Rodríguez Featured in Gregory Feldmann’s The Way Home at Buxton International Festival

As part of the 2025 Buxton International Festival, acclaimed baritone Gregory Feldmann presents The Way Home, a deeply personal recital that traces the emotional and artistic journey of return—toward memory, identity, and belonging. Feldmann describes the program as “a snapshot of the brief odyssey I’ve gone on in my artistic and personal life... tugging on the thread that connects me back to a place and people I love.”

The program blends European masterworks with modern voices from North America, weaving through themes of exile, nostalgia, and the search for home. Alongside music by Schubert, Fauré, Pavel Haas, and Britten, the recital spotlights powerful works by four contemporary American and Canadian composers, including Iván Enrique Rodríguez, whose Mother of Exiles, from American Icons, lends poignant urgency to the theme.

Rodríguez, a Puerto Rican composer known for his socially engaged, emotionally charged works, contributes a bold reflection on migration, identity, and resilience in Mother of Exiles. Rooted in the enduring symbolism of the Statue of Liberty, the piece gives voice to the displaced and meditates on the complexity of the United States’s immigrant narrative.

Programme

Franz Schubert: Der Wanderer
Gabriel Fauré: L’Horizon Chimérique
Pavel Haas: Four Songs on Chinese Poetry
Franz Schubert: Auf der Bruck
Iván Enrique Rodríguez: Mother of Exiles, from American Icons
Gabriel Kahane: 8980, from Book of Travelers
Stephanie Chang: from Something There for the Future, from American Icons
Matthew Ricketts: Everything is New, from American Icons
arr. Benjamin Britten: Dear Harp of my Country, from Moore’s Irish Melodies

Date & Time
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
11:15 AM – 12:15 PM (BST)

Venue
St John’s Church, Buxton

Tickets
£22 – £27
£10 for under-35s through the Friends of BIF’s Next Gen Scheme
Tickets & Info: www.buxtonfestival.co.uk