Diego Vásquez

“Music is present everywhere, interpreted by excellent, eerily masked musicians from the ensemble of the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra.”

“Diego’s bass clarinet playing is jaunty and aptly fits into the style with its repetitions and chaotic interspersions of technical material that match the backing track at the perfect moments. As a longer track, the monotony that can sometimes result from constant repetition is avoided masterfully with interesting and varied stylistic rhythms and overall pulse. This work really takes us on a journey with several stylistic modulations that builds in excitement as we near the end, where Vásquez seizes the opportunity to “go crazy” and show the technical mastery he has on the bass clarinet.”

“DR DIEGO is a testament to the power of collaboration and innovation in the realm of contemporary music. Diego Vásquez’s mastery of the bass clarinet, coupled with the inventive production and composition skills of Flower Cat, results in an album that transcends traditional genre boundaries. The marriage of vintage electronics and acoustic grandeur creates a sonic tapestry that captivates the listener, offering a glimpse into the creative potential of interdisciplinary collaboration.”

“The musicality of Dr. Diego, featuring bass clarinetist Diego Vásquez is a radical departure for this instrument from a normally supportive orchestral context. In front of Flower Cat’s sonic cushion, Vásquez anchors his own virtuosity in musically reflective sympathies — sort of a Moondog with a touch of daring. The seeds of ‘classic deep house, disco chiptunes, and baroque organ music,’ flower into two distinct pulsating processionals.”

“This Sunday, four dancer mimes illustrate the religious gestures in ritual-like movements - Jamil Attar, Emanuelle Grach, Diego Vásquez and Winnie Huang - draw the audience into meditation.”

“In 1974 Peter Eötvös witnessed how the master climbs onto the kitchen table and sings the work completely, for 75 minutes, to his disciples. Today he is one of only two conductors who can perform “Inori”, because the gestures on the desk are just as precisely prescribed as those of the two mimes who convert the sound into body language. Your action space is located directly above Eötvös on a podium, which is not visible to the conductor. All the more impressive the coordination and memory ability of Winnie Huang and Diego Vásquez, he in black, she in white: Yin and Yang. With their filigree flowing, completely parallel movements, they reinforce the ritual character of the performance.”

“Mostly performing from a seated position, the dancer-mimes eventually descended again from their perch, slowly retreating to an exit high behind the stage, like Bodhisattvas who have fulfilled their mission.”

“Brian Garman conducted the agile and polshed orchestra he has assembled with expression and energy, all founded on a deep knowledge of the score. He allowed the individual phrases to breathe and the players to shape their lines, holding everything together in a continuous flow like a true Straussian. Diego Vásquez, Principal clarinet, stood out...”

“Elizabeth Picker, too, singing the part of the mother with a warm mezzo, had to contend with an orchestral score that always threatened to undermine and upstage her character, especially in her lament for the dead cook, in which mocking clarinets hint at more selfish motives...

Mr. Colaneri also shaped the Rossini with agility and speed, and drew real fire from the orchestra in the frantic tutti passages.”

“There is a moment in “The Only Tribe” when it seems as if there were going to be a giant brawl on the small stage of the 3LD Art & Technology Center, where this multimedia performance piece, directed by Roland Gebhardt, opened last week.”

“A gang of buildings gathers defensively around its top dog, a skyscraper. Nervous creatures with stylized hammerhead-shark noggins tiptoe in a line as the stock-market ticker scrolls across their “faces.” Where on earth are we? This is mask designer Roland Gebhardt’s bizarrely compelling multimedia dance-drama The Only Tribe, a wordless piece exquisitely choreographed by Peter Kyle to Stephen Barber’s intense, clever score.
Locked behind a scrim on a blank stage, dancers in geometric masks group and cluster, seeming to enact a universe of social dynamics. At times, the company could be a Greek chorus without its text, as the bodies operate as a living city in one moment and as beasts in the next. ”