On February 2, 2006 Sierra's
Missa Latina, premiered at the
Kennedy Center, in
Washington, D.C., conducted by
Leonard Slatkin to considerable acclaim. The
Washington Times judged it "the most significant symphonic premiere in the District since the late
Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was first performed in the
Washington National Cathedral in the late 1960s." On March 3, 2007, the
Missa Latina was performed at the 51st
Casals Festival in Sierra's homeland,
Puerto Rico, where it was equally well-received. Sierra's
Concierto Barroco takes its inspiration from a scene in
Alejo Carpentier's
novel of the same name in which
Handel and
Vivaldi jam with a Cuban slave during the
Venice Carnival. Sierra was commissioned by guitarist Manuel Barrueco to write a concerto that tried to capture what that might have been like. In
Soundboard magazine, Eladio Scharron wrote that, "Sierra achieved – masterfully – a synthesis of a tradition of five centuries old... This work is truly a masterwork..." Other commissioned works include: • a Concerto for Orchestra for the centennial celebrations of the
Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned by the
Koussevitzky Music Foundation and the Philadelphia Orchestra; • a Concerto for Saxophones and Orchestra, commissioned by the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra for
James Carter; •
Fandangos and
Missa Latina, commissioned by the
National Symphony Orchestra; • Sinfonía No. 3 "La Salsa", commissioned by the
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra; •
Danzas Concertantes for guitar and orchestra commissioned by the Orquesta de Castilla y León; • a Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, co-commissioned by the
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia Orchestras; •
Bongo+, commissioned by the
Juilliard School in celebration of the 100th anniversary; •
Songs from the Diaspora, commissioned by Music Accord for
Heidi Grant Murphy, Kevin Murphy and the
St. Lawrence String Quartet; •
Concierto para Violin y Orquesta a la memoria de una nina valiente commissioned by the Lydia Delfs Foundation and premiered by Juliana Athayde and the
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; and •
Concierto de Cámara, co-commissioned by the
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival,
Chamber Music Northwest and Stanford Lively Arts. Other ensembles who have commissioned Sierra include the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Atlanta, New Mexico, Houston, Minnesota, Dallas, San Antonio, and Phoenix, as well as the
American Composers Orchestra, the
New York Philharmonic,
Los Angeles Philharmonic,
Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Zurich
Tonhalle Orchestra, and the orchestras of Madrid, Galicia, and Barcelona. Roberto Sierra's Music may be heard on CDs by
Naxos,
EMI, UMG’s EMARCY,
New World Records, Albany Records,
Koch,
New Albion, Koss Classics,
BMG, Fleur de Son and other labels. In 2011, UMG’s EMARCY label released Caribbean Rhapsody featuring the Concierto for Saxophones and Orchestra commissioned and premiered by the DSO with James Carter. In 2004, EMI Classics released his two guitar concertos Folias and Concierto Barroco with
Manuel Barrueco as soloist (released on Koch in the USA in 2005). In 2010, Missa Latina's Naxos recording was nominated for a
Grammy Award under best contemporary classical composition category, and his Sinfonia No. 4 was nominated in that same category in 2015. == Works ==