Turkkan sends his thanks
January 9, 2009 San Miguel de Allende

Violin Recital
Turkkan Osman Macías
Tue, Jan 13, 5–6pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
Free

As a way of saying “thank you” to all of the Friends of Turkkan and everyone in his hometown of San Miguel, the young violinist Turkkan Osman Macias is presenting a free recital with local pianist Liz Stone. The recital will include works by Fritz Kreisler, J. S. Bach, Mozart, Max Bruch, and Manuel M. Ponce and Turkkan’s own improvisations on violin and piano.It will last about one hour.

Turkkan has been studying in New York City for the past six months with two renowned violin teachers, Patrinka Kopec and Jonathan Strasser, both with the Manhattan School of Music. He has now applied to six prestigious music schools in New York, Boston, Rochester, Baltimore, Cleveland and Cincinnati and will be returning to New York soon to continue his studies and be nearby when these schools invite him for live auditions. After these auditions he is hopeful that one or more of these schools will accept him as a full-time student in their four-year university programs.

The San Miguel Community Foundation and the Bernard Weisman Foundation, together with a large group of individuals that comprise the “Friends of Turkkan,” have contributed funds to enable him to travel to Manhattan and study there for these past six months, and an additional 10 weeks in 2009 for auditions and further study. During January, February and March he will be living gratis with a friend of one of these “Friends” on Long Island and will commute into Manhattan for his lessons and auditions.

Everyone is invited to this recital. Russ Archibald, one of Turkkan’s supporters, says, “I’m sure that all who hear Turkkan perform will find this to be a very enjoyable experience, and will be rather astounded at his technical abilities and musical expression.”

Turkkan Osman Macías was born in San Miguel de Allende in 1989, grew up here, and started playing the violin with our local Suzuki Children’s String Program at age nine. This year he finished his high school studies and nivel medio superior de music in the Centro Cultural “Ollin Yoliztli” with Maestro Serguei Gorbenko in Mexico City.

Turkkan attended the 9-week Aspen Summer Music Festival and School in the summer of 2007 in Colorado, with support from the SMCF and his group of Friends. His interesting report on his first two months in Manhattan was published in Atención on September 19, 2008, his report on his first trip to New York and Ohio earlier this year was published on May 9, 2008, and his letter describing his experiences at the Aspen Music Festival and School was published on September 14, 2007. All of these can be read in the online edition of Atención at www.atencionsanmiguel.org  by going to the “archives” page, then “music” and then scrolling down to these dates.

Tenor Garciarroyo’s “Opera and Other Tangos” 
By Carolina Vidal

Concert
Opera and Other Tangos
Sat, Jan 17, 7pm
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Mesones 82
100/250/350 pesos

After singing in San Miguel last April and November in a series of concerts organized by Ópera de San Miguel, tenor Rodrigo Garciarroyo has some surprises to enchant the San Miguel audience in his next concert here. 

Carolina Vidal: The title “Opera and Other Tangos” is intriguing. What can you tell us about your next concert?

Rodrigo Garciarroyo: To start my year off by singing here is a tradition of mine, and I wanted to design a concert to share and celebrate 2009 with the San Miguel audience in a very fun and fresh way. It will be a night of singing that includes one of my favorite pieces for three voice ranges: bass, baritone and tenor. We chose the repertoire to create a mixture of passion and humor and will include opera, zarzuela, musicals and tango. To sing tango is something new for me and I find it fascinating. It’s a mixture of tenderness and pain, of huge passion and delicate music. So I’m sure that whoever has gone to my prior concerts, as well as those attending for the first time, will hear something completely new and will spend a wonderful night with us.

CV: Tell us about 2008, which was a special year for you. You debuted in principal roles in New York and Mexico City.

RG: I sang Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera this summer in New York, in the role of Gustavo III. We did the original version set in Sweden instead of the Boston setting. It's a very strong role and vocally very demanding, though it felt comfortable for the color of my voice and the interpretative maturity that I have achieved so far. I think it will be a very important role for me in years to come. The performances were very successful and new opportunities came out of it to sing again in that city.

CV: Yes, we know that this April you’re singing Verdi's Requiem at Lincoln Center.

RG: It is a joy and a wonderful opportunity. Later this November I made my debut as Alfredo in La Traviata in Mexico City, conducted by Juan Carlos Lomónaco with the production of Ópera de México. So I’m in the middle of Verdi, discovering the great master. It is a school of singing in itself, and to sing his repertoire you not only educate your voice, but your very soul is modified.

