By Liz Stone

December brings the 10th annual concert of the San Miguel Singers, a group of people who gather weekly at the home of their director, Liz Stone, to make music together.

Holiday Concert
Fri, Dec 13, 5pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
More info: 154-8239
Free

For the second year they will be joined by a handbell choir and a recorder consort. This will be an unusual opportunity to hear handbells, which will accompany the choir and some soloists as well as play a variety of pieces.

Handbells are an unusual instrument in which each player must play only a part of the piece. The movement has been compared to “a dance for the arms,” and how you play is almost as important as what you play. The bells themselves belong to St. Paul’s Church, and we are grateful for permission to use them over the last few years.

The recorder consort consists of four sizes of instruments, showing off the diversity of this ancient instrument. During its heyday in the Renaissance, many wonderful pieces were written for it by such people as William Byrd, Frescobaldi and Gibbons which will be heard that evening. The group will finish with a medley of Christmas carols, ending with Jingle Bells in which the audience may of course join in.

Although the concert will consist largely of Christmas music, the chorus will also perform some songs just for fun. The concert is free. However, a free will offering will be taken to support ALMA, the home for the elderly. We will donate this in the name of Rosalie Gower, a former singer with the group and volunteer at ALMA who sadly died this year.

Over the years the Singers have given concerts to benefit many San Miguel institutions, among them Hospice San Miguel, the orphanage on Sollano, and ALMA. We sing for the seniors at ALMA several times each year.

Photo by Chuck Rubin

By Michael Pearl

Violinist Timothy Fain

Timothy Fain and his collaborative pianist, William Ransom, will give two sizzling concerts for Pro Musica this Saturday and Sunday, December 7 and 8, both at 5pm. With his adventuresome spirit and vast musical gifts, Tim has emerged as a mesmerizing new presence on the music scene. The “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts, and first rate chops” (Boston Globe), was most recently seen on screen and heard on the soundtrack of the new hit film Black Swan, and heard as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in Fox Searchlight’s feature film Bee Season. Selected as one of Symphony and Strad magazines’ “Up-and-Coming Musicians,” Fain captured the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Young Concert Artists International Award. As The Washington Post recently raved, “Fain has everything he needs for a first-rate career.”

Pro Musica Concert Series
Violinist Timothy Fain, accompanied by pianist Will Ransom
Sat & Sun, Dec 7 & 8, 5pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
100/200/300 pesos

He recently electrified audiences at debuts with the Baltimore Symphony with conductor Marin Alsop, at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He has also appeared with the Cincinnati Chamber Symphony, Brooklyn and Hague Philharmonics and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in a special performance at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center. In addition, he was the featured soloist with the Philip Glass Ensemble at Carnegie Hall in a concert version of Einstein on the Beach and recently toured Europe in a duo-recital program with Philip Glass.

A dynamic and compelling performer in traditional works, he is also a fervent champion of 20th and 21st century composers, with a repertoire ranging widely from Beethoven and Tchaikovsky to Aaron Jay Kernis and John Corigliano. As the Los Angeles Times recently noted, Fain’s career “is based, in part, on new music and new ways of thinking about classical music.” His provocative debut CD, Arches, music for solo violin, reflects Fain’s inquisitive passion and intellect, combining old and new solo works by J.S. Bach, Fritz Kreisler, Kevin Puts, Mark O’Connor, Daniel Ott and Randy Woolf. His new disc, River of Light (Naxos), brings the tradition of the virtuosic short piece into the present, with short works by living American composers.

He performs on a violin made by Franceso Gobetti, the Moller, Venice 1717, on extended loan from Clement and Karen Arrison, through the generous efforts of the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

In last week’s Atención I wrote about the music Tim and Will are going to play on Saturday. On Sunday, the pair will perform a different program of music spanning three centuries. The program includes Beethoven’s Sonata No.10, fittingly called The Cockcrow, which exudes a host of moods distinctly marked through wild key changes and rhythms. The music effectively conveys a combination of the inner turmoil and challenges of aging with moments of seemingly youthful bursts of energy. Gentle ease, despair, calm and carefree presto vitality stride softly and loudly throughout the four movements. It’s Beethoven letting loose in ways that create complex unconventional structures that have little in common with his previous sonatas.

