Bohemian Night Benefit
Sat, Aug 22, 8pm
El Sindicato
Recreo 4
200 pesos general, 
100 pesos students

Benefit features myriad musical styles
By Mauro Ledesma

This Bohemian Night benefit brings together for the first time on the same stage some of the most important musicians in San Miguel de Allende. These famous musicians are united by the noble cause of raising money to assist with cancer treatment for a local San Miguel resident, Esperanza Martínez Amarillas.

She was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and has encountered numerous problems with her treatment. She is a selfless woman who is known for reaching out to her neighbors. She is constantly offering her help and support and now in turn needs help from her community. A single mother of eight, Esperanza has been supporting all of her children since the death of her husband. Each ticket is crucial in providing desperately needed medicine to give her the best end-of-life care possible.

Bohemian Night features many internationally known musicians from different backgrounds and styles. First is Xavier Hernández, a well-known tenor born in San Miguel, who has performed throughout Mexico and around the world. Luis Fernando Méndez is a famous salsa singer from El Salvador currently residing in San Miguel.

Other singers include Gabriela Perales, a versatile singer from Saltillo who specializes in opera but also is adept at boleros, and Alicia Rappoport, an Argentinean-born tango singer. Joining the singers are well-known San Miguel pianists, Enrique Prado and Mauro Ledesma, who frequently perform duets and solo concerts around Mexico. Excellent accordionist Camille Garcia and his wife, the great singer Luz Arellano, will perform, too. Also, some surprise important guests will take part.

The event will highlight the different styles of the musicians such as tangos, boleros, rock and classical. Assisting with the event is director Gustavo Castro, known for films such as The Violinist.

Doors open at 8pm, and one drink is included in the ticket cost. All proceeds go directly to Esperanza Martínez Amarillas. Any other amount or form of donation is welcome. For any questions or donations, contact Mauro Ledesma: mauroledesma@hotmail.com. 



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Jazz Concert
Gabriel Hernández, Víctor Monterrubio, Tyler Mitchell
Fri, Aug 21, 7:30pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Hernández Macías & Mesones
100, 80 and 50 pesos

Cuban Music
Tribute to pianist Gabriel Hernández Díaz
Gabriel Hernández, Kimani Larrazana and others
Benefit Centro de Crecimiento
Fri, Aug 28, 7:30pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Hernández Macías & Mesones
120, 80 and 50 pesos


Gabriel Hernández, Jazz and Cuban music
By Jesús Ibarra

On Friday, August 21, the Teatro Ángela Peralta holds a jazz concert with a trio of renowned musicians, all of them San Miguel residents. Cuban born Gabriel Hernández Cadena on piano, Mexican born Víctor Monterrubio on drums and Chicago’s Tyler Mitchell on bass, play jazz pieces composed by Hernández.

“Each piece has a different characteristic, regarding style and jazz genre, and each piece is dedicated to a personality in the piano sphere,” says Hernández. “‘Kenny’s tune’ is dedicated to Kenny Barron and clearly demonstrates the swing style; another composition is ‘Tribute to Chick Corea’, dedicated to this pianist, and it’s harmonically complex with an avant-garde sound.”

Son of the renowned pianist, Gabriel Hernández Díaz, Gabriel Hernández Cadena was born in Camaguey, Cuba. He began his music studies in the conservatory of Camaguey and then in the National Art School of La Habana. 

“Since I was a kid, I was eager to play jazz,” says Hernández. “After finishing school I did my internship with singer and composer Pablo Milanés. I also studied music in Moscow and became a teacher in Spain for more than a year. In Cuba, I founded a jazz group called Fervet Opus, which was an avant-garde jazz quartet. We traveled to several international festivals in Europe. The quartet disintegrated, and now each one of us live in different country.”

Hernández came to Mexico for the first time for a six-month contract with a company called Tropicana. He fell in love with Mexico. He then came to the Jazz Festival in San Miguel, and he decided to stay. Currently, he is an 11-year resident in our city. 

On August 28, Hernández offers another concert in the Peralta, this time playing the bass. He’s accompanied by other Mexican and Cuban singers, among them Kimani Larrazana from Cuba, playing the percussion. “It will be a journey around the different types of Cuban music, and it will be a tribute to my father, Gabriel Hernández Díaz, who also lives in San Miguel,” said Hernández. This concert benefits the Centro de Crecimiento. 



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Benefit Concert
The Sconek-T
Fri, Aug 21, 7pm
Hotel Real de Minas
Ancha de San Antonio
Donation 150 pesos
Reservations: conservacion.ac@gmail.com 


Chamber Rock with The Sconek-T
By Carmen Riojas

On August 21, we have the unique opportunity to hear a live performance by a string and percussion ensemble of extraordinary conservatory musicians.

