JANUARY 2019 - Good news! My piece “Amalgama” received an Honorable Mention at the 2018 National Music Prize in Composition! It’s the highest musical honor in Costa Rica. The winner of the Prize this year was my friend Jose Mora-Jiménez with “Tres Piezas para Ensamble”, which also belongs to the same concert album produced by the Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia and Luis A. Víquez (guest conductor). Check it out here! Also available on Spotify, iTunes, and other streaming platforms.
Una entrevista que me hizo Rafa Castro de Radio Monumental. Su programa RELATOS es un excelente formato extendido para entrevistas a fondos con diferentes personajes de diversos caminos de la vida.
April 2018 - Here's a new piece I wrote for my friend Roland Gjernes: "Seikilos", for solo cello.
The epitaph of Seikilos is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition. It was probably written between 200 B.C and 100 AD and was found engraved on a tombstone in modern day Turkey in 1883. This piece is inspired by this beautiful short melody from the Hellenistic world of antiquity; but not all of the material is strictly derivative of the main theme. Following the free spiritness of the
original text, I gave myself the liberty to have fun and enjoy whatever path the music forged by itself. It was beautifully performed by Canadian cellist Roland Gjernes, and recorded in Toronto by at Matt Antal's studio.
Ὅσον ζῇς, φαίνου,
Hoson zēs, phainou,
While you live, shine,
μηδὲν ὅλως σὺ λυποῦ·
mēden holōs sy lypou;
have no grief at all;
πρὸς ὀλίγον ἐστὶ τὸ ζῆν,
pros oligon esti to zēn,
life exists only for a short while,
τὸ τέλος ὁ xρόνος ἀπαιτεῖ.
to telos ho chronos apaitei.
and time demands its toll.*
The original melody can be heard on this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xERitvFYpAk
FEBRUARY 2018 - La Jove Orquestra de la UNA, premiered a suite from my symphonic tale "Cocorí o la Rosa y el Niño" at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Spain. Maestro Enric Parreño won the Best Conductor Award at the 2nd BANKIAS Competition. Here are some images! (Video coming soon!)
FEBRUARY 2018 - I was invited to give 2 masterclasses on Film Music at the Unió Musical d' Alaquas, in Valencia, Spain. It was an honor to get this beautiful artwork as a gift from the mayor of town, Elvira Garcia. An article in Valenciano, the local language, here.
DECEMBER 2017 - The album of the original soundtrack for Buscando a Marcos Ramirez is now on streaming platforms! https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/buscando-a-marcos-ram%C3%ADrez-original-soundtrack/1333330929
SEPTEMBER 2016 - The National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica premieres a commissioned large-scale work I wrote inspired on the photographies of "Costa Rica Aerea", by Sergio and Giancarlo Pucci. It has 7 movements and a total duration of aprox. 50 minutes. The concert was recorded live and hopefully we can share some videos and audios soon!
SETIEMBRE 2016 - Los invito al estreno de mi nueva obra Costa Rica Aérea, una suite de 7 movimientos inspirada en las fotografías del libro del mismo nombre de Sergio y Giancarlo Pucci. Mi hermano Jorge Soto ha producido un video con estas hermosas imágenes que se proyectará acompañando a la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica bajo la dirección del maestro Carl St. Clair.
29 y 30 de Setiembre
Teatro Melico Salazar
Entradas a la venta a partir del 20 de setiembre.
May 2016 - Since 360º videos are in vogue, here's the premiere of my piece "Chichén Itzá", for symphonic band, under the direction of maestro Quique Parreñoand his Banda Simfonica UMA in Valencia, Spain. Great performance!
Ya que los videos 360º están de moda, les comparto el estreno de mi pieza "Chichen Itzá". El maestro Quique Parreño a cargo de la Banda Simfònica Unió Musical d'Alaquàs - València, España. Excelente rendición!
January 2016 - The Ministry of Culture in Costa Rica has awarded the National Music Award in Composition to Edín Solís for "Preciosa y el Aire", a fantasy for 2 guitars and orchestra that I had the honor to edit and collaborated in its orchestration. It was a very rewarding experience to collaborate with someone as talented and affable as Edin, who's won 2 Latin Grammys for his work with Editus, an acclaimed instrumental ensemble in Costa Rica. Here's a recording of the National Symphony Orchestra premiering the work under Austrian conductor Christopher Campestrini.
