Chamber Music Festival performers, Aug 11, 2006, The Bob & Joe's Blues Show presents the roots of blues, By Venae Warner, Warren Hardy and Providcom Productions launch ''Soul of Mexico'', By Warren Hardy, Concert pays homage to Stevie Ray Vaughn

The Festival de Música de Cámara has treated sanmiguelenses to world-class chamber music ensembles and soloists since July 29. Don't miss the two remaining comcerts on August 11 and August 12, both at 7:30pm.

St. Petersburg String Quartet

The St. Petersburg String Quartet has blazed through international chamber music competitions, winning first prize at the All-Soviet Union String Quartet Competition, the silver medal and a special prize at the Tokyo International Competition of Chamber Ensembles, first prize and both special prizes at the Vittorio Gui International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Florence, Italy, and first prize and the "Grand Prix Musica Viva" distinction at the International Competition for Chamber Ensembles in Melbourne, Australia.

St. Petersburg was founded as the Leningrad Quartet by Alla Aranovskaya and Leonid Shukayev, both graduates of the Leningrad Conservatory. When the city of Leningrad reclaimed its historic name, the quartet changed its name to the St. Petersburg String Quartet. The quartet has continued its ascendancy, building a reputation of worldwide proportions, including a Grammy nomination, Best Record honors in both Stereo Review and Gramophone magazines, and the Chamber Music America/WQXR Prize for Best CD of 2001. The quartet held the position of Quartet-in-Residence at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1999 to 2003.

In 2003, the St. Petersburg String Quartet proudly commemorated the 300th anniversary of its namesake city and performed around the globe in events to honor the arts of St. Petersburg. The quartet premiered Rhapsody for String Quartet and Guitar by Georgian composer Zurab Nadarejshvili (with guitarist Paul Galbraith), at Stanford University, and has toured throughout the United States, England, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy.

Avid classical recording collectors anticipate release of the St. Petersburg String Quartet's CD of the complete works of Tchaikovsky for string quartet on Dorian, which follows the release of the complete Shostakovich cycle on Hyperion, a disc of Prokofiev's two quartets and Nadarejshvili's String Quartet No.1 and Glazunov's Quartet No. 5 and his appealing Novelettes on Delos. You can visit the quartet's website at www.stpetersburgquartet.com

Pianist William Ransom has appeared in recital, as soloist with orchestras, and as a chamber musician throughout the world.

He has performed for the American ambassadors to Japan and Ireland, and his performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and Television in the United States, Korea, Argentina and Poland. His recording of Enoch Arden, by Richard Strauss, The Music of Alfredo Barili and Chamber Music of Johannes Brahms were released on the ACA label. Ransom can also be heard on Heartkeys, from Rising Star Records.

Ransom has commissioned and premiered several works by composer Stephen Paulus, and he was also the featured pianist performing music by Dwight Andrews used in August Wilson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit The Piano Lesson. He is a popular performer in many university concert series, including performances at Stanford, where he has also given master classes.

Born in Boston in 1958, Ransom began his musical studies at an early age. He was a scholarship student of William Masselos at the Juilliard School in New York (Bachelor's and Master's of Music degrees), and he also worked with Theodore Lettvin at the University of Michigan (DMA) and Madame Gaby Casadesus at the Ravel Academy in France. Ransom is currently the Mary L. Emerson Professor of Music and head of the piano faculty at Emory University in Atlanta. He has collaborated with such artists as cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Steven Isserlis; members of the Tokyo, Cleveland and Lark String Quartets; and members of the Empire Brass Quintet and the percussion group Nexus. During summers, Ransom is artistic director of the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina and also an artist/faculty member of the Kamisaibara Pianists Camp in Japan.

Violinist Timothy Fain was selected as one of Symphony magazine's featured "Up-and-Coming" young musicians in 2006. With a wide range of talents and interests, he performs as soloist, chamber musician, and in creative collaborations with other artists.

The Washington Post declares "Timothy Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career," and The Boston Globe calls him "a charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts. and first-rate chops."

Fain recently made his film debut on the soundtrack of the Fox Searchlight movie Bee Season, in which he is the voice of Richard Gere's violin.

This season, Fain performs as soloist with the Bellevue (WA) Philharmonic Orchestra, the Florida West Coast Symphony, the Waterbury (CT) Symphony Orchestra, the Albany (GA) Symphony, and Orquesta Filarmónica de Buenos Aires in Argentina. In December 2006, he will perform as soloist with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia. He has performed concertos by Beethoven, Glazunov, Bruch, Barber and Philip Glass, as well as other works, with orchestras throughout the United States.

