Hispanic Society Museum & Library
Join Spanish pianist Antonio Galera for the 2025 Hispanic Society Concert Series, which establishes relationships between the museum collections and artists from different fields, in continuous dialogue with the piano.
Thursday, February 27th, 2025 6 – 8 pm
Concert Series Part I: Cordes | Sorolla Gallery
The first of the concerts, CORDES, will take place in February 2025, where a sample of the museum’s permanent collection is on display. It will be the presentation in America of Antonio Galera’s latest solo album project, which explores references to guitar present in Spanish music written for piano by different composers. For this first project, Antonio has invited Lori Cohen, a member of the HSM&L board, and curator and art collector Christopher Rothko, who together will introduce Antonio Galera and contextualize the pieces performed in the recital.
Thursday, April 3rd, 2025 6 – 8 pm
Concert Series Part II: Musica y Letras | Library of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
The second concert, MÚSICA Y LETRA (CORRESPONDENCIAS), will feature the writer Elvira Lindo, recipient of the Premio Líber 2023, and will take place in the spring of 2025. Elvira and Antonio will converse musically, revealing musical anecdotes and references present in correspondence letters from the HSM&L collection, as well as that of other Hispanic artists who resided in New York City at different times in its history. Elvira herself lived in NYC for a decade, which brings a personal perspective to this musical dialogue. For this event we will collaborate with the American Academy of Arts and Letters, who will lend us their piano and host us in their beautiful library.
Thursday May 15th, 2025 6 – 8 pm
Concert Series Part III: Spanish Landscapes | Sorolla Gallery
For the third concert, SPANISH LANDSCAPES, Antonio has invited the violinist Leticia Moreno, acclaimed by critics for her profound interpretative strength and who has performed in venues such as the Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles and with the National Symphony Orchestra from Washington D.C. Together, they will perform pieces by Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Turina and Enrique Granados, among others. The recital will take place in Sorolla’s Vision of Spain Gallery in May 2025, with the stage located in the center of the room to enjoy the canvases commissioned from Joaquín Sorolla by Archer Milton Huntington. Pianist Enriqueta Somarriba, Doctor in Music from Rutgers University, will introduce the performance and contextualize the repertoire, territorially and culturally linking these pieces with the different scenes represented by Sorolla.
Thursday June 26th, 2025 6 – 8 pm
Concert Series Part IV: Cuadros de un Exposicion | Location TBD
The fourth and final concert, CUADROS DE UNA EXPOSICIÓN, will take place in the Auditorium of the American Academy of Arts and Letters or in the Sorolla Room. During the residency, both classical and contemporary music will be performed, with the presence of Spanish composers such as Mariángeles Sánchez Benimeli or Matilde Salvador. The Valencian composer Francisco Coll, ICMA award winner and whose works have been performed in recent seasons by the Los Angeles Philharmonic or the Toronto Symphony, will have a prominent presence in the different programs. The final concert will include works by Granados and Mussorgsky along with the premiere of two pieces for solo piano by Coll which were commissioned by the Hispanic Society. They are part of a rotation dedicated to Spanish visual artists and are inspired by the work of Goya and Zurbarán, artists present in the museum’s collection.