¡Hola!

Tune in this afternoon on The Classical Network to get a taste of LEO BROUWER, LIVE.

Join me for a special visit from Michael Newman and Laura Oltman of the Newman and Oltman Guitar Duo. Newman and Oltman will drop by to talk about the final concert of this year’s Raritan River Music Festival, which will take place this Saturday at 7:30 p.m., at Stanton Reformed Church, in Lebanon, NJ, and will include the WORLD PREMIERE of Brouwer’s “El Libro de los Seres Imaginarios” (“The Book of Imaginary Beings”).

Brouwer, who turned 80 in March, is Cuba’s foremost composer and arguably the most important living composer of music for the classical guitar. “El Libro” is a 16-minute, four movement work, inspired by a compendium of mythological beings by Jorge Luis Borges.

The fulfillment of the commission, which was planned to coincide with Newman and Oltman’s 40th anniversary as a guitar duo and the 30th anniversary of the Raritan River Music Festival, has been years in the making, the culmination of a successful pentathlon of sorts, guitarists and composer bounding over the hurdles of language, geography, culture, politics, and bureaucracy.

What makes Newman and Oltman’s visit today particularly exciting is that they plan to perform selections from Brouwer’s new work, LIVE, IN-STUDIO, which means the music will be heard FOR THE FIRST TIME ANYWHERE. Following Saturday’s premiere, the couple will take the piece to New York City for the opening of the New York Guitar Seminar on June 26. The duo holds exclusive performance and recording rights to the piece.

Saturday’s program, “New Music of the Americas: Compositions from Brazil, Cuba, & USA,” will also include music by Paul Moravec and works by festival guests Clarice Assad and João Luiz.

The Raritan River Music Festival was founded by Newman and Oltman in 1989, as a stimulating series of concerts that embrace new music, world music, and straightforward classical repertoire, presented by professional musicians, in intimate, historic venues in Hunterdon and Warren Counties.

This year’s festival has included concerts by the Horszowski Trio, performing Schumann and Elliot Carter, at Greenwich Presbyterian Church in Stewartsville; Eileen Ivers and the unIVERSal Roots Band, in a celebration of Americana music and its Irish roots, at Clinton Presbyterian Church in Clinton; and harmonicist Robert Bonfiglio and flutist Clare Hoffman, performing works by Native American and Grand Canyon-inspired composers, at Prallsville Mills in Stockton.

For more information about Saturday’s concert and the Raritan River Music Festival, visit raritanrivermusic.org; to learn more about Newman and Oltman, look online at guitarduo.com; and for scintillating music and conversation, tune in at 5:00, the core of today’s broadcast with Classic Ross Amico, which will take place, as always, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.