Fain made his New York City concerto debut with the New York Chamber Symphony conducted by Gerard Schwarz at Alice Tully Hall in 2002, and has been soloist with the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival. Abroad, he has been soloist with the Mexico City Philharmonic and performed at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.

Fain is also in demand as a superb chamber musician, having performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at New York's Bargemusic, and he is first violinist of the Rossetti String Quartet.

In May 2005, Fain was singled out for his appearance onstage with the New York City Ballet, performing alongside the dancers in the City Ballet premiere of Benjamin Millepied's Double Aria. He has appeared with the Mark Morris Dance Group, the Seán Curran Company and the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company in the United States and abroad. He also continues to pursue his interest in jazz and recently appeared at the Jazz Standard with composer and saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli.

After winning the 1999 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Fain gave acclaimed debuts in the Young Concert Artists Series at the 92nd Street Y in New York, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Through Young Concert Artists, he has given recitals and held residencies in venues around the country, including the University of Georgia, the University of California at Davis, the San Diego Art Institute and the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestra. He has been honored by the Hennings-Fisher Foundation in Los Angeles and was the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2001.

Fain is a native of Santa Monica, California. He received a Bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Victor Danchenko, and a Master's of Music degree from Juilliard, where he worked with Robert Mann. Mr. Fain has also studied with Aaron Rosand, Haroutune Bedelian and Laura and Eduard Schmieder. He currently lives in New York City. See his website at www.timothyfain.com

The Bob & Joe's Blues Show, Friday, August 18, 7pm

Teatro Ángela Peralta, Mesones & Hernández Macías, 150/100/80 pesos

On August 18, the Teatro Ángela Peralta presents the Bob and Joe's Blues Show. Contemporary music has been greatly influenced by the sounds that came out of the American South. The music we know as the blues laid the foundation for jazz, rock and roll, rhythm and blues and even country music. With a name like "the blues," it would seem that this music is the sound of grief and sorrow, but real blues aficionados know that the blues is uplifting and motivating. This was the sound that helped the African slaves of the Mississippi Delta endure their working conditions. Chicago blues is the expressive rhythmic music that evolved from the Mississippi Delta blues to profoundly influence all contemporary music. Performed in nightclubs in the 1930s and 1940s, it inspired a new freedom in dancing; no lyrics better express the injustice of unrequited love.

Last year, the Bob and Joe's Blues Band played two sold-out concerts, and a third and fourth concert were added to meet demand. They performed a repertoire that was both historically educational and rousing. The audience left the concerts with a tap in their toes and good humor in their hearts.

Their new show will again take the audience on a musical journey exploring both the roots of the blues and its contemporary expression, including the influence of jazz.

Bobby Kaplan (harmonica and vocals) studied percussion at the Berklee College of Music then moved to New York, where he was active in the original avant-garde "new music" of the 1960s. He has participated in numerous national and international jazz festivals and has played with many of the great figures of jazz, including Gato Barbieri, Etta James and David "Fathead" Newman. He has also played drums with Dexter Gordon and Pharoah Sanders. In 1998 he was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk Vocalist competition. You will recognize him from his many years playing nightly at Tío Lucas.

Joe Warner (guitars and vocals) lives in San Miguel now but grew up playing blues professionally in southern California. He studied guitar with folk blues legend Stephan Grossman and was mentored by California blues guitar legend Buddy Smith. He has backed such greats as Snooky Prior, Kim Wilson and Junior Watson and played at such blues festivals as the Ojai Bowlful of Blues and Irvine Jazz and Blues Festival.

Ken Bichel (piano and keyboards) is a Grammy- and Emmy-award-winning composer/producer with credits including music for ESPN, CNN, CBS and ABC News and Sports. He has hundreds of commercial credits, including working with Aretha Franklin, Luciano Pavarotti, Billy Joel, Peggy Lee, Placido Domingo, Stevie Wonder, Judy Collins and Paul Simon, to name only a few. Antonio Lozoya (bass), who studied classical and jazz styles at Escuela Superior de Música in Mexico City, has performed in numerous national and international music festivals. He has played with such major talents such as Dave Pike, John Leftwich, Randy Bersen, Lila Downs, the McGill Big Band and others. For the past five years, Antonio has been an active participant in the International Jazz Festival of San Miguel de Allende, offering lectures and concerts that teach the history and appreciation of jazz music.

