La Fontegara plays early music with Mexican ties
By Bob Kelly

Pro Musica Concert
La Fontegara
Sat–Sun, Dec 8–9, 5pm
St. Paul’s Church
Calle Cardo 6
150 and 50 pesos

La Fontegara, considered one of Mexico’s best early music ensembles, will present a program of eighteenth-century music December 8. Then on December 9, they will perform a concert of works written by Mexican and European composers that were found in archives in Mexico, including music for the Christmas holidays.

The December 8 program recreates the music played during the “Age of Elegance” when European courts reached the greatest splendor during the time of Frederick the Great. The December 9 concert will include works by European composers found in archives in Mexico and sonatas found recently in the archives of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City.

Gypsy music to stir the soul
By Javier Estrada

Concert
Gypsy music
Mon, Dec 10, 7pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos


On December 10, guitarist “El Javi” Estrada presents a Gypsy Night Concert in Teatro Santa Ana. Tickets are on sale in the theater office.

We now know that gypsies originated in the Punjab in northwestern India, fleeing from clashes between invaders a thousand years ago. On their long odyssey, they traveled through and settled in the countries of the Middle East, including Persia and Egypt. Indeed, they became so closely associated with Egypt that they eventually came to believe that they were descendants of the Pharaohs, a legend to which many of their songs still refer—as a result of which they were called Egyptians, or “Gypcians” in English; while, in old Spanish, Gitano was simply a way of saying “Egyptian.” In fact, having no written history, they had forgotten where they really came from.

They reached Spain in the early fifteenth century and quickly spread all over the country. They were not expelled along with the Moors and Jews during the sixteenth century, partly because they represented no threat to the political and religious supremacy of reunified, Christian Spain, and partly because it was simply too difficult to physically get hold of them all. Eventually they were forced to give up their Romani language (now identified by linguists as a simplified version of Sanskrit), as well as their nomadic ways.

Classical guitarist Severo Barrera in concert

Concert
Severo Barrera 
Thurs, Dec 13, 7:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
120 pesos

Severo Barrera will perform masterworks of composers from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods. His selection also will include Spanish and Latin American composers. You will hear work by Bach, Regondi, Albeniz, Barrios, Villalobos and others.

Barrera graduated from the Conservatories of Mexico and Madrid. His varied training includes folkloric, jazz, flamenco and Latin American music. For years he has performed internationally, as well as throughout Mexico. Barrera composes, arranges, engineers and publishes his works, including several recordings. He has written for commercial purposes and movies, as well. Barrera came to San Miguel in 1978 and has been playing locally with groups and as a soloist. 

This performance will be especially delightful thanks to the superior acoustics and intimate setting of Teatro Santa Ana. For those of you with a skilled ear, you will enjoy the competence of Barrera’s classical aptitude and tone. His nimble fingers will amaze and entrance all as you experience these beautiful compositions. Join Barrera for a quality evening of enriched timbre, entertainment and magic. 

Festival de San Miguel de Allende and the Sokokis Institute
By Gilberto Munguia

The Festival de San Miguel de Allende added a new and exciting dimension to its regular season in 2005, presenting five Sokokis Institute scholarship students.

The young musicians came from Yale, the New England Conservatory and the Colburn School of Music in California, and during the week they spent in San Miguel they participated in private lessons and chamber music coaching sessions with the festival artists. At the end of their visit they played an unforgettable concert at Teatro Ángela Peralta. Those in the audience can never forget their passionate performance of the Schumann piano quintet.

Last year, the festival brought three young women (two from LA, one from Chicago), who also exhibited the great talent found today in conservatories. They, too, delighted the festival audience with their musicality and virtuosity. Next month, the festival will present the first Sokokis Institute Scholar: 16-year-old pianist Yuqing Meng. 

The Sokokis Institute’s mission is to develop the artist through participation in a curriculum of related studies, as well as seminars in the field of neuropsychology and the cognitive sciences. It not only offers instruction in the respective disciplines, but also offers courses that will provide the student with techniques to enhance artistic development and to recognize sources of inspiration and expression.

Gilberto Munguia is convinced that the arts are always ahead of human history in the sense that they reflect the feelings of the time before the actual playing out of historical events. Today, the arts, having always served as the acknowledgement of our inherent relationship to each other and to all of life, once again point toward a new direction. As the new century unfolds, our young artists must go out into the world as well-trained missionaries, ready to play their roles as active participants in the new era of development and change. It is clear that as we enter this historic period of transition, the responsibility that every educational institution faces has become even more significant to the intellectual and spiritual development of our artists. At this most auspicious time, the Sokokis Institute will participate most actively in this process.

We intend to recruit young, talented students from Mexico, the US and perhaps other countries. Our goal is to establish an international center for the development of the artist in San Miguel de Allende. The faculty will be composed of the accomplished artists who have always been part of the festival.

Gilberto Munguia is a well-known cellist, founder and director of the Festival de San Miguel de Allende since 1987.