Gabriel Meneses
“This initiative represents something very important, it is something that has come to me at the right time. Each composer has his own story. Well, in my history there has been a very hard migration process, leaving my homeland, Venezuela, and coming to Spain has forced me for various reasons to be distanced from my work as a composer, added to the crisis that we are currently living with Covid-19 . This opportunity has reconnected me with my being. It has given me a reason to write. The happiness I have felt in the process of writing for this project reminds me that even in the shadows, even in the dark, there will always be the opportunity to find yourself, to recover if you have strayed, and to see the light again.”
Biography
Born in 1983, in Caracas Venezuela, Gabriel is part of a versatile and interesting generation of Venezuelan musicians and composers. He grew up in an environment surrounded by all kinds of music and at the age of 10 he began his musical education. His first compositions made for piano are written since he was 14 years old and since then he has written a significant number of works. He continued his classical piano studies at IUDEM (University Institute of Musical Studies) and at the same time he was studying composition under the tutelage of Maestro Blas Atehortua and later became part of the Latin American composition chair "Juan Carlos Nuñez".
In 2010, he became the pianist of the Simon Bolivar Symphonic Orchestra, Apex of the system of Youth and children's orchestras of Venezuela and until 2018 he was part of it. .
Curiously, Gabriel is also a virtuoso of the diatonic harmonica, for years he was a student of Master Howard Levy.
At 2013, his work "Pabellon Sonata" is selected to be performed at the 7th Chamber Music Festival "Leo Brower", in Havana and it is invited by the composer himself, along with personalities like Bobby Mc Ferrin and Jordi Savala.
Gabriel's music contains a rich contrapuntal, rhythmic and harmonic unmatched, thanks to so many years surrounded by many musical influences and experiences, both in the academic and popular fields and in jazz.
Among his most outstanding works are, "POW!", a symphonic poem, , " Hawthorne Street", a symphonic inspired by a journey through the state of Oregon, "Sweet Martini", a chamber trio, "Pabellon Sonata", inspired by Venezuelan folklore and made for the great clarinetist Jorge Montilla, "Shoot!" a work for Big Band commissioned, dedicated and premiered by Maestro Giancarlo Castro and the Concerto for Clarinet and Big Band.
Four Elephants
Gabriel Meneses wanted to write something that was fun to play but also technical and musically challenging, knowing that his new piece Four Elephants would be performed by young people. He has always liked elephants and everything related to them. He hadn’t seen one in-person since his childhood until he visited the Oregon Zoo in 2013. He still remembers staring at them from afar for a long time in awe.