieto, and the Onix Ensamble. He has won awards, including the BMI William Schuman Prize, the Presser Music Award, the Jalisco Orchestral Composition Prize, the Brian Israel Prize, the Arturo Márquez Composition Contest, the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, the Dutch Harp Composition Contest, the Nicolas Flagello Award and the Young Artist Fellowship of Mexico's National Fund for Culture and the Arts. Contreras has also served as Composer-in-Residence at the soundON Festival of Modern Music in San Diego, the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio and at the Turtle Bay Music School and the Concerts on the Slope in New York. He holds degrees in composition from the California Institute of the Arts and the Manhattan School of Music and currently is pursuing his DMA degree at the University of Southern California. He has been a guest lecturer at Baylor University, the California State University of Fresno, the Portland State University, the University of Guadalajara and the ITESO in Mexico. His most influential teachers include Richard Danielpour, Daniel Catán, Nils Vigeland, and Donald Crockett. Contreras' music has been recorded on Albany Records, Epsa Music, and Urtext Digital Classics.

Contreras' work was introduced to LACO audiences at last year's SESSION spiva concert, which featured the US premiere of Ángel Mestizo, followed by the February 2019 world premiere of his LACO-commissioned Musas Mexicanas as part the In Focus chamber series. Musas Mexicanas paid homage to women who played important roles in Mexico, including artist and icon Frida Kahlo, 17th century poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz and La Malinche, the Aztec woman who translated for Hernán Cortés during the Spanish Conquest.

For additional information about Sound Investment, please visit laco.org/support/sound-investment/ or contact Brandon Faber at 213 622 7001 × 221, brandonfaber@laco.org.

Photo Credit: Juan Pablo Contreras