About the Music

We thank the composer for sharing this note about her Dunas (2021) for solo clarinet:

"Dunas" refers to the dunes or desert of Ica, an area of the Peruvian coast. This dance and rhythm Marinera from the coast of Peru is a mixed loose couple dance and is both flirtateous and elegant, characterized by the use of scarves. In Dunas the Marinera is frequent after the introduction. At the beginning of the piece there is like a dialogue between man and woman: the dancers, and can be play something free of time. That is why each fermata is important to start a new dialogue, for example the man begins until the end of bar 3. Then the woman in bar 4 - 5 and so on they prepare the Marinera. In bar 15 there is a melody in mf, this would be the man and the woman repeats it in p in bar 22 (echo). The Marinera can be played comfortable of time even though it has a dotted quarter = 69.

The Marinera has a certain virtuosity sometimes with the feet, that's why the sixteenth notes and from time to time there is the theme of bar 15, not always the same and this is how the piece develops. Dunas also has small fusion in some bars, such as Arabic melodies or rhythms from the Peruvian coast such as Festejo. At the end, in bar 131, the descending arpeggio is very typical in the Marinera.

Solo score: 5 pages, published loose leaf to facilitate page turns. Extended-range instrument briefly required.

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About the Composer

Mónica Cárdenas – composer and pianist

Years of working on stage, as a composer; both solo-piano and chamber music with Cárdenas Trío, place her among Latin American pianists with a great international career and she occupies a place among the most outstanding composers of the 21st century.

This phase as a composer has led her to receive awards and distinctions, such as the Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards 2021 and the "Honorable Mention" at the 2nd World Composition Competition 2021 in Austria. Her compositions are for piano, chamber music, symphonies, theater and are performed in the USA, Europe, Latin America as well as being invited to participate in Conferences and Master Classes. In Brazil, her "Marinera" Wind Trio was premiered (09-2015) and same work was performed on the Clarinet Bass Festival at the University of Rio de Janeiro under the direction of Maestro Thiago Tavares (12-2015). Her works are performed in the USA, Europe, Latin America, she is also invited to Master Classes, as well as in regular programs and Diploma exams where her works for solo piano are also required.

In 2018 she was invited by the Riverside University of Califonia and in 2019 is invited by the Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University, USA), both to make a conference and concert about her style of composition. She was co-founder of Cárdenas Trío with whom she performed in concerts for more than two decades in many places. Among the recordings of the Trio there are „The 4 seasons of Buenos Aires“ with music by A. Piazzolla, one of the last CD called "Labyrinth" where they interpret classical music of Brazilian composers such as Villa-Lobos, Nazareth, Mignone. In 2015 Mónica recorded „Anikousto“: works for flute and piano, where she performed her Sonata „Festejo en Sueños“.

In 2020 Monica introduces "Influence", a piece for string orchestra within the works that make up the CD "Espiral" with the Ibs Classical production, the conductor Alejandro Muñoz and the chamber orchestra Camerata Gala from Cordoba, Spain.

Her latest 2021 production is the CD "10 Preludes and Fugues of Latin America" (which she composed in 2020) where she herself is a performer and with which she wins the Gold Medal at the 2021 Global Music Awards. This production has led her to participate in videos and recordings as a pianist and composer; to be invited again by American universities. Monica presented the CD in concert on June 18, 2022 in London.

Mónica Cárdenas, Peruvian-Spanish, began her piano studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Lima, Perú and the Tchaikovsky Conservatories in Kiew and Moscow. In 2019 she obtained the Fellowship Diploma equivalent to Master's degree in composition from West London University. Mónica currently lives in Germany where she develops an intense activity as a composer and pianist.