Victor Monterrubio (drums) began his studies in the Academia de Música Fermata in Mexico City and later entered the Escuela Superior de Música to study jazz. While there, he participated in numerous workshops presented by some of the world's most famous jazz musicians, including Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny and Wynton Marsalis. He also participated in seminars organized by the Berkley Music School in Mexico City and Xalapa,Veracruz. He has played in numerous jazz festivals in Mexico.

Interdisciplinary artist and composer Tim Hazell, with colleague, musician, writer, radio host and lecturer Nestor Vargas-together known as Grupo Xiuhtototl (Azure Bird)-have just released their debut feature-length DVD, recorded for Providcom Productions, San Antonio, in association with Warren Hardy, as part of his "Soul of Mexico" adventure series.

Hazell and Vargas take you on a mystical musical journey. They create orchestrations with a variety of instruments from pre-Hispanic origins and other cultures. Oud, sitar, dulcimer and full moon, a single-string variant of the cello family, complement Nestor Vargas's unique textural use of ancient microchromatic flutes, musical stones, rain serpent (chicahuaztli), log xylophone, and drums (huehuetls) that invoke Mexico's pre-Conquest heritage.

The duo make selections from an array of over 30 instruments combining native performance art with the traditional costumes of Aztec musicians and teachers. The Warren Hardy/Providcom production was filmed in San Miguel's beautiful ambient surroundings and includes a booklet that serves as an introduction to the history of pre-Hispanic instruments and their playing techniques. The 11-page supplement makes the DVD an ideal vehicle for classroom use and student/teacher interaction. Educators and musicians will find the many references to instrument combinations, composing and playing techniques of special interest. Enthusiasts of Mexico, as well as recent arrivals who wish to learn more, will fall under the spell of the exotic locations, costumes and evocative sounds of the concert, and find that the text enriches the encounter.

Much of the music of ancient Mexico was based on natural sounds made by forces of nature or wildlife. The names and illustrations of the instruments, musicians, costumes and orchestras themselves were preserved by Indian scribes working for members of the Spanish military and clergy, shortly after the conquest in 1521. There is a very special clay instrument shaped like the head of the wind god, Ehecatl, and when this is blown it is thought that the voice of the god is actually emerging. This is called a silbato. We refer to the sound it makes as white noise. A native Mexican ensemble would have combined the rasp or omichicahuaztli; ocarinas, which are globular flutes with magical animal shapes; and the drum, or huehuetl, often richly carved and a centerpiece of pre-Colombian music. The unforgettable rainforest sounds of the rainstick, or chicahuaztli, often in the form of a snake, are part of the timeless and unique legacy left to us by great artisans of the past and enjoying a renaissance today.

The "Soul of Mexico" concert and lecture DVD features the gamut of the instruments linked with ancient Mesoamerica. Tim Hazell and Nestor Vargas perform original musical compositions with introductions, up-tempo rhythmic and melodic sections and mantra-like finales. The short descriptions of individual instruments, their histories and uses in orchestration are intended to create continuity and provide audiences with an inside glimpse into the heritage of great cultures. In an orchestra, pre-Colombian instruments offer musicians considerable room for improvisation.

The producers and performers of the "Soul of Mexico" series hope you will enjoy listening to sounds that have endured over 3,000 years. The series opens the door to an experience and understanding of Mexico, its distinctive music and richness of native artistry reintegrated into the fabric of the present and future.

The "Soul of Mexico" DVDs with Tim Hazell and Nestor Vargas are available at the Warren Hardy School; email info@warrenhardy.com or call 152-4728.

Concert pays homage to Stevie Ray Vaughn

Voodoo Chile's tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn, Tuesday, August 15, 7pm

Teatro Santa Ana, Reloj 50, 100 pesos

Voodoo Chile continues its series of tribute concerts with an homage to the awesome blues guitarist and singer Stevie Ray Vaughn. A native of Texas, Vaughn shot to superstardom as a modern interpreter of the blues in the early 1980s. Vaughn honed his skills first as a youth in Dallas and later gained wider recognition playing in Austin, the live music capital of the world. He jammed with the greats of the blues and developed a signature style admired the world over.

Vaughn's widespread appeal transcended the musical boundaries of the blues and created a new crop of avid blues fans in the last quarter of the 20th century. In this concert, the members of Voodoo Chile perform their versions of Vaughn's classic renditions, with lead singer David Garza.