During a recent research trip to my home country of Venezuela, I found the sketches of Blanca Estrella de Méscoli at the National Library of Venezuela. Blanca Estrella (1915-1986) was the first female composer to receive a degree in composition in Venezuela. Her work as a composer and educator has profoundly impacted the country, and yet, her sketchbook lay forgotten in the archives of the National Library. I am currently in the process of transcribing and editing these sketches for the public to have access to them. Still, in the process, I got inspired to write a piece influenced by a short Venezuelan Waltz by Blanca Estrella found in the sketchbook.

DE PRINCIPAL A LA TORRE not only reimagines some of the primary motives of Blanca Estrella's waltz, but it also plays with the concept of the Venezuelan Waltz itself, allowing it to dance around its metric structure and collapse onto itself. If you pay careful attention, you might hear references to another famous waltz, Aldemaro Romero's De Conde a Principal. 

This piece was composed as part of Creative Dialogue XIII, a program sponsored by the Sibelius Academy and hosted by the Acequia Madre House in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The piece was composed in collaboration with Sirkku Helin (Violin), Josh Morris (Cello), & Kiia Nordlund (Piano) over a week and through numerous workshops, which resulted in the piece you can hear today. These three outstanding performers premiered DE PRINCIPAL A LA TORRE in the Saint Francis Auditorium of the Santa Fe Museum of Art. Listen to their performance in the Soundcloud link below.