by Rebecca Romani

December 10, 2025

The San Diego Camarada may be one of the newer kids on the local musical block, but it has quickly become one of San Diego’s musical treasures.

Founded in 1994 by Beth Ross Buckley, the Camarada has a history of bringing accomplished musicians and innovative composers together for concerts noted for their artistry, excellence, and breadth.

This November, the Camarada kicked off a very full 31^st Season with a presentation aptly entitled Encuentro, a coming together, as a celebration of the binational region, featuring music of the Americas, and one of the San Diego/Tijuana region’s most innovative artists, Hugo Crosthwaite, whose work tells the story of a border region in transition, negotiating its identity between two cultural poles.

According to Buckley, “the Camarada is dedicated to cross-border collaborations.” Both the Submerged program and the programs that fill the coming season demonstrate the Camarada’s dedication to the music of the Americas, running the gamut from Baroque to Bossa Nova to Tango.

Encuentro started symbolically at the border with an unveiling of Hugo Crosthwaite’s newest installation, the imposing and colorful multi-frame canvas commissioned by the Camarada and inspired by San Diego-based Andrés Martín’s “Tango Bajo el Agua.”

Artist Hugo Crosthwaite stands in front of his painting “Annunciation” during installation at Bread and Salt on Aug. 2, 2024. Photo by Julia Dixon Evans / KPBS

Crosthwaite is the consummate border artist. Born in Tijuana and raised in both San Diego and Rosarito, Crosthwaite considers himself a product of sides of the border.

His substantial body of work has appeared in multiple venues, from the Cecut, Tijuana’s vibrant cultural center, to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. in addition to permanent museums and private collections throughout the US.

Largely self-taught, Crosthwaite says he works like a poet, section by section, seeking out the narrative of his subject.

Joining abstraction to classical imagery, Crosthwaite said he seeks to tell the story of the San Diego/Tijuana region at the intersection of mythologies and cultures, creating work that challenges the viewer and creating events that enter into the construction of the border region.

Inspired by the Camarada’s past concerts, Crosthwaite says he jumped at the invitation to collaborate with them.

According to Crosthwaite, he was particularly inspired by the program’s “Tango Bajo el Agua”, by Andrés Martín.

The result is a colorful, multi-panel piece which sits across three easels, like a tree of life, or a favela, with pieces of surrealism. Rendered in deeply saturated muted reds, French blue, and various greens, the ordinary people depicted seem to seek to rise above their lives and and the subtle and not so subtle borders that hem them in.

This is the second piece by Crosthwaite the Camarada has commissioned.

One of the pleasures of the Camarada, is discovering new composers and pieces played with great musicianship. Submerged featured several local composers and commissioned pieces, all notable for their engaging complexity and emotion.

In keeping with the new season’s theme of fruitful encounters crossing borders, culture and time, the concert led off with roots in Spain, through composer Joaquin Turina whose work is infused with influences from Andalusia and Cuba. “Tema y Varaciones” is beautifully scored for piano and harp.

Camarada with artist Hugo Crosthwaite – photo courtesy of Camarada

Among the featured composers was Grammy-nominated Uruguayan American Miguel del Águila, known for lushly evocative modern music deeply influenced by the rhythms and poetry of Latin America.

For this concert, del Águila created the brilliant trio, Submerged, with its complex roles for cello, flute, and harp.

Del Águila takes his inspiration from the poem, “Yo en el fondo del mar (Meet me at the bottom of the sea),” one of the best-known poems by Argentine poet, Alfonsina Storni, whose wide-ranging literary career defied gender expectations and anticipated Surrealism and the Avant Garde movements.

In her short writing career, Storni wrote influential essays, plays, and vibrant poetry which shook the foundations of Argentine letters. She is widely believed to have committed suicide at the age of 47, by walking into the sea, possibly due to a recurring bout of breast cancer.

Because Storni had roots in the Ticino section of Switzerland, Del Águila told Vanguard Culture, he slipped in parts of a Swiss piece as homage.

Miguel del Águila, image courtesy of the composer

Aron Alter and Andrés Martín were also among the other composers spotlighted. Alter, based in Carlsbad, is known for his uncanny ability to blend styles, and has recently taken his music in a new direction.

His “Introspective Blues #1” is a charming piece, making excellent use of the flute and harp combination. The light, slightly exotic melody was an excellent lead into Del Águila’s fluid use of nature and Andean-inspired melodies.

Argentine-born composer-in-residence, Andrés Martín, also draws on cultural musical idioms and emotion to craft works that unleash the deeply expressive voice of the bass and double bass. Martín’s “Aria” is likewise a wonderful subtle dialog between the various instruments of the Camarada and the double base, played with masterful control by Martín.

But the queen of Martín’s compositions was the lovely, complex “Tango Bajo el Agua,” which conjures up film noir scores. Beth Ross Buckley’s flute stands out and beautiful holds its own against the tango-inflected syncopation while Dana Burnet’s sensitive touch on the piano guides the piece through its dramatic shifts.

The choice to end the program with this Tango after having a chance to see Crosthwaite’s piece and to hear his talk, is a brilliant programing move made all the more so by the ability to see the art piece as the Tango moved through its paces.

Not only does the placing foreshadow upcoming Camarada Tango programs, it also allowed the audience to consider how the piece inspired Crosthwaite’s installation.

Another unexpected aspect of the programming was the ability to hear the composers play their compositions and to experience exciting ensemble work at its best as well as particularly moving performances on the harp and guitar by Elena Mashkovtseva.

Don’t miss further encounters featuring several Tango concerts, American Jazz for the holidays, as well as the lightness and joy of Bossa Nova for the spring.