Commissioned by ROCO and premiered in October 2018 as part of ROCO’s annual Musical & Literary Ofrenda honoring Día de los Muertos, Mexican composer Alejandro Basulto‘s song cycle “Canciones a mis Muertos” (Spanish for “Songs to my Dead ones”) is a collection of personal, musical offerings to family members close to him who have departed.

Each song depicts the personalities of each loved one through the text selected—all from poems by Amado Nervo—and through the character of the music.

ROCO is thrilled to present this song cycle in its first official recording, along with readings of each poem by the composer. Each track is additionally accompanied by images of each loved one honored, courtesy of Alejandro Basulto.

ROCO musicians featured are: Timothy Jones, baritone; Alecia Lawyer, oboe; Lorento Golofeev, viola; and Shino Hayashi, cello.

Recorded October 29, 2021 at Wire Road Studios, Houston, TX, and engineered by Andrew Bradley.

View the songs’ full texts by Amado Nervo in both Spanish and English here.