Less ebullient yet equally exciting are the five melodic themes that constitute Schubert’s Duo Sonata in A major. One wants this 20-minute masterpiece to continue without end.

In addition to Schubert, two other 19th-century composers are featured on the program — Kreisler and Vieuxtemps. Kreisler, deemed the greatest violinist of his time, included in his compositional repertoire a series of dances. Two of them bear titles reflecting the opposite poles of love’s ecstasy and pain. Fain will perform Liebesleid (Love’s Sorrow), the more popular piece of the love duo. Highly sentimental, this piece’s enduring melody features incredible pathos and sadness. It always brings tears to the eyes.

Vieuxtemps’ Souvenir d’Amerique also has a dazzling effect as it opens with a Paganini introduction, followed by Yankee Doodle in a series of variations that sport great humor. What a crowd pleaser! Instantly recognizable is this American traditional folk song, it will be coupled with Glory Hallelujah — a mainstay reminder of the inimitable importance of gospel music — the heartbeat of America.

Returning to the film Black Swan, Tim’s violin playing is so fantastic that we are giving you the chance to see the movie at the Teatro Santa Ana in the Biblioteca, today, Friday, December 6, at 5 pm. Tickets only available from the Biblioteca.

Tickets for the concerts, at 100, 200 and 300 pesos donation each, are available at La Tienda in the Biblioteca, Insurgentes 25; Solutions, Mesones 57; La Conexión, Aldama 3; St. Paul’s Church, calle Cardo 6, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, and at the door half an hour before the concert begins.

The quality of the music and opera Pro Musica brings to San Miguel, our unique Rhythm, Rhyme & Reason program, teaching music in underprivileged schools in the campo, and our work in the city’s orphanages, costs increasing amounts of money to provide. The best way to help us fund our activities is to become a Patron Member. Patron membership costs as little US$100 per year, is US tax deductible, and includes many benefits, such as complimentary concert tickets and Meet the Artists suppers and cocktail parties. For information on all of Pro Musica’s concerts for the 2013-2014 season and Patron Membership, please visit our website: promusicasma.com.

Providing further proof that Concurso San Miguel is discovering the most promising young opera singers in Mexico, Aida, Verdi’s grandest of grand operas was given four performances in November in Mexico City, starring three young singers first discovered by San Miguel’s eponymous contest. Sponsored by Opera San Miguel, the Concurso identified early on the talents of soprano Fabiola Venegas, who sang the title role; tenor José Manuel Chu as her love interest, Radamés; and baritone Ricardo López who portrayed her father, Amonasro. Since Concurso San Miguel helped bring them to prominence, Ms. Venegas in 2008, Mr. Chu and Mr. López in 2009, all three have embarked on international careers! This year’s Concurso is scheduled for Saturday, March 8, at Teatro Ángela Peralta.

The production, presented by the Instituto Polytecnico Nacional (IPN), boldly transferred the opera’s action from Egypt in the time of the Pharoahs to Aztec-era Mexico, circa 1450. The concept succeeded brilliantly in the vision of director César Piña. A cast of experienced professional soloists joined the IPN student chorus and ballet in what can only be described as a remarkable achievement. In an evening that defied all expectations, this Aida proved that imagination, creativity and talent can succeed where big budgets and tradition sometimes fail.

The opera was presented on a unit set that worked surprisingly well for both the private moments and the grand public scenes. Mr. Piña moved his large forces expertly, staging a Triumphal Scene that lived up to its name. The only serious mis-step was the pantomimed prologue, with IPN students loading up a cartoonish school bus to go off to perform the opera. Clashing with the music of the prelude, the message seemed to be, “forgive us, we’re only students trying to put on an opera.” This evening definitely needed no apology.

