MUSIC

Oscar Peñas

Part of the 2018 Next Wave Festival

Spanish-born guitarist and composer Oscar Peñas and his quartet combine piano, bass, and drums with a string quartet in this classical-jazz suite inspired by the 3,000-year-old Andalusian fishing tradition known as the almadraba. Borrowing sounds from Cuban and South American folk music, as well as from Peñas’ own Iberian heritage, the composition pays poetic tribute to this age-old ecological technique for sustainably trapping bluefin tuna. A musical narration of this arduous process—from the labyrinthine formation of boats to the dramatic hoisting of nets—Almadraba is both a lush melding of sonic styles and a celebration of ancient wisdom.

Lighting design by Lucrecia Briceño