Gabriela Lena Frank

Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Frank explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Frank is something of a musical anthropologist. She has travelled extensively throughout South America and her pieces reflect and refract her studies of Latin-American folklore, incorporating poetry, mythology, and native musical styles into a western classical framework that is uniquely her own. She writes challenging idiomatic parts for solo instrumentalists, vocalists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras.   Frank composed the music for Ballet Hispanico's Puntos Suspensivos.

Patricia Zipprodt

A 1992 member of the Theatre Hall of Fame, Zipprodt has received three Tony and five Drama Desk Awards for Shogun, Sweet Charity, Fiddler on the Roof, Cabaret, Pippin, 1776, Chicago, and Alice in Wonderland.  She has also designed The Sleeping Beauty for New York City Ballet, Coppelia for American Ballet Theatre, and Tannhauser and The Barber of Seville for the Metropolitan Opera.  Ballet Hispnico collaborated with Zipprodt for Farewell and Tres Cantos.

Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra