Carlos Miguel Prieto, celebrated as a rising star both domestically and abroad, was named 2019 Conductor of the Year by Musical America and is the foremost Mexican conductor of his generation. He serves as artistic director of México City’s Minería Symphony, which was founded in the 1970s and is widely regarded as the leading musical institution in México — one that regularly supports and programs Mexican composers. Housed at the Academia de Música del Palacio de Minería, the name honors the period from the 18th century when mining was one of the region’s most important economic activities.

Joining the Minería Symphony in their first Ann Arbor performance is Latin Grammy Award-winning pianist/composer Gabriela Montero, a frequent Prieto collaborator. Montero, known for her passionate virtuosity and brilliant improvisation, performs her first piano concerto, a soulful work showing the complexities of South American life. “Montero’s playing has everything: crackling rhythmic brio, subtle shadings, steely power in climactic moments, soulful lyricism in the ruminative passages and, best of all, unsentimental expressivity.” (The New York Times)

The concert includes works by two Mexican composers: Carlos Chávez (1899- 1978), an ethnomusicologist whose Sinfonía India reflects the harmonies, rhythms, melodies, and instruments of the Indian cultures of Mexico, and Silvestre Revueltas, whose concert suite La noche de los mayas depicts Mexico’s preColumbian heritage and is drawn from his highly-regarded 1939 film score.