The principal singers were, for the most part, singing their roles for the first time, bringing a welcome freshness to this well-known music. As Aida, Ms. Venegas sang with elegant lyricism and floating pianissimos. Essentially a lyric soprano, she had no trouble riding over the combined orchestra and chorus in the big moments. Mr. Chu was an ideal Radamés, tender, lyric, and ultimately triumphant in his big aria, “Celeste Aida.” He had the requisite power for the Triumphal Scene and the vocal stamina to finish the night with melting lyricism in the final duet. Ricardo López was a stentorian Amonasro, delivering his condemnation of Aida with force and fury.

Also in the cast were mezzo-soprano Belem Rodríguez as Amneris, the King’s jealous daughter. She is a true Verdian, with the voice, power and charisma to sing this role on any stage. Two members of Opera San Miguel’s Advisory Board were also in the cast. Bass Rosendo Flores gave an expert Ramfis, strongly sung, confident and fierce. And as the King/Moctezuma, bass Charles Oppenheim was secure and dignified, singing with grace while contending with an enormous feathered head-dress. (The costumes all evening were imaginatively designed and skillfully executed, often evoking classic film representations of ancient Mexico.) The IPN chorus performed very well in this difficult assignment, and the dancers of the Folkloric and Contemporary dance companies of IPN added color and swirling action, making important contributions in the extensive ballet scenes.

The evening’s conductor was Ivan López. At 23, this rising star has an important career ahead of him. He led the Orquesta Sinfónica del IPN with confidence and authority, effortlessly synchronizing the assembled forces and building up the big climaxes with power, control and excitement. His orchestra responded very well indeed, but one could only imagine what this conductor will one day do with an orchestra experienced in this style and repertoire.

The biggest winner, though, was Concurso San Miguel, which is cementing its reputation throughout the country for discovering and promoting the careers of the most talented young singers in Mexico today. Solely supported through the generosity of individuals and businesses in our city, the Angels of the Opera are among the brightest lights of this, The Best City in the World!

For information on how to support of the important work of Opera San Miguel and its Concurso, please email OperaAngelsSMA@aol.com.

By D.K. Ross

“He plays. She sings. Well, sometimes she plays too. And truth be told, he also sings. At least he does during the guitar solos. Something you can only see if you are…Up close and personal.”

On Saturday, December 7, Fowler & Gotés will present a concert that will be a decided departure from their previous concerts. You could call it Fowler & Gotés Unplugged. Or Fowler & Gotés Solo (if you can call a duo ‘solo’). Unlike their previous concerts, which have included other musicians and focused on a theme, this performance will spotlight the unique and integrated sound of the duo.

Concert
Fowler & Gotés in Concert
Acoustic Rock and Blues
Sat, Dec 7, 7:30pm
Shelter Theater
Vincent Guerrero 4
Phone: 154-7524
120 pesos/80 pesos balcony
Tickets available in advance at La Biblioteca, La Brasserie and Shelter

Although they are only two, they are known for their full sound, perfectly complementing and enhancing each other for a symbiotic, seemingly effortless exchange of musical energy and creativity. “It’s hard to believe just two people with guitars had us all up dancing,” said one guest at a recent event.

The concert will be presented by Kate Fowler (voice and guitar) and Rolando Gotés (guitar) and will include some of their favorite music as well as the songs best-loved and most requested by listeners. From Eric Clapton to Neil Young, Taj Mahal and James Taylor to Canned Heat, the range of the duo has prompted fans to say ‘these two can do anything.’

Fowler’s voice has been called sultry and when she sings the blues her voice is powerful and earthy. She is known for her unique phrasing, diction and timing.

Gotés is a lifelong career guitarist, starting his professional musical journey as a classical guitarist and later discovering his love of improvisation. Gotés has won several awards for compositions and was musical director for the renowned musical school Instituto de Música Santa Cecilia in Torreon in northern Mexico.

