LOS ANGELES (April 24, 2024) – On 7 June 2024 Platoon will release Revolución diamantina: the first full album of orchestral works by Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz, performed by the LA Phil and Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel. Revolución diamantina is the second release in the collaboration between Platoon and Dudamel with the LA Phil, documenting part of the orchestra’s Pan-American Music Initiative, a multi-year project exploring more than 30 new commissions and numerous creative partnerships to emphasize the importance of Latin American heritage. Following last year’s GRAMMY-nominated album Fandango, Revolución diamantina includes Ortiz’s new violin concerto, Altar de cuerda, performed by María Dueñas. The violin concerto will be released on all streaming platforms on 10 May to coincide with the LA Phil’s European tour, which features Maria Dueñas performing the work in Barcelona, Paris and London.  

Gabriela Ortiz writes some of the most intense and arresting music of our time. Her music unites disparate worlds and lives by a compelling rhythmic drive, a street-born authenticity and a vivid sense of color. In this new album, the LA Phil and Music & Artistic Director Gustavo Dudamel present three works by Ortiz, all commissioned by the orchestra. In her violin concerto saluting Mayan civilization, Ortiz blends tradition and the modern world in an imaginary architecture of Mayan civilization and art deco.

Revolución diamantina is a powerful new ballet score, inspired by Mexico’s 2019 “Glitter Revolution,” the feminist uprising around the country’s epidemic of violence against women. The increase in femicide was a catalyst for this mobilization, and the name stems from an event during which protesters threw pink glitter at the chief of police, denouncing the lack of response following the rape of a woman by local officers. The work, in its concert version, was first performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel on 16 November 2023. 

Ortiz’s violin concerto Altar de cuerda is part of the composer’s Altars series, and was written for Andalusian violinist María Dueñas, a frequent collaborator with the LA Phil, who gave the first performance with Dudamel and the orchestra on 14 May 2022. Also included on the album is Ortiz’s Kauyumari: a celebration of new beginnings, commissioned to reflect the return to the stage following the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“Gabriela Ortiz’s music speaks to both the body and the spirit, full of visceral primeval rhythms and mysterious, soulful sound-worlds,” says Gustavo Dudamel; “it has long been a dream of mine to dedicate an album entirely to her music, and now with the LA Phil and Platoon, we have made that dream a reality.”