Two bands debut in one night
By Isaac Toporek August 8, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Piano Trio
Robinson, Kaplan, Chagoyan
Plus Medianoche (Latin jazz)
Fri, Aug 15, 8pm
El Viejo Topo Café-Teatro
Stirling Dickinson 28

San Miguel’s newest piano trio features composer/pianist Doug Robinson, drummer/vocalist Bobby Kaplan and bassist/guitarist José Luis “Hopalong” Chagoyan on acoustic bass playing mostly original compositions in an intimate style similar to the classic Ahmad Jamal Trio of the sixties.

The trio will play their first public concert on August 15. Since all three are gifted multi-instrumentalists, it’s likely that at some point during their concert you will see them switching up and playing each others’ instruments without missing a beat.

Robinson started this trio with a notebook of new compositions and something very specific in mind—to not only play the notes on the page, but also to play the spaces between the notes. “We've all been in bands that are out to thrill the audience by playing lots of flashy moves. This band, however, has a different ethic. It’s more about communication and interplay than anything else. We still manage to get our best licks in, but there are also moments when we are the softest and slowest jazz group alive and I love that.”

Robinson calls the group a “chamber jazz” trio because it would be at home playing in a private salon with an intimate atmosphere. “This isn’t the kind of group that could fill up a large venue; it’s more immediate and personal than that.

If I could have my way, the audience would sit onstage with us and feel what it’s like to be sending musical ideas back and forth. When it works, it’s really worth it.”

But the enjoyment will not end there—a second new band will perform that night. For the second half of the concert, Robinson debuts Medianoche, his new Latin jazz experiment which features Julian Mendietta and Victor Monterrubio on Latin, Brazilian and African percussion. The songs will be an assortment of originals and compositions by the late pianist Don Grolnick.

Chamber Festival gets around this week
By Bob Kelly

Chamber Music Festival
Jul 31–Aug 17
Various venues
www.festivalsanmiguel.com 

The thirtieth annual summer chamber music festival presents its busiest and most varied week through next Thursday with 14 musical events, including two mall concerts, a street parade and special programs in three unique buildings.

The high-energy Synergy Brass Quintet will enliven the venerable Teatro Ángela Peralta at 7pm tonight with a program of 16 selections, from Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Procession of the Nobles” to three pieces from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess.”

In between, the quintet plays composers such as Bach, Mozart and Rossini and Copland, W.C. Handy and Louis Armstrong. Ending the first part will be “Rigaudon,” a wedding march written by the French composer Andre Campra, 1660–1744, with San Miguel resident John Stump on the organ.

Synergy Brass follows up on Saturday with a free concert at 3pm at La Luciernaga Mall. They will lead a callejoneada, or street parade, with student musicians at 1pm, Sunday from the Jardín to Parque Juarez and present another free mall concert at 3pm.

The much-awaited Ahn Trio perform at 7pm, Saturday, and 5pm, Sunday, at the Teatro Ángela Peralta. Saturday’s concert includes the world premiere of contemporary composer Pat Metheny’s “Yu-Ryung.”

The trio, who emphasize works by living composers, also will include, on Saturday’s program, pieces by Nikolai Kapustin, fellow Juilliard graduate Kenji Bunch, Fernando Otero, David Balakrishnan and the late Richard Rodgers.

Sunday’s concert features an adaptation of The Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” and works by Bunch, Michael Nyman, Ronn Yedidia, Katrina Weede and the late Leonard Bernstein.

Born in Seoul, Korea, the sisters entered Juilliard as pre-teenagers. After graduation, they were recognized first for their musical talent and then for their looks, being named by People magazine as among the world’s 50 most beautiful people and featured in Vogue.

They have been in the forefront of the movement redefining chamber music by including in their performances dancers, pop singers, installation artists, photographers and lighting designers.

The Meson de San Ignacio, at Mesones 33, is the venue for a concert at 7pm, Monday, by the Carlos Chavez String Quartet of Mexico. Owned by the same family for generations, the building is believed to have housed one of the many inns that lined Mesones to serve travelers on the old Camino Real, which stretched from Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Named for Mexico’s best-known chamber music composer, the quartet has won recognition for its performance and recording activities since its founding in 1994.

They will present works by Chavez and fellow Mexican composers Guadalupe Olmedo Gustavo E. Campa and by Samuel Zyman, born in Mexico in 1956 and considered one of the country’s leading contemporary composers.

The festival’s quartet in residence, La Catrina, present a program of contemporary and classical works at 7pm, Tuesday, in the Templo de Mexiquito located just outside the city limits on the road to Dolores Hidalgo.

La Catrina, which includes three musicians born in Mexico and one in the US, play pieces by Joaquin Gutierrez Heras, born in 1927, and late composers Erwin Schulhoff and Astor Piazzolla, followed by a concerto by Edvard Grieg.

