The San Diego Symphony continued to share important stories of our region through its Currents Series, starting with Tres minutos on November 22 at 7:30 PM at Jacobs Music Center. This thought-provoking piece by composer Nicolás Lell Benavides and librettist Marella Martin Koch was inspired by a real program that reunites families separated by immigration policies at the U.S.-Mexico Border, but only for three minutes. 

Nicolás is a graduate of Santa Clara University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the USC Thornton School of Music where he is also a lecturer in Composition/Theory & Analysis. In addition he has also presented commissioned works at the Washington National Opera and the New York Philharmonic. We sat down recently with Nicolás to discuss his presentation of Tres minutos with the San Diego Symphony at the newly renovated Jacobs Music Center. 

Hello Nicolás! Please introduce yourself, where you are from originally, where you are currently based and what your occupation/title is.

Hello! I’m proudly from the Land of Enchantment, where my family has lived for generations. Though my heart will always be in New Mexico I’ve called California home for 18 years and I’ve lived all over the state from San Francisco to Los Angeles, but I currently live in Long Beach/Signal Hill. I work as a composer, conductor, and educator.

Amazing! We'd love to know, how did you discover music? What was your journey to becoming a composer and do you have any favorite composers who have inspired you along this journey?

I credit my grandfather, Eddie Garcia, for sparking my interest in music. He was an accordionist and bandleader, playing traditional rancheras and corridos, and he loved to tell the story of how when I was a kid one time, I was listening to him and said, “I’m going to play music with you one day.” When I was old enough, my mom gave me her old saxophone and I learned to play traditional música norteña by ear in addition to learning jazz in the school band. I didn’t realize one could even become a composer or write music until I was halfway through undergrad, but once it became clear to me that was a viable path I never looked back. These days I mostly listen to living/contemporary composers. It’s hard to say "favorite" because it’s just whatever I’m currently really feeling. But the past few weeks I’ve been listening to Gabriela Lena Frank, Nina Shekhar, Kaija Saariaho, Jake Heggie, Arvo Pärt, and Osvaldo Golijov. There’s also always space on my playlist for Billy Strayhorn, Béla Bartók, Maurice Ravel, Federico Mompou, and Francis Poulenc!

How wonderful that you had musicians in your family and that they were so encouraging. Could you please describe Tres minutos and your inspiration behind creating this work? What was the creative process like? What were some of the challenges and successes?

Tres minutos is inspired by a few true stories about the ongoing border crisis, some by close friends and collaborators. Years ago I read an article about the amazing work the Border Angels (a legendary local group in San Diego) were doing to reunite separated families, and I remember reading that, at the time, families were only given three minutes to reunite. It struck me as something out of a fairy tale, and I wondered what it must feel like to invest so much time, effort, and energy for those three minutes, and how important they must be to people who couldn’t otherwise be together. Librettist Marella Martin Koch and I were working on our first opera, Pepito, when we were debating this idea and how we could turn it into a story that would highlight the family perspective. Our composer and librettist mentors at the time, Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer, were kind enough to tell Mina Miller, Founder and Artistic Director of the acclaimed Music of Remembrance, about our story, and she reached out to us to ask about commissioning it! Music of Remembrance does a lot of bold programming highlighting social justice issues across the globe, and we are honored to be included in their roster of commissioned artists.

As we researched the story further, I realized that I personally knew so many DREAMers, individuals who were brought to this country as children who did not know their immigration status until much later and can be stuck in a kind of limbo between being an American citizen and an undocumented immigrant. Some of them also have siblings who were born here. They share DNA with these siblings but don't share status or even a passport, which can limit professional options considerably.

Our team knew creating an opera would never solve such a complex problem, however we sincerely hoped that it would make people feel sympathetic and empathetic toward families who are going through the plight of unimaginable duress. Many families, as refugees, were and are fleeing unimaginable poverty and/or violence and can’t go back to their countries, yet they can’t go forward in the country their kids grew up in.

We were lucky to work with dramaturg Hector Vega, himself a DREAMer and attorney, who helped advise us on the story's theme of togetherness so that it felt true and centered.

What an inspiring story, Nicolás. And how wonderful that you could share your artistic vision with so many others through collaboration. It's really touching to know that the piece is based on the real experiences of real people, which are important and must be reproduced with care to retain integrity and fidelity. So why did you choose to entrust the San Diego Symphony to present this work? And what do you hope audience members took away from it?

San Diego Symphony is an ideal producing partner! Though the story is a mix of half a dozen stories from across the country, one of the first things we ever read was about the amazing work the Border Angels does at the border right here in San Diego. I think audiences in San Diego, more than most places, are sensitive to the immediate issues at the border and many likely know families who are not whole because of border policies. I hope audience members connect with the story. Most of all, I hope audience members see the love of their own families and family members within each of the characters on stage.

We hope so too! What are your plans for the future?

Right now through my Guggenheim Fellowship I’m working on an opera about civil rights icon Dolores Huerta with the same Tres minutos librettist, Marella Martin Koch. It’s commissioned by West Edge Opera, San Diego Opera, The BroadStage, and Opera Southwest. It will premiere in the 2025-26 season, so I’ll be back in San Diego for that! I’m also writing a set of songs for oboist Anne Marie Gabriele and tenor Joshua Blue (known to San Diego Opera audiences!) that will premiere at the LA Phil in January exploring themes of grief and healing through the poetry of Pablo Nerdua.

 
Tres minutos composer, Nicolás Lell Benavides

Scene from Tres minutos