Miami, Fla., Oct 26, 2007 / 09:34 am
A group of Hispanic Catholic musicians will hold on concert on October 26 in Miami to launch a new CD by Cuban composer Jorge Enrique del Rivero, who died before he could finish the recording.
“Yo quiero ser como El” (“I Want to be Like Him”) is the title of the album that features fifteen new songs by Rivero. The arranger for the project was the renowned Chilean pianist Juan Salazar.
Rivero, who died in August of 2005, said one of his dying wishes was that the CD would be finished. In order to fulfill his dream, a group of artists including Miguel Ángel Guerra, Orlando Ponce, Mary Beyra, the band Mystika, Claribel Mercier, Rafael Herrera, Nora Dieseldorff and David Pedraza, came together to complete the project.
The artwork for the album was based on ideas Rivero had while he was working on the recording. He wanted to use a stained-glass window from the Church of San Luis in Miami, where he served in music ministry for fifteen years, for the album cover. The artwork also includes a painting of Our Lady of Charity, the patroness of Rivero’s native country of Cuba.
Rivero also wanted a portion of the proceeds from the CD to be donated to the lay missionary group “Amor en Accion” (Love in Action) of the Archdiocese of Miami, which works with the Church in Haiti and the Dominican Republic in reaching out to the poor spiritually and materially.
Jorge Enrique del Rivero was born in Cuba in 1959. From a young age he was musically gifted, and under the guidance of his teacher, Francisco Javier Muller, a pianist with the Miami Philharmonic Orchestra, he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Music School at the University of Miami, where he studied piano and composition with the renowned pianist Ivan Davis.
Rivero discovered his calling to compose music for God at the age of 14. Since then he participated in diverse music ministries in the Archdiocese of Miami and elsewhere for more than 30 years. In 1980 he founded the group Soiree, which pioneered contemporary Christian music in southern Florida. In 1983 he won the OTI Miami award for his song “Eres libre.”
More information about his new album can be found at www.musicoscatolicos.com/jorge