The two are personable, skilled musicians who rely on themselves, not electronic gadgetry or sound tracks, to entertain audiences. Following one concert, an audience member said ‘Kate is so warm and welcoming on stage, it’s like hearing a concert in someone’s living room.’

“We like to create atmospheres,” said Fowler, “that’s the main reason we’ve chosen the Shelter Theatre for this event. It’s the most intimate of available performance spaces in San Miguel and truly one of a kind. In this space, you can be up close and personal and be a part of what we do.”

Following Fowler and Gotés’ sold-out concert in March, ‘Wild Women Do Get the Blues,’ one audience member said, “The concert was amazing. If talent is an indicator, you should be sold out again and again. Thank you for the history lesson and the great music.”

Having just returned from a week-long tour in Coahuila, Fowler & Gotés are thrilled to be returning to the Shelter for the ‘Up Close and Personal’ concert on December 7. Don’t miss the duo that has been called ‘San Miguel’s best kept secret.’

Will Ransom

Virtuoso violinist Tim Fain, back in San Miguel by overwhelming popular demand, will perform two concerts for Pro Musica on Saturday and Sunday, December 7 and 8, at 5pm at St. Paul’s Church, calle Cardo 6. Fain’s career has soared; the “charismatic young violinist with a matinee idol profile, strong musical instincts and first rate chops” (Boston Globe) was most recently seen on screen and heard on the soundtrack of the hit film The Black Swan, and heard as the sound of Richard Gere’s violin in the feature film Bee Season. A dynamic and compelling performer in traditional works, he is also a fervent champion of 20th and 21st century composers; as the Los Angeles Times recently noted, his career “is based, in part, on new music and new ways of thinking about classical music.” A native of Santa Monica, California, Fain is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School. He performs on a violin made by Francesco Gobetti in Venice (1717), the Moller.

Pro Musica Concert Series
Violinist Timothy Fain, accompanied by pianist Will Ransom
Sat & Sun, Dec 7 & 8, 5pm
St. Paul’s Church
Calle Cardo 6
100/200/300 pesos

Fain will be accompanied by Will Ransom on the piano. More accurately, we should say that Ransom is Fain’s collaborative pianist. Ransom has appeared in recital, as soloist with orchestras and as a chamber musician in Eastern and Western Europe, Japan, Korea, South America, Mexico and throughout the United States. Born in Boston, Ransom began his musical studies at an early age. He was a scholarship student of William Masselos at the Juilliard School and he also worked with Theodore Lettvin at the University of Michigan and Madame Gaby Casadesus at the Ravel Academy in France. Ransom is currently the Mary L. Emerson Professor of Piano and head of the piano faculty at Emory University in Atlanta.

The two concerts will have entirely different programs, so why not come to both and enjoy a cornucopia of music? On Saturday, Fain will demonstrate that he is one of the few violinists able to transverse a huge variety of musical genres and periods and maintain their separate identities. The program features an exciting cornucopia of composers whose works span a wide girth, from the 17th to the 20th century.

Bach’s Partita in B Minor will showcase Fain’s remarkable technical skill. Glazunov’s Meditation will fill the air with exceptional expressive beauty. Love awakening in spring or a stroll across a meadow of wild flowers comes to mind in this romantic three-minute piece. The sweet lyricism of Tchaikovsky seems to infuse the melody. Muly’s Drones is an innovative work, which clearly defines Fain’s remarkable arrangement acumen.

Composers Pablo de Sarasate and the whimsical Henryk Wieniawsky pump up the program’s flavors with exotic compositional twists on the tarantella dance theme. Added to this mix is Britell’s Tango della Notte. Indeed, the program is so eclectic that references to the past and present put the known with the lesser known. Everyone is familiar with the extremely sweet melody of the Mendelssohn/Kreisler’s Song without Words. Such plaintive music! It is so heartfelt, any budding poet is sure to put his/her own words to this inspiring work. It is graceful in sentiment, as the eternally appealing melody captures our attention and awakens our emotion. Sometimes, the simplest is the most sublime. Fritz Kreisler was the greatest violinist of his time.

