Music Connects – Ventura Music Festival

Welcome to Music Connects: VMF’s Digital Music Festival!

Each week a performer shares in a personal video what they are experiencing and a personal piece of music that especially resonates for them today and tell us why. Some will be well-known artists; some, outstanding young performers from our Rising Stars and Student Jazz programs. Still others, we hope, will be talented local musicians who, until recently, have been playing in area clubs and elsewhere.

MC33- Alfredo Rolando Ortiz

From Executive Director Susan Scott

Dear Friends,

I don’t know what your music cravings are like or how they’ve been affected by current events. As an example, I only became aware of how much I was craving LIVE music – along with a thousand others – when the Rubicon and VMF presented Drive-In concerts over the summer. It didn’t matter that we were all in cars. It was live, met a need, and we honked our little hearts out.

Recently I surprised myself by craving a specific instrument – the Harp! While I’m not entirely sure why I craved harp music, I did know who to call: Alfredo Rolando Ortiz, composer, educator, and concert harpist extraordinaire. He’s esteemed by his peers internationally and young harpists everywhere learn from his compositions. Several years ago a piece he wrote for four harpists was performed by 232 harpists at a special gathering of the World Harp Congress! While some of you may remember Alfredo from an early VMF festival, I didn’t have the pleasure of hearing him until a few years ago and it was unforgettable: technical virtuosity matched by great emotional expressiveness, accompanied by wonderful stories.

Alfredo’s multicultural repertory is vast: Latin American, traditional, classical, popular, original. We will invite him to perform live when we can. For now, it’s a pleasure both to fulfill a craving and to present this great harpist to our Music Connects audience. He begins with one of his own compositions and finishes with Besame Mucho. If you crave more, visit AlfredoHarp.com.
Enjoy.