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Gabriel Senanes is an Argentine conductor, composer and journalist. Born April 16th 1956 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, his works have been performed and recorded by soloists and ensembles in Argentina, Europe and the United States. He has participated as a composer, arranger and music director in numerous recordings and concerts, and has also composed scores for feature films and theater.
Mr. Senanes has conducted his own symphonic works and premiered numerous recordings of contemporary Argentine music. His Concierto en canto negroriano for violin and orchestra was written for Fernando "Negro" Suárez Paz, violinist with the late Astor Piazzolla. Senanes conducted the work in many performances, including the National Symphony Orchestra, and subsequently recorded it with Suárez Paz as soloist. In 1995 the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Interamerican Music Council commissioned an opera, Ring Side, opera in seven rounds. He has also received a commission from the Argentine Culture Secretary to write Proa al Este, a work commemorating the centenary of Jorge Luis Borges’ birth, which premiered with the National Symphony Orchestra on August 27th 1999 to great success. The Mayo Orchestra commissioned Tres retratos entrañables (Three Potent Portraits - Concerto for strings and strings) in 1997, conducted by Bulgarian Maestro Dmitr Manolov.
That same year, Senanes was a member of the jury panel awarding the National Music Prize, the most prestigious musical honor in Argentina. He was also member of the 2000 Edition of the Alberto Ginastera International Competition Award panel awarded September 2000 in the Canary Islands, Spain.
Paquito D’Rivera, the American Saxophone Quartet and The Commission Project commissioned his Cubamericargie Quintet, which premiered December 19, 1999 at the Merkin Concert Hall in New York. The following day, December 20,1999, the Camerata Bariloche premiered En claves celestiales at the Colon Theatre in Buenos Aires, a result of another commission by this prestigious group. The D’Rivera and American Saxophone Quartet studio version of the Cubamericargie Quintet have been released on the Sons of Sound label (The Commission Project CD, January 2002). Senanes’ CDs have been well received both critically and by the general public. Several well-known classical and popular artists have participated in recording of his works. In November 2000 Susana Kasakoff released Kasakoff plays Senanes, a CD recorded by the prestigious Argentine pianist focusing on his solo piano compositions. He is the founder conductor of the Leon Symphony Orchestra, devoted to the music of argentine composer Ernestina Puppo. He was also commissioned to compose the Antipopular Suite for flute, bassoon and orchestra, recorded by flutist Jorge de la Vega and bassoonist Andrea Merenzon in a CD released by Radio Clásica in April 1999. On September 9th and 10th 1999, he was invited to give lectures about composition at the San Francisco Conservatory and the Star Classics Recital Hall, in San Francisco.
Mr. Senanes was also commissioned to write chamber pieces by the renown French classical saxophone player Claude Delangle which premiered at the Musica 99 Strasbourg Festival in September 1999 and was recorded in 2001, and by the Fundación Encuentros Internacionales de Música Contemporánea, which premiered in August 1999, was recorded in November 1999 and released in France in 2001.
On February 15, 2000 the celebrated Latin American String Quartet (Cuarteto Latinoamericano) premiered his Cuartetango in Mexico. The famous American viola soloist Paul Neubauer performed his Tango for Four Strings at the OK Mozart 2000 Festival in June of that same year.
In December 2000 Senanes released a CD made with his beloved friend, the tango poet Enrique Cadícamo, featuring Leopoldo Federico, Néstor Marconi and Julio Pane (bandoneon), Fernando Suárez Paz (violin), Nicolás Ledesma (piano), Horacio Cabarcos (double bass), Anibal Arias and Lucho González (guitar) and many other legendary tango players.
As an arranger, Senanes has worked and recorded with many famous popular and folk artists of his country. He’s currently working with Charly Garcia, the Argentinean rock star, writing his Passion Symphony, which will premiere soon at the Colon Theatre. He also arranged and conducted the songs written by Alejandro Lerner and Lito Vitale for the Channel 13 program "Day of the Millennium", for chorus, orchestra and lead singer Mercedes Sosa, which broadcast worldwide December 31, 1999. In May 2000 he conducted the Say No More Symphony Orchestra during the Charly García concert at the Obras Stadium. On October 7, 2000 he conducted the Orchestra and Choir at the UNICEF Festival in Panamá. He arranged and conducted Sinfonías para adolescentes, Sui Generis’ new CD, released in October 2000.
His Concierto en Canto Negroriano para violín y orquesta (Negrorian concerto for violin and orchestra) had its US premiere on June 30, 2000 at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, with the San Francisco Camerata conducted by maestro José Luis Moscovich and Fernando Suárez Paz as guest soloist. The same musicians and orchestra recorded this composition at theGeorge Lukas’ Skywalker Ranch in July 2000, with Senanes as artistic producer and Leslie-Ann Jones as sound engineer. On August 3, 2001 Paquito D’Rivera (clarinet) and the Buenos Aires String Quartet performed the world premiere of Senanes’ Uncertain certainty (the life is) at the Colon Theatre. On March 22, 2002, he conducts the National Symphony Orchestra of Argentine premiering his Prosa Sinfónica, commissioned by Inter American Music Friends.
As a journalist, Senanes writes about music for Clarin, the largest circulation daily in Argentina. He has also hosted his own radio program. In 1980, he wrote 4 x 4 = Rock, a book of interviews with outstanding rock musicians (Ed. Grupo Editor de Buenos Aires). In September 2000 became Musical Advisor of the Culture Secretary of the Buenos Aires City Government. In June 2001, he was appointed Music Director of Buenos Aires City. Since September 2002, he is General and Artistic Director of the Colon Theatre, a post he currently holds.