Equally stirring is the F Major Sonata by Mendelssohn. It reveals the composer’s darker side while enriching the classical mood of this ambitious program. Sinding’s cleverly colorful piece, Moto Perpetuo, will have you thinking a bee is flying around your ear, but it’s merely the mesmerizing playing of Fain producing his own brilliant violin buzz.

Sunday’s program contains an equal mixture of fascinating virtuoso pieces, styles and periods of music, and I will write about these in my article in Atención next week. In collaboration with this weekend of music making we will be showing the film The Black Swan, in which Fain not only plays all the violin music, but also appears. This will be on Friday, December 6, at 5 pm, Teatro Santa Ana in the Biblioteca. Tickets are available only at the Biblioteca.

Tickets for the concerts, at 100, 200 and 300 pesos donation each, are available at La Tienda in the Biblioteca, Insurgentes 25; Solutions, Mesones 57; La Conexión, Aldama 3; St. Paul’s Church, calle Cardo 6, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, and at the door half an hour before the concert begins.

The quality of the music, opera and dance Pro Musica brings to San Miguel, our unique Rhythm, Rhyme & Reason program, teaching music in underprivileged schools in the campo, and our work in the city’s orphanages, costs increasing amounts of money to provide. The best way to help us fund our activities is to become a Patron Member. Patron membership costs as little US$100 per year, is US tax-deductible, and includes many benefits, such as complimentary concert tickets and Meet the Artists suppers and cocktail parties. For information on all of Pro Musica’s concerts for the 2013-2014 season and Patron Membership, please visit our website: promusicasma.com.

By Kathleen Hudson

Texas Heritage Music Foundation

Marta García Renart will interpret “Shaping Silence,” a twelve-movement opus by Tim Hazell and Liz Stone on November 23, 7:00 pm at St Paul’s Church.  Marta’s life has been defined by her love affair with black and white; music manuscripts, piano keys, the concert stage and, recently, a new book, “Recorridos por el Blanco y Negro de la Música.”  Born in Mexico City in 1942 to an extraordinary family of arts and letters, she has enjoyed an international career, managing to combine her passion with family life, teaching and regular forays into uncharted territory as a leading exponent of the avant garde.

As she embarked on a singular vocation, Marta found herself in demand as a soloist, conductor, composer of choral works, chamber music, minimalist opera and as host of a weekly radio program.  Her recent opera, “The Pot of Eleven Ears,” blending the sonorities of two female voices, a flute, piano trombone and guitar, demonstrated her inventiveness for combining disparate elements with mastery and flair.

The pianist brings a vision of the world and cultures she has encountered to her knack for interpreting the works of major Latin American and international composers.  She has also become a champion of original and provocative music of our time.

She has traveled to the United States, Cuba and El Salvador, participating in chamber and contemporary music festivals.  As a resident pianist with the San Miguel Chamber Music Festival, Marta has been a regular with the Fine Arts, Lark, Manhattan, Latinoamericano and Ying Quartets.

Hazell and Stone’s “Shaping Silence” conveys deep emotions with twelve evocative, sometimes meditative, playful and often visually charged themes.  Composed on an array of instruments such as guitar, mandolin, marimba and sitar, the challenge for its creators was to adapt these unique ethnic sonorities to the unparalleled range and tonal colors of the piano.  Ms Renart comes to the collaboration with previous experience and success, infusing their music with her own restless inner life.

General admission tickets for the performance are 150 pesos, available beginning November 15 at La Conexion, Aldama #3, La Tienda in the Biblioteca Publica, Insurgentes #25, Solutions, Mesones #57 and at St. Paul’s Church, Calle Cardo #6, weekdays 10 am to 4 pm, and at the door half an hour prior to the performance.

