Crossing Borders explores a crucial moment in the musical history of the New World: when European musical traditions began to mingle with indigenous musical practices.

This festive program for the holiday season includes villancicos and romances for voices and ensemble plus instrumental works drawn from the rich repertoire of 17th- and 18th-century colonial and Latin American cultures. Musical selections by Roque Ceruti, José Duran, Antonio de Salazar, Manuel Joseph Quiroz, Sebastián Duron and others illustrate the multiple and creative ways music traverses cultural and national borders.

“Ortiz’s flute-like tone and Duarte’s velvety mezzo were quite distinct in character. Yet their voices blended seamlessly whenever they sang together, like two organ stops producing a third timbre.”

“…Mánuel’s drums and tambourine turned the singers into 17th-century party girls dancing to the beat of the chacona (chaconne) “A la vida bona” (no translation necessary) by Juan de Arañés, in which the percussionist took an exuberant solo himself.”

–David Wright, New York Classical Review