Aldo Lopez-Gavilan

He has appeared in such prestigious U.S. concert halls as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Washington’s Kennedy Center, and Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center, as well as at Amadeo Roldán (Cuba), Teresa Carreño (Venezuela), Bellas Artes (Mexico), Royal Festival Hall (U.K.), Nybrokajen 11 (Sweden), The Hall of Music (Russia), Duc de Lombard et Petit Journal Montparnasse (France), and venues in Canada, Santo Domingo, Colombia, Spain, Greece, Hong Kong, Burkina Faso, Germany, and Austria.

Aldo’s collaborators have included some of the greatest artists in the classical, popular music, and jazz fields. The late conductor Claudio Abbado invited him to perform with Venezuela’s Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra in a special concert dedicated to the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth and Maestro Abbado subsequently invited him to perform Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in Caracas and Havana. More recently, Aldo joined with violinist Joshua Bell in organizing Seasons of Cuba, a PBS special that took place at Lincoln Center in December 2016, celebrating a new era of cultural diplomacy with a program ranging from Vivaldi to Piazzolla and beyond. Among the prestigious artists joining them were Dave Matthews, the Chamber Orchestra of Havana, singer-songwriter Carlos Varela, and soprano Larisa Martinez.

Aldo and his brother Ilmar Gavilán, first violinist of New York-based Harlem Quartet, are featured in the new documentary Los Hermanos / The Brothers, which tells the story of their shared childhood, their momentous first performances together, and their parallel lives as musicians; it includes a genre-bending score composed by Aldo, concert footage of him performing with Harlem Quartet, and guest appearances by such legendary musicians as Joshua Bell. A Patchwork Films production by Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider, Los Hermanos is screening at film
festivals worldwide and will be nationally broadcast on PBS in the fall of 2021.

Aldo’s U.S. concert activity in the 2020-21 season included a May 8 virtual recital sponsored by Detroit’s Camera Music in which he performed his own works in partnership with his violinist brother Ilmar, and two virtual performances sponsored by the West Michigan Symphony: a solo recital at The Block (May 22) and a return engagement with the orchestra for a performance of his own piano concerto, Emporium (May 21). Two U.S.
tours with Harlem Quartet are planned for 2021-22. Also scheduled for that season is the debut of Aldo’s new trumpet concerto: Commissioned by New York’s Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, it will be premiered by that orchestra and the renowned trumpet soloist Arturo Sandoval at Carnegie Hall on February 19, 2022.