By Michael Pearl

Alexander Pashkov

Maestro Alexander Pashkov is a Russian with Mexican spirit. There is no question that Pashkov has a uniquely intense style of playing which sweeps up the audience in its all-encompassing, transcendental whirlwind and leaves it hovering in a space that makes you feel you are in the presence of the composer whose works Pashkov is playing. Alex Pashkov is a multi-talented, Russian-born pianist, who will play one concert only on Sunday, November 17, 4pm, at St. Paul’s Church, calle Cardo 6. He is well known in San Miguel de Allende for having accompanied virtuoso American violinist Timothy Fain for us a few years ago. His playing so impressed audiences that they demanded Pashkov return to give solo recitals. He did return last season and gave two scintillating solo recitals for Pro Musica, which were widely acclaimed.

Concert
Pro Musica Concert Series
Pianist Alexander Pashkov
Sun, Nov 17, 4pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
100/200/300 pesos

Alex, now 40, grew up in a musical family; his father, Alexander Vasilevich Pashkov, was also a pianist and teacher, and directed Pashkov junior’s early musical studies. At the age of 14, Pashkov entered the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in his native St. Petersburg, where his teachers were the famed Professor Matygulin and the composer Nesterov. In 1992, he won the nomination of Young Talent of Russia in the inaugural Ippolitov-Ivanov competition in Moscow, graduating the following year as the Conservatory’s outstanding pianist. In 1995, he went on to win the prestigious Gartow Stiftung in Hamburg, with an additional special award for his performance of Chopin.

Pashkov continued in a teaching career at the Art Liceum in St. Petersburg and won an award as Best Teacher. He is currently Professor of Piano at the Conservatory of Las Roses, Morelia’s outstanding music academy and the oldest conservatory in the Americas. Pashkov teaches the history and theory of music and European philosophy of pianism. He is the author of a book on the performing analysis of Chopin’s etudes, a collection of essays on the ethics of performance and methods of learning a technically demanding repertoire, and is currently working on a book entitled The Philosophy of Music.

Pashkov’s playing is a finely balanced amalgam of his rigorous Russian technical training combined with a spiritual connection to the music that can sometimes be seen in the trance-like expression of ecstasy on his face, conveying that he is one with the composer in another world. In my view, he is far and away the most brilliant pianist living in Mexico. Pashkov himself, actually the most modest of men, nevertheless says that he plays as well as the incomparable Horowitz. Wherever you place him in the canon of pianists, there is no doubt that his performances are technically brilliant and utterly compelling. It is for that reason Pro Musica has invited him back to continue his exploration of the classical romantic piano repertoire.

This concert features works by those classic romantic composers whose works continue to thrill audiences. It will be an evening full of romance, reflection and imagery. The musical energy is youthful, yet suggestive of all that matures into wisdom with enduring results. Schubert’s Grose Sonata’s three movements offer harmonic beauty within a framework of solemnity and playfulness. Contrasts abound and the complexity of this work will surely impress. Sadly, Schubert died before he could hear his composition performed in public—a poignant fact that makes this performance of this grand sonata—all the more special.

Mendelssohn’s Seven Characteristic Piece offers an eclectic treat of lyrical beauty, whimsy and nostalgia. This piece epitomizes a young man entering adulthood. Only 18 years old, Mendelssohn’s popular melodies that weave throughout the sentimental music surely attest to the composer’s reconciling the innocence of youth as it rushes inevitably towards the apprehensiveness of adulthood. Tempo, moods and keys swing back and forth in this wondrous work set the listener on his/her own personal journey of yearning and nostalgia.

