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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Artists compete in Latin American recording contest

Daniel Inamorato has been named winner of the second Latin American Music Recording Competition.

The final round of the 15th annual competition, presented by the Latin American Music Center, took place Jan. 29 in Auer Hall.

“It’s always hard to wait,” Inamorato said of the 30 minutes the jury took post-performance Sunday to make the critical decision.

“But I’m really, really happy. I feel really happy to have the opportunity to perform Brazilian music, and now to record a CD with music from Latin America.”

The competition format was altered last year in conjunction with the center’s 50th anniversary to award winners with a full CD recording, all supported by the Guillermo and Lucille Espinosa Fund.

Inamorato, a 24-year-old Brazilian with a head of close-cropped, curly brown hair, doe eyes and an easy smile, has spent just six months in Bloomington as a student of famed pianist Arnaldo Cohen under the Performance Diploma Program in the Jacobs School of Music. 

His prize includes recording an LAMC-produced and -edited album. As proposed in his application to the competition, Inamorato’s CD project will focus on solo piano works from the past 100 years written by Brazilian and Mexican composers.

During the competition, Inamorato played pieces by an all-Brazilian set of composers, including “Nazarethiana Op. 2” by Marlos Nobre and “As três Marias” by Heitor Villa-Lobos.

“It’s this kind of music you can’t find so easily, you can’t hear so easily, but it’s incredible music,” Inamorato said. “I know about the meaning of the songs and where they came from. It’s nice to try to do what I have in my blood.”

Inamorato will also perform in a scheduled winner’s concert at 8 p.m. March 8 in Auer Hall.

Inamorato was the only pianist in the competition, which featured two solo guitarists, a guitar duo and a countertenor.

“It was a very unusual competition because it was an open one,” said Luiz Fernando Lopes, former acting assistant director of the LAMC. “It focused on repertoire, particularly music from Latin America.”

The competition has had a history of contenders from diverse backgrounds. Once, a vocal ensemble competed against a Latin jazz band.

Lopes said all five applicants this year were chosen to compete in the final round because of how strong each of them were in their own discipline.

“They were judged against standards in their own field, not directly with one another,” Lopes said.

The six members of the jury ranked competitors from one to five, and the final decision was made by adding together the numbers for each competitor, then dividing them by six. The competitor with the lowest number won the competition.

Lopes said the program was arranged according to three criteria, the most important being an optimum music sequence.

While contestants were able to piece their own sets together, organizers arranged the performers in such a way that the softest, slowest set, which was played by solo guitarist Iván Maceda, progressed to the strongest in terms of sound volume and gesture, which was performed by Anders and Inamorato.

“He’s a good friend of ours. We’re happy for him,” said first-year doctoral candidate Daniel Duarte, who played in a duo with Rodrigo Almeida.

The men have played together for eight years — they first met at a university in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The city was also where they first met Inamorato.

“His level was really high,” Duarte said. “When you enter into a competition, you don’t think about who’s winning. It’s a lottery. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t. That’s how it works. You don’t really expect the results.”

For Inamorato, it’s not so much about competing, but about sharing the music and experience with others.

He said he believes that the audience, upon being exposed to different kinds of music, languages and rhythms, is forever changed for the better.

“We are here all together doing a beautiful thing,” he said. “It’s what I think we can do for people when we play in public. We can give them hope, something to think about.”

Inamorato said he thinks a balance should be drawn between the repertoire and important musical happenings in the world, and that he can fulfill these hopes with the upcoming recording of his album.

“I’m really happy because I believe in this competition, and I believe in this school and the LAMC,” he said.

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