“Saudade” is a feeling humans share, but this Portuguese word is not easy to translate — unless you have music.
This week, classical guitarist Colin Davin will offer “Choro da Saudade,” an Agustin Barrios Mangoré piece, in a pair of intimate solo recitals.
The performances will be the season’s first chamber concerts presented by the Port Angeles Symphony, in Port Angeles on Friday and in Sequim on Saturday.
Davin, known for his two previous appearances with the symphony, also will play Clarice Assad’s “Macunaíma,” Leo Brouwer’s “El Decameron Negro” and José Luis Merlin’s “Suite del Recuerdo.”
“Saudade” has been interpreted as a bittersweet longing for a place, a person or a time in one’s life. With his guitar, Davin will explore this at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 Lopez Ave. in Port Angeles on Friday and at Trinity United Methodist Church, 101 S. Blake Ave., in Sequim on Saturday.
Both recitals will start at 7 p.m. with all seats $20. Tickets are available at the door and at portangelessymphony.org, via the Tickets heading and the Chamber Concerts tab.
A Juilliard-educated performer and teacher, Davin has played his guitar around the world, from Carnegie Hall to the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.
In December 2021, he flew to Port Angeles for the first time to play an unexpected concert with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra. Conductor Jonathan Pasternack had just learned the planned guitar soloist could not perform as scheduled. A mutual friend connected him with Davin, who was teaching at the Institute of Music in Cleveland, Ohio, at the time.
The guitarist boarded a plane, arrived in time for the orchestra’s final rehearsal and received a standing ovation for his performance that night.
Davin returned to be the featured soloist at the symphony’s Holiday Concert in 2023, and again brought the crowd to its feet.
This time, Pasternack looks forward to presenting Davin in recitals all his own.
“Colin is one of my favorite guest artists to work with,” Pasternack said. “He has great musical instincts and a brilliant, imaginative mind.”
“We invited him to play a solo recital because of the overwhelmingly positive reaction he received from audiences during his two concert appearances with the symphony.”
In Davin’s hands this Friday and Saturday, listeners can plan on discovering music from composers across the continent, the Caribbean and the Atlantic.
Davin noted that Brouwer, a Cuban, speaks a musical language that blends African influences with expressive harmonies. Assad, a Brazilian, takes inspiration for her “Macunaíma” from the novel of the same name by Mário de Andrade, and uses her own techniques to evoke the title character’s shape-shifting nature.
Mangoré, who is from Paraguay, was relatively new to Davin, so the guitarist took a deep dive into his music.
Then there’s Merlin, an Argentine. His “Recuerdo,” Davin said, is a rhythmic and exciting suite of Argentinian folk dances.
There’s longing and sorrow in this music, he added, yet in the tapestry of Latin American culture, there is also joy.
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Diane Urbani de la Paz is a freelance writer and photographer who lives in Port Townsend.
