A LONG WALK
A new music project by JAVIER FARIAS based on the immigrant experience
A LONG WALK
Featuring PubliQuartet, Barnard-Columbia Chamber Choir, Scott Hill and Carolina Choir among others.
In September 2015, like countless others worldwide, I was deeply shaken by the heart-wrenching image of young Aylan Kurdi, lifeless on a Turkish shore—a tragic casualty of Syria’s relentless civil conflict. This haunting photo stirred a mix of sorrow, empathy, and outrage within me. To me, it symbolized the vulnerability and peril faced by those desperate enough to flee their homeland in pursuit of a brighter future. What troubled me further was the growing adoption of stringent policies by many Western governments at that time, restricting the movement of people and potentially leading to more tragedies like Aylan’s.
CULTURAL AMBASSADOR
Javier Farías and his project, A LONG WALK, will now serve as the Cultural Ambassador for the Chilean American Foundation. Their shared objective is to raise awareness of their work in both the artistic and philanthropic realms. Javier looks forward to raising funds for young people in his home country while promoting Chilean artists and music wherever his artistic journey may take him.
Learn more about the American Foundation here:
Where we belong (2022)
Commissioned by Carnegie Hall’s Reflections of Resilience project, WHERE WE BELONG is scored for double string quartet, charango and guitar. The work features the acclaimed PubliQuartet along with a group of young Latin American immigrants, all of them students from InTempo, an organization based in Stamford, CT, that provides high-quality classical and intercultural music education to children predominantly from immigrant backgrounds and from communities underrepresented in the arts.
The premiere will take place at Carnegie Hall on June 26th, 2022.
WORKS
La Voz de Monica
LA VOZ DE MONICA features the story of Monica, who left her two-year-old son in Ecuador in 2000 to make a grueling journey to Mexico where she tried to cross the border in the U.S. This trip turned into something much more ghastly than she anticipated, so much so that it nearly cost her life. Even though she’s been living a productive life in the United States for decades, she is still considered undocumented.
instrumentation: mixed choir, classical guitar
duration: 13 minutes
commissioned by Susan Klebanow
premiere: November 2023. Moeser Auditorium in Chapel Hill, NC
Carolina Choir conducted by Susan Klebanow, Billy Stewart (classical guitar)
Young Voices for the Future
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, this project seeks to raise awareness about the problems facing young immigrants as they leave their homes and adapt to life in the US. The work includes six new pieces that use texts taken from poems and prose written by middle and high school Latinos, all of whom are recent arrivals to the United States living in Montgomery County, MD.
instrumentation: classical guitar, narration
duration: 20 minutes
commissioned by The Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County
Voices from Maya
VOICES FROM MAYA details the journey of Maya, who was 23 years old when escaping the war-torn Croatia in 1993 to start a new life in the U.S. The following rather disconcerting extract was taken from an interview and reflects her thoughts in war: “Is it a peace day or not? Where are the bombs coming from? Counting the seconds from the time the bomb launches, because you start to recognize the sound of it, is it coming from the air or from the boats? You live like that. Your vocabulary changes.”
instrumentation: mixed choir, electric and classical guitar
duration: 14 minutes
commissioned by Barnard-Columbia Chamber Choir
premiere: April 2022. Church of the Ascension, New York City.
Barnard-Columbia Chamber Choir conducted by Gail Archer, Javier Farias (electric guitar) and Scott Hill (classical guitar)
Where We Belong
A piece commissioned by InTempo for PlayUSA, a program of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, WHERE WE BELONG is scored for double string quartet, charango and guitar. The work features the acclaimed PubliQuartet and students from the Stamford based after school music program, InTempo, an organization that provides high-quality classical and intercultural music education to children predominantly from immigrant backgrounds and communities underrepresented in the arts.
instrumentation: double string quartet, three charangos and two classical guitars
duration: 10 minutes
commissioned by InTempo and PlayUSA
premiere: June 2022. Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute. PubliQuartet, INTEMPO students
Voices (2022)
VOICES is a trilogy of works scored for mixed choir, classical and electric guitar that will form a small part of the larger A LONG WALK series. Each piece in VOICES is based on a real person and the reason they decided to leave their country of origin. The first piece, VOICES FROM MAYA, chronicles the journey of a young woman escaping war-torn Croatia and starting a new life in the U.S. The piece was commissioned by conductor Gail Archer and the Barnard Columbia Chorus and featured composer Javier Farias on electric guitar and Scott Hill on classical. The premiere took place in April 2022, in NYC.
VIDEOS
Never step back (2020)
A 40 minute suite written for guitar and voice, depicts texts and poetry by Kate Evans, Mai Ver Dang, Tracey K. Smith and Luis Alberto Urrea.
ABOUT
Being in snow is an adventure.
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Chilean American composer Javier Farías has been awarded First Prize in the Andrés Segovia Composition Competition, International Composing Competition «2 Agosto,» and Michele Pittaluga Composition Competition for Classical Guitar. Farías was honored with the 2014 Fromm Music Foundation Prize at Harvard University for a concerto for two guitars composed for Sérgio and Odair Assad and the YOA Orchestra of the Americas. His catalog consists of works ranging from solo guitar to full guitar ensemble to others featuring or incorporating the guitar into compositions for chamber ensembles, choral music, and orchestral settings, including five guitar concertos.
His compositions have premiered in lauded venues such as Carnegie Hall, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Instituto Cervantes in New York City, the Kennedy Center, Tsuda Hall in Japan, Ateneo de Madrid, Meistersaal in Berlin, and by the Organization of American States among others. His music written for guitar has also been included in guitar program repertoire for conservatories including the Conservatoire de Paris, Yale University, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen.
PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS
CONTACT
If you have a general inquiry or are interested in partnering with us, please send us an email to:
longwalkproject@gmail.com