Mexican composer Bernardo Feldman’s music has been described as "...highly original and abounding on innovative timbral discoveries..." (Jose Barros Sierra, Excelsior, Mexico City) "...charged with a unique sensibility..." (Jeannie Pool, Music of the Americas, KPFK FM, Los Angeles) "...in which the elements of rigor and fantasy coexist with each other..." (John Henken, Los Angeles Times). Feldman began his musical studies at the Conservatorio Nacional de Musica where he worked with Daniel Catan and Mario Lavista. In 1982, he obtained scholarships from the Ahmanson Foundation to attend the California Institute of the Arts where he would earn, in 1985, a Masters of Fine Arts degree after studying with Morton Subotnick, Louis Andriessen, Bernard Rands, Mel Powell, Stephen Mosko, and Barry Schrader. Subsequently and within the same school, Feldman taught courses in composition and music theory. He later earned his Ph.D. from UCLA His catalog of works include music for chamber and symphonic groups as well as compositions involving the use of computers. His music has been performed by major ensembles such as the Orquesta Filarmonica de la Ciudad de Mexico, the New London Contemporary Ensemble, North/South Consonance, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, the Cal Arts 20th Century Players, and the Cuarteto de la Ciudad de Mexico. He has been commissioned to write for the Los Angeles Festival, as well as the Foro Internacional de Musica Nueva, Festival de Oaxaca, the Gran Festival de la Ciudad de Mexico, and the Elektronmusic Festivalen in Sweden. Fractured Stories (Historias Fracturadas) For electronically manipulated sounds and voices Program Notes: Bernardo Feldman’s Fractured Stories reflects the political climate prevalent during the Nazi domination of Europe in the mid 1940’s. The composer has chosen a convent in Belgium, where Jewish children were given the opportunity to hide, and thus, a chance to survive an imminent death. Some of these children found the experience- which, by necessity excluded their life-long Jewish upbringing - brutally disturbing and maddening. Feldman’s piece attempts to enter the minds and the souls of some of these children in hopes to shed some light on some of the most obscure and dramatic consequences of any war. Music: Bernardo Feldman Text: Bernardo Feldman Electro-Acoustic Production Masterization: Bernardo Feldman and Yalil Guerra Vocalists: Stacey Levine Diana Syrse Valdez Gisèle Haykin Kendahl Damashek Lisa Wakermann