Author

Esteban Meneses

Esteban (he/him) is a freelance arts and music writer based in Orlando. He’s a 2022 fellow of the Rubin Institute for Music Criticism, and a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, contributing to its online journal Classical Voice North America. He holds a Master of Liberal Studies degree from Rollins College.
Esteban Meneses
Solomiya Moroz -- Photo by Natalia Rainyk

5 Questions to Solomiya Moroz (composer)

Solomiya Moroz is a UK-based Ukrainian-Canadian composer and flutist whose textural music defies pre...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Samantha Bennett and George Nickson of enSRQ -- Photo by Matt Holler

5 Questions to Samantha Bennett and George Nickson (co-founders/artistic directors, enSRQ)

Although Sarasota is home to several performing arts organizations, programming in the Southwest Flo...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Paul Dooley -- Photo by Natali Contreras

Composer Paul Dooley Synthesizes Electronics and Visual Arts on BMOP Portrait Album

Having reached its milestone 100th recording in July, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project has seemin...
Author
Esteban Meneses
2024 Cabrillo Music Festival Composers Collage

At Cabrillo 2024, Contemporary Music Continues to Reign with 15 Composers in Residence

When singer and sound artist Bora Yoon started work on The Wind of Two Koreas — her first piece for...
Author
Esteban Meneses
James Díaz -- Photo by artist

In Enigmatic Debut Album, Composer James Díaz Recasts Violin as Electronic Instrument

Picture an electrically charged violin that buzzes and swells as it rotates inside a compressed magn...
Author
Esteban Meneses
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Bravo! Vail Festival Blends New Music with the Classics at its Lavish Colorado Rockies Home

It wasn’t until I’d taken the gondola down from Eagle’s Nest, perched 10,350 feet up on Vail Mountai...
Author
Esteban Meneses
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“Reconnaissance” Illuminates the Alluring Vocal Music of Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023)

When news of the untimely death of Kaija Saariaho broke on June 2, a family statement revealed that...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Missy Mazzoli -- Photo by Caroline Tompkins

5 Questions to Missy Mazzoli about Luna Composition Lab

In the early 2000s, several American composers came to define a style of post-Minimalism that defies...
Author
Esteban Meneses
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5 Questions to Ahmed Alabaca (composer)

I first heard music by Ahmed Alabaca at the premiere of their Ode to Liberty, a 10-minute tone poem...
Author
Esteban Meneses
adrianne-munden-dixon-lung-album-cover-691px

Adrianne Munden-Dixon Commissions Solo Violin Works with a Splash of Electronics for Debut Album

In her debut album Lung, violinist-composer Adrianne Munden-Dixon and a cohort of five composers unv...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Augusta Read Thomas--Dream Catcher

Venturesome Soloist’s Debut ‘Dream Catcher’ Compiles Violin Works by Augusta Read Thomas

For violinist Clarissa Bevilacqua, the first-prize winner of the 14th International Mozart Competiti...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Odeya Nini--Photo by Elena Ray

Odeya Nini Plumbs the Deepest Sounds of a Voice that Heals

Listening to the swirling, terraced vocals of Odeya Nini is like having raw human emotion hurled at...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Tania León Teclas de mi piano

Piano Works by Tania León Span Four Decades on “Teclas de mi piano”

The music of Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León is intimately connected to memories of her formative y...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Anne Hege--Photo courtesy of the artist

Anne Hege Breathes Life into Hacked Cassette Players and Singing Laptops

This article was commissioned by American Composers Forum. The Tape Machine came to her in a dream:...
Author
Esteban Meneses
PaviElle French--Photo by Sharolyn B. Hagen Photography

PaviElle French Pushes for Social Justice Through Genre-Crossing Music 

This article was commissioned by American Composers Forum. The music of PaviElle French — a soulful...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate--Photo by Shevaun Williams

Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate Embodies the Spirit of the Chickasaw Nation

This article was commissioned by American Composers Forum. When composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tat...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Gao Hong--Photo courtesy of the artist

Gao Hong: Memories and Journeys of a Pipa Composer

This article was commissioned by American Composers Forum. Before she started composing, Chinese pip...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson's Blue

New Opera “Blue” Presents Searing Take on Police Violence

If opera can be the barometer of the present, Blue is the opera for our times. Complicated family dy...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Alicia Lee Conversations With Myself

Alicia Lee’s Conversations With Myself Resonates from the Depths of Isolation

Although pandemic-related isolation is threatening to become a subgenre, clarinetist Alicia Lee’s ne...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Opera Orlando presents The Secret River--Photo by Bearded Lens

The Secret River: Opera Orlando Writes a Love Letter to Central Florida

When Calpurnia asks Mother Albirtha, the village sage in the Central Florida backwoods where The Sec...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Ensemble Dal Niente confined. speak.

Ensemble Dal Niente’s “confined. speak.” Contemplates Pandemic Paradoxes

Ensemble Dal Niente, a staunch Chicago-based purveyor of new music, is not like other groups. Since...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Expect the Unexpected

25 Commissions, No Rehearsal: Notes Inégales Embraces the Unknown on “Expect the Unexpected”

If you happened upon the law firm Hodge Jones & Allen in London, you wouldn’t guess that one of...
Author
Esteban Meneses
Enigma: Spektral Quartet Performs Anna Thorvaldsdóttir

Anna Thorvaldsdóttir and Spektral Upend the String Quartet on Enigma

Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdóttir is known for creating soundscapes that unfold at a glacial...
Author
Esteban Meneses
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Techno-Noir Opera “Looking at You” Mines Privacy in the Digital World

If you have ever been the victim of credit card fraud or been lured into a dating app subscription,...
Author
Esteban Meneses
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