End of Semester Piano Recital Celebrating CRP Chair Jeffrey Chusid

Second-year CRP Ph.D. student Antonio Moya-Latorre will perform a piano recital to celebrate the end of the semester and commemorate the Chair of the Department of City and Regional Planning, Jeffrey Chusid, who will be stepping down after five years in this role.

Antonio Moya-Latorre is a musician and an architect from Spain who became an urban planner. Before embarking on his doctoral adventure, Antonio obtained his master's in city planning at MIT. His research explores how a culture-oriented approach to community planning can leverage existing institutions to advance community self-determination, well-being, and equitable human flourishing in Latin America. This will be Antonio's third piano recital as a Cornell student, having previously performed in the fall and spring of the 2020–2021 academic year.

This year's performance includes two musical pieces, by German composer Franz Schubert and by Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Schubert's "Impromptus" (Op. 90) is a set of four intimate movements that take the listener through a wide range of emotions, even if in a contained manner. The music seems to be telling a story of hope and optimism, yet filled with moments of uncertainty, frustration, and even despair, as if the composer were struggling to pursue his own happiness. Villa-Lobos' "Ciclo Brasileiro" (Brazilian Cycle) is another set of four movements that build on Schubert's warmness while bringing in rich Brazilian rhythms coming from this country's deeply mestizo culture. Villa-Lobos' music ends in a celebratory tone, inviting the audience to engage with the joyfulness of life.

Antonio will be joined by a special musical guest to help celebrate the occasion.