For over 10 years, the Pacific Duo (Roberto Limón, guitar, Chérie Hughes, soprano) have excited audiences with programs that explore the subtle colors and rich poetry of the voice and guitar repertoire. Meeting at the Chenango MusicFest in 2005, they have been featured in recital throughout Mexico, including at the Bellas Artes Manuel Ponce Chamber Hall in Mexico City.
While their repertoire includes works by well known composers such as de Falla, Argento, and Schubert; the two are passionate advocates for lesser known treasures, as well as for new commissioned works—particularly those of Mexican and Latin American composers. Twice, they were selected as Artists in Residence with the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle, which along with a grant from Seattle Pacific University helped to sponsor their recent recording ON MY PEOPLE. The CD features as the title track a powerful setting of a Holocaust poem by Mexican composer Samuel Zyman. Released on the Origin Classical label, the CD is a collection of Sephardic inspired songs that also includes the monumental 19-song cycle The Divan of Moses-Ibn-Ezra by film composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ladino folk melodies by Catalonian composer Matilda Salvador. Additional new music premieres by the Duo include Songs of the Poets by Bryan Townsend as part of the San Miguel de Allende International Guitar Festival; and 1964, written and dedicated to the Duo by Argentine composer, Alberto Nuñez.
The duo has been privileged to have had the support of the Mexican government’s Coordinación Nacional de Música y Ópera, which sponsored a recital tour for them of concert halls throughout Mexico City, Guanajuato, and Salamanca. Other concert appearances include recitals at the Festival de Guitarra Internacional del Noreste in Saltillo, Mexico and the Festival Hispanoamericano de Guitarra in Tijuana, Mexico.