At this event to support the recovery of Mexican cultural and archaeological heritage, the proceeds will benefit civil associations and go toward the expense allowance for this band that will travel to London to record their next album.

The members of The Sconek-T—Israel Torres Araiza on lead violin, Omar Sánchez on rhythm cello, Eliasib Morán on rhythm violin and Adrián Molina on the Peruvian cajón (box drum)—have received instruction from important masters of cello, violin and percussion, as well as famed string quartets such as the Turtle Island String Quartet, St. Petersburg Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Casals, Ying, Fine Arts Quartet, Amazonía, Corigliano, Latinoamericáno and Paul Pestka. They have participated in master classes and clinics at festivals in Mexico, South America, the US and Europe.

Three young graduates of the Bellas Artes National Institute’s Escuela Superior de Música in the National Center of the Arts formed the ensemble in January 2007. In spite of their short careers, they have performed in venues from public plazas to malls to concert halls, in various cities in the Republic’s interior and Mexico City, where the acceptance of both the public and the critics has been very positive.

Currently they are working to perfect their group and are shooting for the artistic-musical panorama of the twenty-first century. They fuse their knowledge of classical music with other musical genres like rock, Latin-American music and soundtracks, as well as electronic and visual media. They create original arrangements with a modern touch, resulting in music that is refreshing for every type of audience.

In the words of the group’s members: “The repertoire of our concerts is especially varied. People of distinct ages and tastes are satisfied with the resulting sound we achieve; in this way we reach a lot more people than we would playing only one style. People of other generations and strangers to heavy rock music ask about what we are playing. They are surprised when we tell them the kind of music and the genres we cover, since they like how we interpret them.”

Although the group has only been around for a short time, in the year after the group was founded, they won the Instituto Politécnico Nacional band contest, as well as the Instituto Mexicano de la Juventud’s search for artistic projects. The Spanish magazine Indy Rocks has placed them on their website’s selection of recommended sounds.

Currently they are working on the promotion of their first disc, Acoustic Project. This year, The Sconek-T won the México en Escena scholarship that CENART (National Center for the Arts) awards through FONCA (National Foundation of Culture and Arts), and this support will go toward recording their second CD at 5A Studios in London.

Tickets are on sale in the office inside Hotel Real de Minas, or by phone, 152-2626. They can be reserved by email at conservacion.ac@gmail.com  as well.

The donation of 150 pesos goes to support the musicians and two NGOs—Instituto de Conservación de la Cultura and the Asociación Mexicana de Hoteles y Establecimientos de Hospedaje de San Miguel de Allende.

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31st Chamber Music festival
Fri, Aug 14, 8pm Jupiter Quartet 
Sat, Aug 15, 8pm Jupiter Quartet w/ Natasha Tarásova, piano

Festival Finale Fiesta 
Sun, Aug 16, 5pm, Festival Finale, String Encounter

Teatro Ángela Peralta
“String Theory—Art on Violins” silent auction &
Baroque Fashion: XVI–XX Century 
Barbara Porter designs

Sun, Aug 16, 6pm
Hotel Casa Linda
Mesones 101
www.festivalsanmiguel.com 


Festival closes with grand finale
By Atención staff

The 31st Chamber Music festival closes with the Festival Finale Fiesta, a spectacular evening where advanced music students unite on a grand scale to form a chamber orchestra.

 The night promises to thrill audiences with the sonorities and colors of all their instruments interpreting the music of favored and beloved composers and is the performance highlight of the enthusiastic work of festival advanced music students with their peers. 


String Theory, art auction

San Miguel’s leading visual artists have added a unique vision of the festival with specially commissioned interpretations of the violin to raise funds for festival programs. Bids on the more than 20 works of art, on display in the Teatro Ángela Peralta lobby, continue until Sunday afternoon. The festival wishes to thank the participating artists for their contributions to the art auction: Jeanette Abrahamson, Patti Bess, Mary Breneman, Leonard Brooks, Gustavo Fernadez Coria, Toller Cranston, Alain Durbecq, Juan Ezcurdia, Miguel Angel Fernández, Guadalupe Jiménez, David Kestenbaum, Peter Leventhal, David Leonardo, Anado McLauchlin, Don Miller, Pat Miller, Lothar Muller, Sioban O’Donoghue, Rebecca Peterson, Eric Rivera, Adrian Ross, Romeo Tabuena, Lulu Torbet and Michael Wiebach. 

The Festival Finale Fiesta at Hotel Casa Linda on August 16, is free for Season Pass holders and members of the new Chamber Music Festival Society. Memberships are on sale in the theater lobby and festival office at Bella Artes.