The festival moves back to the Teatro Ángela Peralta with a concert at 7pm, Wednesday, by the Poulenc Trio, which includes oboe, bassoon and piano. The trio recently appeared at the Ravello Festival in Italy, where they premiered two compositions written for them by Italian and Russian composers.

The first half includes works by George Friedrich Handel, Mikhail Glinka and Ludwig van Beethoven. The second part will include trios by Andre Previn and the late French composer Francois Poulenc. Among Poulenc’s last series of major works were compositions for wind instruments and piano, of which he was particularly fond.

On Thursday, the renowned Miami String Quartet presents the first concert in the Monasterio of Nuestra Senor de la Soledad near Atotonilco. This and the concerts at Meson de San Ignacio and Templo de Mexiquito will have special ticket prices of 275 pesos each with open seating.

The Miami Quartet, which has appeared throughout the US and Europe, was praised in The New York Times as having “everything one wants in a quartet: a rich, precisely balanced sound, a broad coloristic palette, real unity of interpretive purpose and seemingly unflagging energy.” They also were on the faculty of Kent State University when members of La Catrina were studying for their master’s degrees in chamber music.

The program Thursday includes Dmitri Shostakovich’s string quartets No. 8 and 9 and a string quartet by Felix Mendelssohn.

Musicians from Mexico and the US in the festival’s student program also are giving four concerts, all free of charge. The first takes place at 7:30pm, Sunday, in the Ex Colegio de San Francisco de Sales on the Plaza Civica. There are lunchtime concerts at 1:15pm, Monday and Wednesday, in the Biblioteca Publica’s Sala Quetzal and a student program at 4pm, Thursday in the Miguel Malos auditorium of the Bellas Artes. The student musicians are participating in master classes and workshops with the La Catrina quartet and other professional musicians appearing during the festival.

Tickets are on sale at the festival office in the Bellas Artes. For complete information on tickets and concerts, consult the website at www.festivalsanmiguel.com.

Bob Kelly was a reporter for his hometown newspaper and the editor of a weekly, both in Parkersburg, WV. His last newspaper job was with the Chicago Sun-Times.

Soul to the Wind
By José Luis Mendoza

Concert
Soprano Jessica Bowman
Wed, Aug 13, 7:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
70 pesos

San Miguel native Jessica Bowman began to sing when she was 17 years old. Years later she and her father, a well-known guitar player (“Chuy”), got together to work on their first CD: Piel de Serpiente, with songs written by her father and other talented musicians.

Then she felt the need to do her own project. Gathering traditional Mexican songs and pieces from around the world, Alma al Aire (Soul to the Wind) is her most recent independent project, a mix of well-known romantic Mexican and international songs with a gypsy style and a special San Miguel touch, interpreted with a strong personal style and Latin heat. Now she gets together with her father again to sing for all of us.

Roma music
By Javier Estrada

Concert 
Javier “Gitano” Estrada
Gypsy guitar and voice 
Fri, Aug 15, 7pm 
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
100 pesos

The Roma descended from an Indian people and migrated westward throughout the Middle East before 1000 AD. By 1400, they lived in Eastern Europe, Egypt and Greece, and then spread to the rest of Europe.

Roma music in Spain is essentially the music, dance and culture of the Andalusian Roma, though it was only linked with Roma after the genre evolved from its origins in Arab Andalusia. Many famous flamenco artists are Spanish Roma (Gitanos).

Gypsies make their own versions of local music. They have always liked embellishments, improvisation and virtuosity and in Andalusía they found hundreds of years of high culture, a rich ground where Moorish, Jewish, Catholic and local musical influences mixed. The predecessor of the flamenco guitar developed during this time.

An uplifting experience
By Lonnie Harwell 

Concert
Sergio Basurto
Folk harp and flamenco guitar
Mon, Aug 11, 7:30pm
Sala Quetzal
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
150 pesos

I am frequently asked how I can work with teenagers. My response is always the same, “I get 10 weeks off in the summer to recuperate!” Because of this benefit, I find myself in San Miguel this summer. One of the great things about the town are the venues where one can hear local and traveling artists. My wife and I took advantage of several opportunities and were exposed to a wide array of musical styles. By far our favorite was a local musician named Sergio Basurto. He is quiet and unassuming, a man who really doesn’t say much during his performance but rather lets his skill and musicianship speak for him. We were enthralled with his guitar playing and mesmerized when he began to play his harp. Just when we thought he was finished, he again returned to his guitar and captivated us yet one more time. An evening with Sergio is an uplifting experience of enchanting music and rhythms that will touch your heart and soothe your soul. A magical experience created by a masterful musician.

Lonnie Harwell is a high school teacher and musician.