The 1960 Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain made a big impression on San Antonio musician and composer Aaron Prado, who as a youth was focused on learning classical piano.
His jazz bassist father George Prado played the groundbreaking, genre-crossing album during one of their regular father-son chess matches, and Davis’ artistry showed the young pianist and fledgling composer that jazz can be as eloquent and complex as classical music.
Aaron Prado brings that “breakthrough moment” to fruition through his latest chamber music composition, entitled The Hummingbird and the Marigold, to be showcased during the quadrennial Gurwitz International Piano Competition running Jan. 26-Feb. 4 at various locations around San Antonio.
Twelve international competitors will perform Jan. 27-28, six will remain for the competition’s second round on Jan. 30 and three finalists will compete in the third and fourth rounds for a first prize of $30,000. The second-place finisher wins $20,000 and third place earns $10,000.
Breathing life into music
For the third round of the Gurwitz competition, the three finalists will perform Prado’s virtuosic composition, an homage to an Aztec myth of love and transformation. The piece showcases Prado’s fascination with rhythms of Latin America, from Mexican ranchera to Cuban montuno, Argentine tango and Brazilian samba.
Prado said that among other compelling aspects of the 10-day competition, hearing three different interpretations of the same piece of music will offer Gurwitz jurors and the audience insight into the pianists’ talents and artistry.
A two-minute open cadenza near the end of the piece will offer each a chance to improvise, further differentiating their individual styles.
And for Prado, to hear his piece performed live for the first time “with real people breathing life into it is just about the most thrilling thing for a composer. I’m really stoked.”
Now Hear This
The 12 competitors were selected from a preliminary round of 76 entrants. They will arrive from China, Taiwan, Russia, Germany and other locations in the U.S.
Each will kick off the competition Jan. 27-28 in the Diane Bennack Concert Hall at the University of the Incarnate Word with 50-minute recitals featuring music of their choice.
Six semifinalists will progress to the second round Jan. 30 at the same location to perform 50-minute recitals of a Latin or Spanish work and a select piece from their home culture.
The competition takes a star turn Jan. 31 with a Majestic Theatre concert by Dionne Warwick, Gurwitz 2024 Honorary Chair and 2023 Kennedy Center honoree.
Prado’s composition will be featured by the three finalists at the Carver Community Cultural Center’s Jo Long Theater on Feb. 1, and the competition wraps up Feb. 3 in the H-E-B Performance Hall of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.
Finalists will perform concertos with the visiting Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra led by conductor Scott Yoo, host of the PBS music program Now Hear This, who will also chair the competition jury.
A break between the competition’s third and fourth rounds on Feb. 2 will feature a solo jazz piano concert with Spanish composer Marta Sánchez in the Coates Chapel of the UTSA Southwest Campus downtown.
All competitive rounds and Sánchez’s concert are free events with registration on the website of Musical Bridges Around the World, the parent organization of the Gurwitz competition. Further information on all Gurwitz events including the Jan. 26 grand opening and Feb. 4 awards brunch is also available on the website.
The crème de la crème
Suhail Arastu, advancement director for Musical Bridges, said the 2024 Gurwitz highlights many of the Latin American cultures present in San Antonio and showcases the city’s strong cultural ties with Mexico City.
While locals can attend any of the full schedule of events, anyone can access the competition via livestream, which Musical Bridges pioneered for the 2020 Gurwitz competition just before the coronavirus pandemic made livestreamed events a commonality.
Arastu said that of all the events, the fourth-round finale is not to be missed. “How often do you get to go to the Tobin for free? How often does the entire Mexico City Philharmonic play for you? And you’re gonna have the crème de la crème, the three finalists of the competition playing that night.”
Prado said all rounds of the competition offer “the opportunity to hear incredible performance at the highest level,” and said last year’s first round was “incredible. Everybody sounded like a polished, finished artist. And I was just blown away by the level of the competition.”
Prado acknowledged the Gurwitz’s origins as the San Antonio International Piano Competition founded in 1983 by Richard Ferguson and Ruth Jean Gurwitz, for whom the competition is named.
“We need to be thankful for all of the folks who have worked on this over the many decades that it’s been active, and Musical Bridges has taken it to a whole other level,” Prado said. “It’s getting to be recognized as on par with the [Van] Cliburn [International Piano Competition] and some of the other great piano competitions in the world.”
