© 2024 WNIJ and WNIU
Northern Public Radio
801 N 1st St.
DeKalb, IL 60115
815-753-9000
Northern Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Internationally renowned musicians bring their brand of music to DeKalb

A taste of Latin America is coming to northern Illinois.  This weekend two artists will perform a collection of works for guitar and flute.  Fareed Haque and Marco Granados are warming up at WNIJ's Studio A. Haque is the guitarist and he's a music professor at Northern Illinois University.  Granados is a New Yorker from Venezuela and he plays flute.

"This is from an Argentinian composer, Pujol and it's called 'Suite Buenos Aires'...the feel for each movement is very different, it's very rhythmic," Granados said.

Haque says Latin American music is often written with the intent of leaving room for improvisation, much like Jazz.  "We're not going to especially change the piece in its architecture but we'll realize the music more completely because it is pretty sketchy, and it is expected because I think most of these composers, especially in Latin America are expecting musicians to bring something to the table," Haque said.

For this performance, guitarist Haque plays an instrument he got in Spain.  It's made from a beautiful blonde wood with an intricate carving at the top of the neck.  He uses his hands to drum or thump the body of the instrument, which is common in Tango, Flamenco and other Latin American music.

Granados says his flute can generate countless sounds too.  His instrument is pretty special, it's called a Haynes flute.  It's made of gold, and it doesn't look like the silver flute you commonly see at music stores or in orchestras. "So the tube, the resonating tube is made out of 19.5-karat and then the keys and the mouthpiece are made out of 14-karat gold.  I found an instrument where I could play Latin American music and I could also play classical, and I could go between the two with no problem, in terms of color and sound and flexibility," Granados said.

Flutist Granados and guitarist Haque are starting a tour of the Midwest.  They'll perform in DeKalb tomorrow night (Saturday, June 13, 2015) at the NIU Recital Hall.  They also have dates in Michigan and Chicago.  Then they'll stop to make a record, which is a little odd, considering most artists produce a CD and then go out on tour to promote the recording.  But, these guys like to do things their own way.