An Emporia State University professor of piano and a Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) mathematics professor will end a two-country concert tour on Sunday, April 3, in the Sauder Alumni Center on the ESU campus.
The free duo-piano concert will begin at 3 p.m., featuring Dr. Martín Cuéllar of Emporia and Dr. Emilio Lluis-Puebla of Mexico City.
The pair have just completed a tour of Mexico, performing at the Sala Felipe Villanueva in Toluca, the Sala Ollin Yolitztli in Mexico City, and the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, considered to be Mexico’s most prestigious concert venue and likened to New York City’s Carnegie Hall. They also will perform on Friday, April 1, at Schmitt Music in Overland Park, Kansas.
The local concert is one of many in both countries since Cuéllar opened a relationship in 2004 with the National School of Music, which is affiliated with UNAM.
The association has brought “a wonderful exchange of artistic talents,” he said, with artists and faculty from both institutions traveling to each other’s venues to perform.
“Dr. Lluis has proven to be a very strong believer and advocate of the talent in our music department,” Cuéllar said.
Lluis-Puebla has arranged concerts for Emporia State student performers, including a fall concert by the university’s faculty woodwind quintet in Mexico City. Lluis-Puebla will appear with them as guest pianist. They also will present a concert in Emporia in November.
Cuéllar and Lluis-Puebla last year performed here in a duo piano concert dedicated to the two-piano works of Russian composer, pianist and conductor Sergei Rachmaninoff. Rachmaninoff pieces also will be included in this year.
The 1,500-miles distance between Emporia and Mexico City has prevented the usual frequent practice sessions, and instead has obliged the duo to pack months’ worth of practice into one intense week before the concerts began.
“There are many details of tempo, dynamics, style and articulation that need to be addressed, aside from just developing a second-nature about the pieces,” Cuéllar explained. “Some of the sessions can last eight and 10 hours per day.”
The men approach the music from different artistic attitudes. Lluis-Puebla likes to work with the metronome; Cuéllar does not. Lluis-Puebla prefers very straight music lines, while “I prefer flexibility as fitting the Romantic repertoire,” Cuéllar said.
When the inevitable disagreements over interpretations arise, the two pianists put down their keyboard covers and go out for something to eat.
“There are many wonderful Mexican, Argentinian, Italian restaurants nearby, and food and beer make us forget our musical differences rather easily,” Cuéllar said.
“I compromise and so does he. We value our friendship above our musical differences.”
In addition to a distinguished concert career, Lluis-Puebla’s primary role is professor in the mathematics department at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, the largest university in Latin America. He has written and published numerous textbooks and articles on mathematics.
Cuéllar, who came to Emporia in 2000, holds master of music and doctor of musical arts degrees from the University of Texas at Austin and a performance certificate from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Madrid, Spain, with additional post-graduate research and studies at the Marshall-Granados Academy of Music in Barcelona, Spain.
Cuéllar also has performed concerts in Brazil, Paraguay, Spain, German, South Korea and China and is recognized nationally as a published composer of pedagogical compositions.