Jose White Quartet returns for concerts,
Nov 10, 2006

Concert by Jose White String Quartet Saturday & Sunday, November 18 & 19, 5pm St. Paul’s Church, Cardo 6, 50/150 pesos

The Jose White String Quartet, a favorite of San Miguel audiences since its professional debut in 1998, presents concerts November 18 and 19 in the San Miguel el Grande Pro Musica series.

After playing together as scholarship students at the Chamber Music Festival for five years in the 1990s, the quartet appeared on the program in 1998 and has returned to play at subsequent festivals and Pro Musica concerts.

The group recently returned from four concerts in Spain and is preparing to record another CD and to make its second US tour in January and February. After their US debut in 2004, a reviewer in Cleveland said “their rhythmic intensity was exhilarating, their emotional involvement electrifying.... They stretched phrases to the breaking point and relished the glowing colors of the composer’s impressionist palette.”

Last summer, they were the resident quartet at the Aguascalientes Chamber Music Festival. Other performers included the Turtle Island String Quartet, which was well received at its debut at the San Miguel festival in August. 

The quartet’s November 18 concert will include pieces by Mozart, Von Webern and Shostakovich; the next day they will play works by Beethoven, Dvorak and Debussy.

Based in Aguascalientes, the members are principal players with the Aguascalientes Symphony Orchestra. Three of the members were born in Havana, and the group named itself after Cuba’s noted violinist of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Jose White, who enjoyed an international concert career while based in Europe and who has inspired string players in Latin America for several generations. 

Violinist Silvia Santa Maria was born in Havana and studied at that city’s Instituto Superior de Arte and the Conservatorio Amadeo Roldan and at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia. She teaches violin at the school of music of the Universidad Autonomous de Zacatecas. 

Also a native of Havana, violinist Sandra Diaz Roqueta studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte. She played with the World Juvenile Orchestra, based in Sweden, and was a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Querétaro. 

Sergio Carrillo, viola, was born in Los Angeles and studied there at the School of Music and Arts. He also studied at the Universidad Autonomas de Zacatecas and was a member of the Chamber Orchestra of the Instituto Cultural de Tepic, Nayarit. 

Cellist Orlando Espinosa was born in Havana, where he attended the Instituto Superior de Arte. He was a founding member of the Roldan String Quartet and of the Trio Sagittarius, and he played with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Querétaro.

Tickets are available at Casa de Papel, Mesones 57; La Conexión, Aldama 3; the Sierra Nevada Hotel, Hospicio 46, and at the St. Paul’s church office, weekdays 11am to 2pm. Tickets may be reserved by calling 152-0387 during those hours and purchased at the door one hour before concert time. For more information, consult the website at http://promusicasma.tripod.com 

Alcántara’s classical guitar

Guitar concert by José Manuel Alcántara Saturday, November 18, 7pm, Teatro Santa Ana, Reloj 50, 80 pesos

After living and studying in Europe for five years, José Manuel Alcántara has started a series of contemporary Latin-American music projects. In the first half of this concert, his fourth in San Miguel, he confronts the classical guitar world with this fresh approach, which blends influences from European and Latin American musicians. The second half of the concert is an homage to some of the greats of jazz.

Alcántara is part of Sweelinck Conservatory’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, which recently participated in the Gaudeamus International Week at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, New Zealand’s Music Festival in Ijsbreker, and the Berlin Music Festival, organized by the Goethe Institute of Amsterdam.

The program begins with the “Chacona” of the Partita II for violin of J. S. Bach (guitar arrangement by José Manuel). The guitarist continues with two pieces from Leo Brouwer, “The Eternal Spiral” and “Hika,” key pieces from the guitar repertoire of the second half of the 20th century.

The second half includes jazz music, beginning with Manuel Barrueco’s guitar adaptation of Part C II from Keith Jarrett’s concert in Colonia. “Rumba Son,” composed by Eduardo Martín, brings in popular Cuban music, and four miniatures are transformed into a path that leads us to the music of Astor Piazolla, which ends the concert.

Slowind presents first Latin American appearance

Concert by Slowind Friday, November 10, 7:30pm, Teatro Ángela Peralta, Mesones & Hernández Macías

Slowind is a quintet made up of soloists of the Slovene Philharmonic, located in the country’s capital of Ljubljana. Their repertoire includes compositions from the classical and romantic periods; however, most of their attention is focused on works of the 20th and 21st centuries. The ensemble’s preferred and most frequent activity is to present these new works at important festivals and concerts at home and abroad.

In Ljubljana, the ensemble organizes its own cycle of chamber concerts, “Festival Slowind,” to highlight prominent works featuring wind instruments. Every year, members of the ensemble, along with other top Slovene musicians, perform alongside internationally recognized artists such as Heinz Holliger, Christiane Iven, Steven Davislim, James Freeman, Arvid Engegård and Robert Aitken. In the autumn of 2005, Slowind organized an international festival of contemporary music featuring the ensembles SurPlus (Germany) and Accroche Note (France). Besides the commissioned compositions by younger composers, the festival focused on works by Giacinto Scelsi, Salvatore Sciarrino and Pascal Dusapin. The city of Ljubljana has awarded Slowind the Zupancic Prize for artistic achievements, as well as the prestigious Preseren Fund Award.

