Chyornii & Dorado

Chyornii & Dorado was founded by clarinetist Anthony Aguayo and saxophonist Jessica Dodge. We have been inseparable friends since meeting in the fall of 2018; from this friendship arose a love of making music together! Our name stems from the Russian word for black - Chyornii (чёрный) - and the Spanish word for gold - Dorado. We chose this name as a reference to both the colors of the saxophone and clarinet, as well as the diverse backgrounds of C&D’s members. We love sharing our time, passion, music, and friendship with our communities and have a vision to expand the repertoire for this ensemble. To do so, we commissioned many new works which were premiered and recorded on our debut album, Black and Gold. The album was released in November of 2019. The University of Oregon School of Music and Dance was highly supportive of our vision and selected the duo as the recipient of the 2019 SOMD Innovation Grant to help fund the CD project.