On February 13th I was deeply honored to receive the Premio Héctor Campos Parsi (Hector Campos Parsi Prize) at the closing concert of the II Congreso Puertorriqueño de Creación Musical (Second Puerto Rican Congress of Musical Creation) at the II Congreso Puertorriqueño de Creación Musical (CMPR.) The beautiful plaque reads: “2ndo Congreso Puertorriqueño de Creación Musical, Premio Héctor Campos Parsi, A Kathleen Jones, Por su excelsa labor en el fomento, educación, exposición y difusión de la música de los compositores puertorriqueños. Otorgado hoy, 13 de febrero de 2011 en San Juan, Puerto Rico, Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico.” (Second Puerto Rican Congress of Musical Creation, Héctor Campos Parsi Prize, to Kathleen Jones, for her lofty work in the fomentation, education, exposition and diffusion of the music of Puerto Rican composers. Awarded today, February 13, 2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, CMPR.)
When I was notified that I would be honored, I began to search through my calendars, to see if my contribution was really worthy of such a distinction. The list of works I have played and/or recorded, in the PRSO, in Camerata Caribe, at ClarinetFests, etc. is long; dozens of composers are represented. Some works are included in my Annotated Bibliography of Works Dedicated to Camerata Caribe (see Writings.) In a future post I shall give a global picture of the fascinating repertoire from Puerto Rico that has been my great privilege and joy to perform.
The other 2011 recipient of the Héctor Campos Parsi Prize was the Fundación Nacional para la Cultura Popular, represented by its Executive Director, Javier Santiago. I was very pleased to be honored along with this fine non-profit group, which, in 2009, ranked Caribe Clarinete fifth in its listing of the top 20 CDs made in Puerto Rico during the previous year. (See Recordings for that review.)
Meanwhile, the concert, held in the Sala Sanroma, was a fascinating banquet of works by composers from Puerto Rico (Alfonso Fuentes, Armando Ramírez, and Roberto Sierra,) Venezuela (Efrain Amaya and Ricardo Lorenz,) and Cuba (Guido López Gavilán.)