January 2016 - Fun recording session at Douglass Recording Studio in Brooklyn with Rebekah Durham, Adrianna Mateo, Kallie Ciechomski, Eric Allen, Mitchell McCarthy and Myles Rodenhouse! We recorded my string quartet arrangement of the main theme of Guns of Icarus Online (written by Zain Effendi). If it weren't for Howard and Yvonne Tsao's love of classical music this wouldn't have come to happen!
December 2015 - I was just recently hired by Banco Cathay in Costa Rica to write original music for their new ''neuromarketing" campaign. My music will be played at all their stores during work hours (instead of typical "muzak" music!) and I get to compose a short "sound trademark" to use in commercials and represent the bank with a short and memorable "sound ID".
December 2015 - Jeffrey Leiser's Symphony No.1 ("The Summit") is now available for purchase on iTunes and Amazon!
48 Minutes of epic symphonic music recorded at Avatar Studios and conducted by Harrison Hollingsworth. I was the main orchestrator, with additional orchestration and editions by Mitchell McCarthy. Highly recommended recording!
iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/q2odn67
Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/qz98ydq
November 2015 - I was recently hired by photographer and filmmaker duo Glorianna Ximendaz and Ricardo Rojas, a passionate husband/wife team who went to West Bank in Palestine for 3 months to shoot a documentary about the regular people whose lives are affected by the tumultuous political and military situation. An inspiring opportunity to use my music to help tell stories of real-life people whose lives are interrupted by problematic circumstances.
October 2015 - SERCANO TV, an Honduras-based channel with a Central American audience just published this interview about me... which can be viewed on this link: https://www.facebook.com/TIcosPerseverantesUSA/videos/1656941967916846/
October 2015 - Tromba Mundi, a trumpet ensemble made up of several acclaimed trumpet players from around the U.S., premiered a piece I wrote specifically for them. "Swashbuckler" was written for 6 trumpets and recalls the excitement and bravado of the adventure films of the golden age of cinema. I was excited to have my "Carnegie Hall debut with this piece, it was performed at the Weill Hall on Oct. 8th, 2015. Special thanks to J.C. Dobrzelewski for comissioning me the piece.
September 2015 - Here's an interview with my friend David Salazar from LATINOS POST about my upcoming Carnegie Hall premiere of "Swashbuckler", a piece for 6 trumpets commissioned by Tromba Mundi.
JULY 2015 - is now available on Netflix!!!! By now you'll know I wrote the music for this fine film almost two years ago and, amazingly, I daresay it still stands the test of time... :-P THE FATHER'S LOVE, dir. by Sharon Kon.
JUNE 2015 - I was recently hired to write original music for the expansion pack of GUNS OF ICARUS, a game by MuseGames available on Steam. I'm very excited not only because it's my first video game score (finally!) but also because I'll get to write exotic music with "world instruments" in several different styles! Here are some pics sent to me from their Press Kit.
**** Me acaban de contratar para componer música para un juego de video llamado GUNS OF ICARUS. Estoy muy emocionado no solo porque es mi primera banda sonora para un videojuego, sino también porque podré componer música usando varios instrumentos exóticos de diversas culturas.
JUNE 2015 - I recently finished scoring "FAIR TRADE", a short film written & directed by Hungarian filmmaker Krisztián Nagy and shot in Abu Dhabi! So it was fun to get to use some exotic instruments! Here's a short excerpt of the score:
https://soundcloud.com/andres-so…/fair-trade-closing-credits
MAY 2015 - REDHEADS ANONYMOUS: Check out Episode 1 of this funny award-winning web series! I worked as music supervisor and composer in some episodes.
APRIL 2015 - Here's a short video about the recording of Jeffrey Leiser's THE SUMMIT SYMPHONY at Avatar Studios in NYC. I had the pleasure of orchestrating this symphony, which was conducted by Harrison Hollingsworth and edited by Mitchell McCarthy (who also provided additional orchestration and served as contractor). I couldn't make it into the video and the session because I was in Costa Rica premiering my own orchestra piece, "Cocorí", with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. For more details about that check the "PRESS" page.
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