News

The Ashland Symphony Orchestra presents a conversation with Conductor Finalist Darwin Aquino and ASO Executive Director Martha Buckner. Recorded August 14, 2020. Towards the end: "Por una Cabeza" by Carlos Gardel, performed by Darwin Aquino....

The magic of music in a season of breathtaking performances.

With the recent announcement by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra postponing the remaining live concerts of the 2019-20 season, musicians have had their COVID-19 break extended even further. We [Eric Meyer - St. Louis Post-Dispatch] caught up with seven local musicians...

Vincenzo Bellini’s 1831 opera “Norma” is the epitome of the bel canto genre: It’s all about the singing — and the drama that the singing conveys. [...] For its first “Norma,” Winter Opera St. Louis focused on the singing, assembling a fine cast. It was led by soprano...

For about a year, Darwin Aquino has been serving as conductor of the orchestras at both the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University. And on Tuesday evening, the two groups under his direction rehearsed together for the first time ever. Final...

Article published in Cleveland Classical on May 28, 2019 “Although I’ve never led the entire opera, all conductors do concert versions of Porgy and Bess, because the tunes are so popular — ‘Summertime,’ ‘I got plenty o’ nuttin’,’ ‘It ain’t necessarily so.’ And there...

Article published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 12, 2019. Dominican conductor Darwin Aquino is the orchestra’s third music director. He’s working with the 50-piece paid orchestra, made up of instrumentalists ranging from university students to seasoned...

In 2004, I got a surprising phone call from Santo Domingo on one cold winter night. I was then studying musical composition in Strasbourg, France, a great opportunity for a young Dominican musician. The officials of the recently elected government of my country were...