In 1999, Slowind embarked on its first tour of the United States. After successful concerts at Yale University and in New York and Philadelphia, the quintet was invited to return in 2001. Their yearly American tour has now expanded to include Los Angeles, Chicago and Cleveland. Slowind is coming to San Miguel on the tail end of this tour. It will be their first performance in Latin America.

Tickets can be purchased at the theater office or at El Buen Café between 9am and 4pm.





Star-studded lineup

1 International Jazz & Blues Festival November 23–25, 7pm Teatro Ángela Peralta Workshops at noon, Bellas Artes

Magos Herrera, one of Mexico’s top jazz vocalists, will open the four-day International Jazz & Blues Festival on November 23 at the Teatro Angela Peralta. Herrera, whose singing the New York Times has described as “simply incredible,” has appeared at concerts and festivals in seven countries and has recorded five albums. She is featured on a weekly TV show produced at a jazz club in downtown Mexico City.

Herrera’s unique sound is a new improvisational style of Brazilian and Latin rhythms in a jazz context. The Los Angeles Times said the “pixielike, husky-voiced Herrera spotlighted her fine control and breathtaking range.”

“She is considered to be one of the most beautiful voices of the national contemporary scene, which is, undoubtedly, a voice with the unique stamp of our country,” said Festival director Antonio Lozoya. “Her influences are clear. The big voices of jazz and the composers of popular Brazilian music who give strong attention to the poetry.”

Born in Mexico City, Herrera graduated from the Mexicana Institute of Technology and continued her studies at the Mannes Conservatory of Music in New York City and at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.

She started performing as a solo artist in 1998 in Mexico and recorded her first album, Cajuina. In 2000, she released her second album, Whispering Orchids, and performed at Lincoln Center and in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.

After a tour in India in 2003, she released her third album, Pais Maravilla, with nine of her own compositions. In 2004, she toured Japan to promote a compilation of her recordings. 

Her fourth album, Todo Puede Inspirar, followed in 2005, and earlier this year she and vocalist Iraida Noriega were featured on the album Soliluna. Herrera has also performed in Spain, Brazil and Indonesia.

Also appearing will be Cody Moffett and Jambalaya. Based in Oakland, California, they have participated in the KOOL Jazz Festival, where they have shared the stage with Smokey Robinson, B. B. King, Natalie Cole and The Staple Singers. They have also performed alongside The Isley Brothers and Ramsey Lewis.

Born in New York City, Moffett is the son of the renowned drummer Charles Moffett.

He toured Europe with the Stanley Jordan Trio and upon his return performed with the Manhattan Transfer in the Casio Jazz Fest in Chicago and at jazz festivals in the United States, Japan and Europe. In 1993, he recorded his first CD, Evidence, on which artists such as Charnette Moffer, Ravi Coltrane, Kenny Drew, Jr., Kenny Garrett and Wallace and Antoine Rooney contribute.

In 1999, as part of the Manhattan Jazz Quintet, he received a gold record. He later joined Ahmed Abullah’s group, Diaspora, and performed with The Sun Ra All-Stars. My Favorite Things is his second disc, recorded with his brother Charnette, Stanley Jordan, Leonardo Suarez, Kenny Drew, Jr., and Dudi Comedi.

The opening concert at 7pm will be preceded at noon with a workshop open to the public in Bellas Artes, “Los Ritmos Latinos en el Jazz” (Latin Rhythms in Jazz).

Conducting the workshop will be the Cuban pianist, Gabriel Hernandez, winner of the 1980 prize for the best orchestration in Cuba. He has performed in 14 countries, playing alongside such artists as Dizzy Gillespie and Herbie Hancock. He has been the pianist for the band Crucible, directed by trumpeter Roy Hargrove. On his most recent CD, On the Thrill, he was accompanied by Moffett and Ken Basman of the San Miguel Jazz Cats. 

This year’s Festival will feature musicians from Mexico, Cuba, Chile, Venezuela, England and the US, including a public concert the final day, and will have daily workshops that explore the history and language of jazz and the blues, Lozoya added. On November 24, author Alain Derbez presents his book History of Jazz in México, an interesting document for the jazz musician in this country. 

Among the 25 performers will be the Betsy Pecanins Blues Group, jazz teachers from three different universities in the US, Bob and Joe’s Blues Show from the US and Mexico, Gabriel Hernández Band and Roberto Vizcaíno, a special guest from Cuba who won the Grammy Award with the Chucho Valdés Quartet in 2000 for Best Latin Jazz Album from Cuba, and many other performers. In all, 25 musicians are coming this year.

Doug Robinson, pianist and composer, and the San Miguel Jazz Cats and other artists will give a public concert at 5pm, November 26 in the Jardín. The highly regarded Jazz Cats include Lozoya, bass; Basman, guitar; and Victor Monterrubio, drums.

Jazz and blues fans who would like to help with promotion and ticket sales or work during the concerts are welcome and can call Lozoya at 152-7599. For more information, consult the Festival web site at www.jazzybluessma.com