CV: It’s so good that you’re coming back. Anything else you would like to add?

RG: San Miguel has become my home. Not only because my father has lived here for some years now, but because it is the place from which I have launched what I have been doing in the last three years. For me personally, it has been a venue that has always welcomed me and packed my concerts. The audience of San Miguel and I have trembled together in multiple occasions. San Miguel de Allende is rapidly becoming one of the strategic centers for young Mexican singers. It is known for the warmth and enthusiasm of its audience as well as for the extraordinary labor and commitment of its associations such as Ópera de San Miguel and Pro Musica. You should feel very proud that a small city has such a powerful cultural life. So I want to thank this city, and I have no other way than giving my soul on stage. I will be very glad to see you all very soon.

CV: Thank you, Rodrigo. We’ll wait until January 17 to listen again to your beautiful, powerful voice and to find out which pieces you have chosen especially for us. Let’s begin the year with “Opera and Other Tangos.” Tickets are available at the Peralta box office. 

Biblioteca Concerts

Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A

Javier Estrada
Fri, Jan 9, 7pm
Fri, Jan 16, 7pm
Sala Quetzal
100 pesos

Antonio Cabrero Mendoza
Wed, Jan 14, 7:30pm
Sala Quetzal
100 pesos


Sergio Basurto
Mon, Jan 15, 7:30pm
Sala Quetzal
150 pesos


Junta Flamenca 
Sat, Jan 17, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
200 pesos

These outstanding concerts are part of the Biblioteca Pública’s cultural program. Tickets are available at the theater box office. For concerts at 7pm or after, enter through the Café Santa Ana entrance at Reloj 50A. Seating is limited for Sala Quetzal events. 


Gypsy music night

Guitarist Javier Estrada sings and plays noche de fiesta gitana, the enchanting music from the south. His light touch across the strings and the melodies of the gypsies set an intimate mood. 


Piano concert

Pianist Antonio Cabrero has a flair for combining his classical training with traditional jazz and his own exotic inspirations. He delighted San Miguel audiences twice this December. Cabrero is known throughout Mexico as a symphony conductor, but his piano concerts have assumed new relevance in recent years, due to his passion for improvising over jazz standards and music from Spain, Mexico and India.

Part of the program is a Gershwin medley. Then he takes to the flamenco music of Spain and Manuel de Falla, then back to Mexico with Huapango by Pablo Moncayo.

Folklore harp and flamenco guitar

Sergio Basurto plays traditional rhythms from Latin America and Mexico on guitar and folklore harp. Latin America has many kinds of harps, including the Venezuelan harp, Mexican harp and arpa llanera, the harp of the plain. They are made of thin wood (cedar and pine) and are much lighter than the European harp. Playing style and techniques are dynamic in contrast to the softer European tone. The sound is bright with a shorter sustain period after the plucking of each note.

Flamenco: 200 years young 
By Luis Clemente

Teatro Santa Ana presents the second performance of Junta Flamenca—singers, dancers, guitarist, percussion and invited special guests. Breathe the air of flamenco’s passion and mystery. 

Flamenco is a young art form and following the incorporation of the guitar, it has been in constant flux. It is one of the richest and most singular forms of music in the world.

Flamenco is all about absorption and metabolism. The concept of fusion is very old, but it has been referred to in different ways, and sometimes it has happened unintentionally. Many years ago, Caracol said, “You can sing with an orchestra and you can sing with bagpipes! You can sing with everything! With bagpipes, with a violin, with a flute.”

“New flamenco” is not a product of the eighties; other flamenco types have existed for decades. 

Flamenco’s origins are shrouded in darkness. All folklore comes from old traditions, from collective creations, but it is thought that flamenco is a little over two centuries old.

In the romanticism of the nineteenth century, flamenco was defined as we now know it. The word “flamenco” was first applied to the art around the middle of the century. According to researchers, the first flamenco artists arrived in Madrid in 1853, and in 1881, the first Colección de cantes flamencos was published, written by Antonio Machado y Álvarez. By that time, an ongoing dispute had already become apparent between two groups. When flamenco became professional in the cafés cantantes, one group defended the uncontaminated purity of the art form, and the other defended its projection through new channels.

The twentieth century was a period of recreation, copy and restoration, and interpretation.
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