From Spain, composer Andrea Casarrubios

Primarily known as a cellist, Spanish native Andrea Casarrubios also is a composer. Her works have been programmed by Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic and the Sphinx Organization, and have been broadcast on NPR, as well as on national radio stations in Argentina, Brazil, France, Sweden, Australia and Spain.

Significant works include Afilador (2022), commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for its MusicNOW series, and Herencia for String Orchestra (2023), a “stirring creation” (The Strad) and “a bond of humanity through music” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer). It was commissioned for Sphinx Virtuosi’s 2023-24 tour, premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium in 2023 and featured on the 2025 album “American Mirrors,” released by Deutsche Grammophon.

Afilador will be performed in a CSO Chamber Music concert Sept. 26 at Northeastern Illinois University Recital Hall, 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. The performers will be violinists Danny Yehun Jin and Matous Michal, viola Danny Lai, cellist Daniel Katz and clarinetist John Bruce Yeh.

Inspired by one of her cherished memories from her childhood in a Spanish village in the Tiétar Valley at the base of the Sierra de Gredos mountain range, Casarrubios would regularly hear the sound of the afilador, a whistle or flute played by itinerant knife sharpeners to signal their presence to potential customers. Although the peddlers have largely disappeared these days, she once again heard the sound of an afilador during a visit to her hometown a few years ago, and she was transported back to her youth.

Her acclaimed piece SEVEN, “an intense and elegiac tribute to the essential workers during the pandemic” (The New York Times), was commissioned by Thomas Mesa. The work received its Carnegie Hall premiere in 2021 and has been performed in more than 36 countries since. SEVEN was nominated for a Grammy Award, after its release on the 2024 album of the same name, which featured Casarrubios as cellist and composer in seven of her most recent works, including collaborations with Manhattan Chamber Players and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Performing used to take 80 percent of her time, but she is more and more devoted to composing, which has grown to occupy 60 percent of her focus. “It has been challenging, without a doubt,” she said in an 2022 interview with Experience CSO. “But both activities complement each other for me. For others, it might be different, but I play better because I have the experience of going through a creative process, and I write better because I know what it feels like being onstage.”