About the Music

We thank the composer for sharing this note about her Nastrajenje (2015) for three bass clarinets and piano:

"Nastrajenje" is a Russian word that means a humorous mood. The piece starts with a light "Bossa Nova", where the 3 bass clarinets want to "joke" and make a "conversation". As the word "Nastrajenje" suggests, those are different moods that are necessary to emphasize, as well as the rhythmic contrast between the piano and the clarinets.

The Allegro 116 is fast, the winds have to try to make the parallel scales very equal and clear, are 8 sixteenths in counterpoint with the quarter triplets on the piano. The Moderato 100 is almost a preparation for the waltz Andante 92, which is a little slow but very Cantabile. Exaggerate the dynamics on the entire piece because sometimes 3 bass clarinets can sound louder than the piano.

Piano score: 15 pages, spiral bound; parts: 3 pages each, booklet. Extended-range instruments NOT required.

Click here to listen to an excerpt of the piece on the composer's website.

PDF Edition

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About the Composer

About the award-winning composer Mónica Cárdenas, critics say, "she offers us a precious mixture of cultures", "a very beautiful work that reflects interpretive enjoyment", "her works are a pleasant sound journey through the vast musical richness of the Latin American continent" (from different magazines of the musical world).

Her compositions for piano, chamber music, symphony and theater are performed on many international stages, and she herself is the one who also makes her piano compositions known, both, solo and in chamber music.

This is how Monica is placed among the Latin American pianists of international trajectory career and occupies a place among the most outstanding composers of the 21st century.

She is invited to international festivals and conferences. Her experience is based on invitations she had in the USA, such as the University of Riverside in 2018 as well in 2019 the Jacobs School of Music (Indiana University) to present her compositional style for piano and chamber music.

She was co-founder of the Cárdenas Trío with whom she had concerts on international stages.

Among her recordings with the Cárdenas Trío are "The 4 seasons of Buenos Aires" with music by Astor Piazzolla; "Labyrinth" with Brazilian classical music by composers such as Villa-Lobos, Nazaret, Mignone, etc.

Her recent contract with Ale Publishing, an American publisher specializing in bass clarinet music, has made possible the distribution of sheet music that Monica Cardenas has composed between 2016 and 2022. Thanks to the sales, her works are performed in many stages and she is invited to play her works for bass clarinet and piano at Festivals and concerts.

Among her productions as a composer and pianist, in 2015 she was invited to participate in the recording of "Anikousto" (works for flute and piano) where she performed her sonata in 3 movements "Festejo en sueños", composed in 2015.

In 2020 Mónica presented "Influence", a piece for string orchestra that is among the works on the CD "Espiral", with the interpretation of the Camerata Gala chamber orchestra from Cordoba, Spain and the production of Ibs Classical.

Her penultimate production in 2021 is the CD "10 Preludes and Fugues of Latin America" for piano that she composed in 2020. She is a performer herself and with this production she won the Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards 2021.

Monica presented the CD in concert on June 18, 2022 in London.

In 2023 she recorded the CD "Chaos", this time as a duet with the cellist Johann Aparicio Bohórquez. The works that make up this production were composed by Mónica between 2013 and 2022. "Chaos" won the Silver Medal at the Global Music Awards 2023.

Mónica Cárdenas is Peruvian - Spanish, began her piano studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Lima and then at 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.

She currently lives in Germany where she develops an intense activity as a pianist and composer.