Elias: I first came across Irina Ratushinskaya’s poetry when the collection ‘No I’m Not Afraid’ was published in England in early May 1986. The poems the various circumstances in which they were written and the poet’s integrity commitment and appalling situation (she was still imprisoned) all had a tremendous impact upon me. I was drawn inexorably into the world she describes so vividly. The powerful imagery of resistance the acceptance of shatteringrealities and the fantasies of different kinds of escape made poetry of truly universal significance and urgency and the idea of a setting for voice and large orchestra followed immediately.Each of the settings (in Russian) isself-contained and quite different in mood and orchestration. However I consider the songs as one piece and the whole cycle is performed without a break. All the basic musical material themes and motifs for the entire work arestated in the first few pages and the order of the poems was chosen to provide an overall musical and dramatic shape that attempts to link them together and to reflect more than the immediate meaning of the individual poems.

The composer says: For years, my fellow guitarists have been asking me to compose a solo classical guitar piece that reflects that most American of musical styles?the blues. Their prodding was the motivation for Periwinkle Memories; the inspiration for the piece, however, really came from a maestro of extraordinary skill, and a teacher of even more extraordinary patience, Elias Barreiro, my guitar teacher at the University of New Orleans. I have always tried to emulate in my performances the beauty of his interpretations, and to fuse in my compositions the power and emotion of the blues. The name, Periwinkle Memories was a serendipity. I was struck by the light purplish-blue hue of the periwinkle, and soon learned the history of the funnel-shaped flower (Vinca minor.) Though it now grows wild in parts of the United States it is native to Australia, some consider it an invasive weed, most admire its extraordinary beauty. Common herbicides won?t kill it. The periwinkle is too vigorous and hardy for that. And now it is not merely a begrudged part of the American landscape, it is a vibrant part of the American landscape, elegant, stubborn, and nearly native. Like the blues. And like that young recalcitrant student Maestro Barreiro worked so hard to mold so many years ago. Ogden Nash said, ?One man?s remorse is another man?s reminiscence.? Periwinkle Memories is a celebration of Maestro Barreiro, and of both facets of that adage in me. Carlos Barrientos was born on June 25, 1954 in Tela, Honduras. He began his formal music studies at the National Music Conservatory in Guatemala City, Guatemala C.A. His training with Maestro Elias Barreiro, Director of Guitar Studies at Tulane University, was supplemented with Master Classes with Manuel Barrueco, Leo Brouwer, Juan Mercadal, Michael Newman, Tommy Tedesco and Carlos Barbosa-Lima. He studied composition under the tutelage of Dr. Jerry Sieg, University of New Orleans, and Dr. Roy Johnson, Florida State University. He consulted with Michael D. Martin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Music, Albany State University, Albany, GA in the creation of a recordings library that reflects Western Art Music and American Jazz for the students at Albany State University. The New York Premiere of the First Movement of his Second Guitar Sonata was dedicated to and performed by Classical Guitarist Maestro Carlos Barbosa-Lima in 2003 at Carnegie Hall. At the request of U.S. Senator Bob Graham one of his compositions, Si Tu Te Vas (If You Go Away), was included on a recording to promote The Everglades Trail. In 2004, at the American Church in Paris, France the World Premiere of his Romance for Flute and Guitar was performed by the award-winning Serenade Duo, flutist Michelle LaPorte and guitarist Gerry Saulter. He has performed with such legendary musicians as Herbie Mann, Donald Byrd and Debbie Reynolds, led an on stage Renaissance Trio in a University of New Orleans production of Shakespeare?s Twelfth Night, and played incidental music for their production of Bertold Brecht?s The Good Woman of Sichuan. He has performed Carulli?s Guitar Concerto in A, Leonard Bernstein?s West Side Story and Marvin Hamlish?s A Chorus Line with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Okaloosa-Walton Community College, Niceville, FL, and with the Southern Art Music Ensemble, a Jazz/Latin Fusion Sextet, including an Honors Convocation in Atlanta for Mr. Ted Turner. He has been a guest performer with the Albany State University Jazz Ensemble at The Fletcher Henderson Jr., Macon and Atlanta Jazz Festivals, and played the banjo in the Albany State University /Albany Symphony?s co-production of George Gershwin?s Opera Porgy and Bes