Despite their reputation as Latin American music specialists, the members of Cuarteto Latinoamericano didn't initially intend to focus on this music. After three of the quartet's founders, all graduates of the Conservatory in Mexico, completed advanced studies in the U.S. and Israel, they came together in 1982 with the intention of playing lots of Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms. But once they performed their first program, which included a work from Latin America, they discovered a huge level of interest worldwide in the music of Latin American composers.

More than two decades later, Cuarteto Latinoamericano — violinists Saúl and Arón Bitrán, violist Javier Montiel, and cellist Alvaro Bitrán — upholds the string quartet tradition throughout Latin America. Their lone status arises not from a lack of interest in classical music south of the border — the quartet's frequent concerts in Mexico City and other major Latin American cities are invariably well-attended — but rather from their collective decision to take a leap of faith and find a way to make a living playing chamber music. Eschewing orchestral careers, they have become the first string quartet in Latin America to successfully drum up the requisite financial support from the government and private sectors, which have historically been unaccustomed to supporting such independent groups.

That they've succeeded is unquestionable. With only one personnel change in 25 years — in 1986, the quartet's founding first violinist decided to return to Uruguay after that country's dictatorship ended, enabling a third Bitrán brother to join the quartet — Cuarteto Latinoamericano currently alternates a full schedule of touring, recording, and family life with their 19-year residency at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Of the CDs they've released, only one consists entirely of central European repertoire (Debussy and Turina). The rest reflect the reality that about 70 percent of the music they play is by Latin American composers.

Bay of Pigs for classical guitar and string quartet (2006) is a three-movement elegy for Cuba, past and present. In the first movement, "havana dreams," I have composed bittersweet, brooding music for Cuba before the revolution, as remembered by Cuban exiles around the world. Fidel Castro (b. 1926), who commanded the revolution in 1959, has been dictator of Cuba since that time. The second movement, entitled "water fall," evokes the turbulent seas surrounding Cuba. Here thousands of refugees have fled by boat and battles have been won and lost, including the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion by Cuban exiles. The ominous and angry rhythms of the final movement, "anthem," echo the revolutionary chanting of Fidel Castro and the guerilla ghost of his communist ally, Che Guevara.

Manuel Barrueco

(Jason Victor Serinus writes about music for San Francisco Classical Voice, Opera News, Stereophile, San Francisco Magazine, East Bay Express, and Bay Area Reporter.)