“Un,

Dos,

Un, dos, tres…”

With these words, pianist and composer Daniel Rojas kicks off his performance with Ensemble Apex Strings at the launch of his new album Bliss of Heaven: Music of the New World. Chilean-born Australian Daniel Rojas’ name is synonymous with brilliant Latin American pianism, grounded in the classical idiom. His aim he says, is to bring the “Latin American vernacular music into the classical concert hall.” He is achieving this with astonishing and popular success. In the high-octane performance that unfolds, Rojas and Ensemble Apex Strings stir the passions and seduce our souls.

Daniel Rojas and the Ensemble Apex Strings at Camelot Lounge

The album was recorded in São Paulo, Brazil in 2019, with Rojas, the Baldini Quartet and Australian bandoneon player Stephen Cuttriss. The Baldini Quartet was to join Rojas in Australia for this   program, but COVID-19 put paid to these plans and Rojas mounted a search for an Australian ensemble which had the technical capabilities he required as well as the ability to realise the Latin American aesthetic that is so crucial to his work. The Ensemble Apex Strings, comprising violinists Anna Da Silva Chen and Tim...