Ricardo Gallo Piano Solo / Free improvisation

Ricardo Gallo Piano Solo / Free improvisation
Presented by Terraza 7
Tuesday, May 9^th, 2023 at 8:00 pm.

No Cover

Featuring:

Ricardo Gallo / Piano

About the concert:

Ricardo Gallo presents compositions from his repertoire for other groups in solo-piano versions, and improvised pieces.

As pianist-composer, Gallo looks to minimize the distinction between improvisation and composition. Or, in other words, to present in a distilled and direct way the creative process of his music that has been known mainly through his work with other groups and collaborations with other musicians.

About Ricardo Gallo:

Colombian pianist and composer Ricardo Gallo has written for acoustic and electro-acoustic formats, for short films, videos, dance, installations and multimedia stage productions, and has performed and written for improvisatory groups. He has published twelve albums as a leader, his music has appeared in several compilations in Colombia, USA, and Europe, and has participated in recordings of several other groups.

Among his main projects is the quartet he leads since 2005 with some of the best musicians from Bogotá’s scene: drummer Jorge Sepúlveda, bassist Juan Manuel Toro, and percussionist Juan David Castaño, developing repertoire and an improvisational approach that integrates an avant-garde and free language with rhythmic and melodic elements from folkloric musical traditions. Ricardo Gallo Cuarteto has released six albums: Los Cerros Testigos (2005), Urdimbres y Marañas (2007), Resistencias (2010), Tribu del Asfalto (2013), En Tránsito (2018) and Novara 2012 (2022).

In New York he has led the group Tierra de Nadie, with seasoned musicians such as trombonist Ray Anderson, saxophonist Dan Blake, bassist Mark Helias, and percussionists Pheeroan akLaff and Satoshi Takeishi. With this project, he released the album The Great Fine Line in 2010 under the portuguese label Clean Feed Records.

Two notable ongoing duos are his long-lasting project with guitarist Alejandro Flórez, publishing in 2009 the album Meleyolamente as a debut for the label Festina Lente Discos, and Algo Más Melódico in 2019 with the same label.  With singer Juanita Delgado they published independently Canciones internas y de otras partes in 2016.

Gallo has collaborated with Chilean poet and artist Cecilia Vicuña, performing as duo in the U.S. and Chile, Venice and Colombia. He has created the sound design for Vicuña’s “Disappeared Quipu” – a multimedia installation for the Brooklyn Museum and MFA in Boston – composed a piece based on her poetry commissioned by Ensemble Ipse, as well as other sound pieces for the Gwangju Biennale in Korea and Ballroom Marfa in Texas based on Cecilia’s chants and improvisations with him.

With the multimedia group La Quinta del Lobo he has participated as composer and performer on piano, keyboards and electronics on two large scale stage pieces: Vanitas Libellum and Cuentos de la Mangleria, performing in several theaters in Colombia as well as in Peru, Hong Kong and U.S.A.

Gallo has participated in projects led by Ray Anderson, Peter Evans (Live in Lisbon), Santiago Botero (MULA, El Ombligo), Edson Velandia (Bin Ban, Aputoi), Pedro Ojeda (Romperayo), Andrés Jiménez (Dilemastronauta) Lukas Ligeti (notebook) among others.

He has performed his own music in Peru, Puerto Rico, Canada, Kenya, China, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Poland, Germany, Chile, Argentina, U.S.A. and Colombia. Gallo has received commissions from Colombia Symphony Orchestra and Big Band Bogotá, and funds for tours and residencies from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia, The Banff Centre, and the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec in Canada. Gallo is a MacDowell fellow and has also been in residence at Lijiang Studio in Yunnan, China.

He finished his undergraduate at the University of North Texas with honors and holds a Masters and PhD in music composition from Stony Brook University. He lives in New York and maintains a strong connection with Bogotá’s music scene.