Grieg’s Lyric Pieces vividly paint images of nature, loneliness and mystery. Fifteen titles make up this stirring collection. Each piece conveys a scene; a variety of moods fills the air as distinctive images seem to float through the music. The listener is transported to another time where life was simpler and love flourished in leaps and bounds. You will most likely recognize the famous Wedding Day at Troldhaugen—the final piece in this highly appealing work. Such is the happy note Grieg leaves with us.

Tickets for the concert, at 100/200/300 pesos donation each, are available at La Tienda in the Biblioteca, Insurgentes 25; Solutions, Mesones 57; La Conexión, Aldama 3; St. Paul’s Church, calle Cardo 6, Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, and at the door half an hour before the concert begins.

The quality of the music, opera and dance Pro Musica brings to San Miguel, our unique Rhythm, Rhyme & Reason program, teaching music in underprivileged schools in the campo, and our work in the city’s orphanages, costs increasing amounts of money to provide. The best way to help us fund our activities is to become a Patron Member. Patron membership costs as little as US$100 per year, is US tax deductible, and includes many benefits, such as complimentary concert tickets and Meet the Artists suppers and cocktail parties. For information on all of Pro Musica’s concerts for the 2013-2014 season and Patron Membership, please visit our website: promusicasma.com.

Renowned pianist Marta García Renart performs Shaping Silence, an original classical suite of 12 movements for solo piano by composers Tim Hazell and Liz Stone at St. Paul’s Church Saturday, November 23, 7pm.

Concert
Shaping Silence
Pianist Marta García Renart
12 movements for solo piano by Tim Hazell and Liz Stone
Sat, Nov 23, 7pm
St. Paul’s Church
Cardo 6
150 pesos

Tickets at La Conexión, La Biblioteca, Solutions and the box office

Shaping Silence was created as a series of evocative musical themes with titles such as Is She Listening?, Island Traffic, and Sleeping Dancer, invoking modern classical roots with vigor and a touch of humor. A few carefully chosen elements with references to Celtic music, America’s heartland traditions, the Far East and Calypso, add exotic ingredients to the mix. Tim Hazell and Liz Stone allow their arrangements to take individual flights of the imagination.

Marta García Renart is one of the most widely respected pianists in Mexico. She has traveled to the United States, Cuba and El Salvador, participating in chamber and contemporary music festivals. As a resident pianist with the San Miguel Chamber Music Festival, she performed with the Fine Arts, Lark, Manhattan, Latinoamericano and Ying Quartets. Marta has composed song cycles, choral and chamber music, solo piano works and music for the theater. Her weekly program from 1998 to 2002, “On Music, Musicians and Something More,” was awarded a Prize of Excellence.

Maestra Renart is no stranger to the music of Hazell and Stone, having premiered their opus “Recipes for the Senses” for enthusiastic audiences in 2012.

Liz Stone received her Masters in Music teaching with Kodaly Emphasis at Holy Names College in Oakland, California, combining Orff and Kodaly in her elementary school music classes for over 20 years. Her Orff -Schulwerk background in music has continued to be an inspiration. Liz was a prominent participant as chorus director for Pro Musica’s opera productions of Tosca and La Bohème, and is a familiar concert performer.

Music for solo piano has a rich history. Composers of all genres have been attracted by its great dynamic range and power to conjure up deep emotions.

Tim Hazell is a composer and project director of original works for ensemble and piano. He is a member of the Executive Board of Pro Musica and Director of the Rhythm, Rhyme and Reason Music Outreach Program. Grants and awards include San Miguel Community Foundation, Texas Writers Conference, the John Anson Kittredge Educational Fund and National Endowment for the Arts. As a painter, he has had 60 international exhibitions with private collections in Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe and was Director of Art of the Instituto Allende from 1998-2001.

What is there about the magic of San Miguel that allows unusual collaborations to evolve? Perhaps it’s in the air and the anticipation of a legendary San Miguel audience. “Shaping Silence” promises to provide us with an unusual evening of entertainment. General admission tickets are 150 pesos, available beginning November 15 at La Conexion, Aldama 3; La Tienda in the Biblioteca, Insurgentes 25; Solutions, Mesones 57; and St. Paul’s Church, calle Cardo 6, weekdays 10am to 4pm, and at the door half an hour prior to the performance.

