South Beach Up North’s second concert features the Arriaga String Quartet #2 in A major (1824) and Orbón String Quartet #1 (1951).

Juan Crisóstomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga y Balzola (1806-1826) was a Spanish Basque composer. He was nicknamed “the Spanish Mozart” after he died, because, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he was both a child prodigy and an accomplished composer who died young. His style is on the borderline between late Classicism and early Romanticism, ranging from the late Classical idiom of Mozart to the proto-Romanticism of early Beethoven.

Julián Orbón (1925-1991) was a Cuban composer who lived and composed in Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and the United States. Aaron Copland referred to Orbón as “Cuba’s most gifted composer of the new generation.” Orbón created compositions that combined Spanish and Cuban styles and traits, Gregorian chant qualities, and African music styles.