Reencuentros

Reference Recordings is proud to announce Cecilia Duarte’s first solo album, Reencuentros (pronounced re­-en-­kwen­-tros), produced by multiple­-time Producer of the Year GRAMMY® winner, Blanton Alspaugh. Cecilia is best known as a classical and opera singer. This album is a departure, containing 12 romantic boleros from multiple countries. Sung in Spanish, these Latin popular standards are truly art songs from the mid­-20th century. Cecilia is accompanied by Trio Chapultepec: Vincent A. Pequeño, Israel Alcala, and William Carlton Galvez, joined by Jesús Pacheco on percussion. Reencuentros was recorded in December of 2020 at Wire Road Studios, by engineer Andrew Bradley.

A soloist in the GRAMMY® winning album Duruflé: The Complete Choral Works, Cecilia has been praised by The New York Times as “A creamy voiced mezzo-­soprano.” Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, Cecilia is a versatile singer that has performed around the world singing a variety of music styles, with a focus on early and contemporary music. Cecilia has been greatly recognized for creating the role of Renata in the first Mariachi Opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna with the famous Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, commissioned by Houston Grand Opera in 2010. Cecilia has taken this opera to many stages around the world. She is reprising the role of Renata with Houston Grand Opera this December in the opera El Milagro del Recuerdo, along with musicians who also perform on Reencuentros.

Cecilia Duarte writes this about the origin of Reencuentros: “This album is a reencounter with my past, a remembrance of the moments when I listened to my mother sing many of the songs compiled here, and a reflection of who I am as an artist today… Reencuentros represents where I come from and the stories that formed me. It is important for me to share this legacy of beautiful music, only a small token of the artistic richness of Latin American music.”