Go for Baroque festival to return in 2008
By B. K. Lake, May 18, 2007

The second “Go for Baroque—and More!” Festival will be presented March 9-16, 2008, following an enthusiastic response to the first festival last March.

“Many people discovered Baroque music as it was originally conceived,” said Rodrigo Trevino Lozano, the festival’s director. “The artistic director and the musicians prepared well-balanced programs that were played with period instruments, using the right articulation and pitch. The result was music that was crystal clear, yet rich in sound and full of feeling. Many people who said before the festival that they did not like Baroque music came to me to confess that they loved what they heard.”

“The magic of San Miguel was an important factor in making the festival a unique experience,” he added. “People can attend baroque concerts in a concert hall in any city, but San Miguel is a baroque city where baroque culture is still alive and part of everyday life.”

The festival, a collaboration of the San Miguel el Grande Pro Música and the Camerata Ventapane of Houston, presented seven concerts of German, French and Italian baroque music from the period ending about 1750. Musicians from the Camerata Ventapane and the Capella Guanajuatensis, led by artistic director Barrett Sills, performed on rare instruments from the Baroque period. 

Five concerts were presented in San Miguel and one each in Querétaro and Guanajuato. Each concert was in a different location, including the Sala Franciscana of the ex-convent of San Antonio de Padua, behind the San Francisco Church, the music room of a private San Miguel home, and Querétaro’s Santa Rosa de Viterbo Church, which has a baroque organ.

To the relief of its organizers, the more than 1,000 tickets sold, about 90 percent of capacity, covered the budget of approximately US$20,000. “We don’t want it to get any bigger,” said Michael Pearl, treasurer of Pro Musica. “It was the right size in every sense.”

“To have such carefully planned and balanced programs that ran the whole gamut of the Baroque era given in performances of incomparable verve and mastery was itself a triumph, but to experience the music in such a range of exquisite settings added a whole extra dimension to the experience,” said Nigel Coxe, an international concert pianist. Coxe winters each year in San Miguel and presented a Pro Musica concert last February.

“For those new to Baroque music, one could imagine no more appealing and seductive introduction,” he added. “With San Miguel so full of secret places that cry out for music, the week was an inspired conception and for this listener brilliantly achieved.” 

Henry Kirby of Houston, president of the Ventapane Camarata and one of the organizers of the festival, said, “the large number of those involved who contributed to its success should know how deeply indebted one feels to all of them. So, here’s to the next one!”

Benefit concert for ALMA


Benefit concert for ALMA
Carolina Miller & Tuna Traditional
Sun, May 20, 4–6pm
Los Frailes
100 pesos
154-0186

ALMA, the home for the elderly in San Miguel, is very pleased to announce that singer/songwriter Carolina Miller, who has performed regularly on US radio shows and at concerts in both the US and Europe, has agreed to give a benefit concert for ALMA on Sunday May 20 from 4–6pm. The event is held in the beautiful shaded garden of Nonie Mulcater’s ranch in Los Frailes, Pedro Paramo, El Mirador below the castle and to the right. Also performing is the wonderful Tuna Traditional, local troubadours who carry on the rich tradition of songs from 17th century Spain and Mexico. There will be a cash bar, so cool drinks can be enjoyed throughout the event and tickets are available in the Jardín from May 9 to May 19 from 10am to 1pm and the gate. It would be hard to find a more wonderful way to spend a Sunday afternoon than surrounded by friends, in a beautiful shady garden enjoying joyful music. Call 154-0186 for information. Tickets are 100 pesos.