Miguel Harth-Bedoya, a longtime advocate of classical music from Latin America, has launched his latest initiative in this field: Latin Orchestral Music, an online database and resource. Consisting of more than 9,000 original orchestral works by more than 1,600 composers from 24 countries and territories of Latin America and the Caribbean, the online catalog was established to provide a complete and comprehensive online resource for conductors, music directors, music administrators, librarians, students, teachers, researchers and music lovers.
Born in Peru and currently the music director of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra in Oslo, Harth-Bedoya has spent his career performing and recording this repertoire as well as researching it. In the planning stages since 2008, Latin Orchestral Music is an offshoot of Harth-Bedoya’s Caminos del Inka, a non-profit group dedicated to “discovering, preserving and disseminating the rich musical legacy of the Americas.” Named after the native trails of the Andes, Caminos del Inka also presents historically informed concerts, commissions new works and supervises musicological research.
Assisting in this latest enterprise is conductor Andrés F. Jaime, who studied with Harth-Bedoya. Latin Orchestral Music operates on a subscription model, with individual accounts priced at $45 annually and $90 for institutional use. A monthlong free trial also is available.