The International Festival of Jazz & Blues in San Miguel de Allende, to be held from November 13 to 17, is raising great expectations. Among the guest artists are Grammy winner Paul McCandless and the Art Lande Quartet.

On November 15, the Ángela Peralta Theater will play host to Grammy winner Paul McCandless and the Art Lande Quartet. McCandless, originally from Indiana, Pennsylvania, inherited a love for music from his parents, who were both music teachers. He plays oboe, saxophone, English horn, bass clarinet, soprano and sopranino and is a forerunner in the world of jazz.

McCandless has recorded 200 albums and has shared the stage with artists such as Carla Bley, Wynton Marsalis, Jaco Pastorius and Fred Simon, among many others. For his outstanding work McCandless was awarded a Grammy in 1996 for best instrumental pop and movie soundtrack.

The musician will share the stage with the Art Lande Quartet, made up of Grammy-nominated Art Lande, an internationally known pianist, composer, jazz drummer and educator and one of the most important figures in the field of improvisation, along with Dennis Gruenling on harmonica and Steve Guyger, who plays harmonica and sings.

Another major concert presented by the International Festival of Jazz & Blues will be by Randy Bernsen, guitarist and composer of jazz and rock, who has played with artists such as Herbie Hancock, Bob James and Peter Erskine.

As a complement to this 19th edition of the International Festival of Jazz & Blues the film series “An Evening with Jazz” and a workshop on Jazz and Blues Language taught by Ingrid Beaujean will be presented at Teatro Santa Ana in La Biblioteca. For more information and to purchase tickets visit www.sanmigueljazz.com.mx.

By Antonio Cabrero

Vienna, as we all know, is the capital of classical music, and we celebrate the great masters who lived and worked there.

Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven premiered their symphonies in Vienna, a city surrounded by beautiful lakes and forests. Beethoven took long walks every day, inspired by Vienna and the music of Haydn and Mozart. His first symphony shows the strong personality of a rebel with new ideas. It would bring such force and drive to the symphony, which no one could surpass. Vienna went romantic with Brahms and Schumann; with Johan Strauss and his polkas and waltzes, it saw the most refined and joyful popular music ever written.

Concert
Noches De Viena
Sat, Nov 16, 6pm
Templo de San Francisco
350/250/150 pesos

The two concerts of the Soloists Ensemble follow the very successful debut at Teatro Ángela Peralta, where Larissa Fedorova hypnotized the audience with her harp.

The Ensemble also features Concert Master Sergei Kossiac, winner of competitions in Moscow at an early age. The Orchestra featured him as a soloist last year in a memorable performance of the very difficult Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

The beauty of hearing the Ensemble is that each note of each individual is heard with utmost clarity, which is particularly true of the harp with its subdued tones. To celebrate Vienna and its music, Fedorova will be performing again.

The concert will open with Prelude a l’après midi d’un faune by Debussy, a very acclaimed debut piece of the Ensemble, Beethoven’s first symphony (first movement) sets the Viennese mood, which culminates with Strauss, Voices of Spring, Die Fleidermaus, and Tales from the Vienna Woods.

Hotel Hacienda Jurica–Gala Benefit

The Ensemble has been invited to repeat “Impressionism” at beautiful Hotel Hacienda Jurica this side of Querétaro on Thursday, November 21, 7pm.

Reservations are required for private transportation; a benefit gala reception for the Ensemble will take place at intermission.

Estimated arrival time back in San Miguel de Allende is 10pm. (Park and ride from El Cardo parking lot on calle Baeza at 5pm.) and enjoy sunset at Hacienda Jurica gardens.

RSVP telephone: (415) 15-4-57-80, 1,000 pesos (all inclusive). www.sanmiguelsymphony.com.