Early Music Festivals in Latin America
When I received your kind invitation to participate in this meeting through Peter
Pontvik –whom I wish to express my gratitude for finding me in Mexico last year and
for explaining me about this encounter–, I was delighted by the prospect of meeting not
only colleagues who have an active life in performing of Early Music as we all know,
but also European leaders in organizing the most important Early Music Festivals in
Europe. It is a great pleasure therefore, to be here in France to speak about this activity
in the New World.
Since the documentation of this type of festivals is very difficult to obtain, I was
looking for all kinds of information in several ways: handwrite programs,
announcements, reports, essays, website pages, etc. and I was writing several organizers
asking for information about their festivals or concert series. Some of them answered to
me very quickly; some other referred me to their website pages; other never replied,
surely because they were thinking that I was looking for an opportunity to go to their
festivals to give some concerts.
I would like to speak about some of the most relevant festivals en Latin America –from
Mexico to South America, Argentina or Uruguay– considering the next features:
a) Their international projection
b) Which way their activities become important inside their boundaries promoting
the musical activity in Early Music, and
c) If this type of festivals are a real contribution to build an own musical life.
In this time, when nations and people are connected through the internet and social
networks, it’s not yet known what is happening in many countries, what are doing the
musicians in other sides of the world, or what other people have in their minds when
they speak about Early Music.
In my opinion, two features are marking Early Music festivals in Latin America:
1.- A new concept of Early Music
2.- The decision to include the music produced in the New World between 1521 and the
end of the Spanish colonial era. The last date could be between 1821 and 1824 for most
of the countries, more or less 1860 for Brazil and the last years of the 19th century for
Cuba and other caribbean islands (Puerto Rico specially).
As far as is known, most part of Latin America was dominated by Spain along 300
years. The large territory was organized in two great viceroyalties: Mexico and Peru.
The rest of the countries were included in both viceroyalties: Guatemala and other
Central American regions were ascribed to Mexico; from Panama all the way to Chile
were assigned to Peru. Both viceroyalties were founded in the 16th century and the
musical life grew quickly producing all types of music: religious and profane, military
and civil, music for singing or music for dancing, music for the Spanish foundation
cities or music for Indian towns. The music of the 16th century was influenced by
European polyphony and many dances were transplanted to the new world and
fusionned with American dances. In the 17th century, the mixed culture gave place to a
special kind of musical genre: the villancico. Originally, it was a popular dance and
song from the people of the Spanish medieval towns, but in the second half of the 16th
century, it was transplanted to cathedral liturgy and many chapelmasters composed
villancicos in several types: juguetes, Gallegos, negros, jácaras, etc. In the 17th and 18th
centuries, a mixed baroque style, with strong influences from Italy, was cultivated with
aspects from American and Spanish traditions in all the territories of the Spanish
Empire.
Starting in the 17th century, every religious space became a musical center, within
which many composers were active: cathedrals, convents, parishes, children schools,
and other children spaces dedicated to singing in the liturgy, the priests seminars and the
missionary spaces. But also the theaters, the comedy "corrales", the palaces and the
noble houses, in the 18th century came the scents of Italian opera and French dances
such as the minuet. During that century local composers emerged on the scene, such as
Manuel de Sumaya in Mexico or Esteban Ponce de León in Cusco, and they both wrote
operas. The performance of baroque zarzuelas reached a great peak, of which we have
La púrpura de la rosa, by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco as a sample (it is based on a
text by Pedro Calderón de la Barca) written and performed in Lima in 1701. Cities such
as México, Puebla, Oaxaca, Durango, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, San Cristóbal de las
Casas, Guatemala, Santiago de Cuba, La Habana, Panamá, Caracas, Bogotá, Quito,
Cuenca, Cajamarca, Lima, Cusco, Arequipa, Sucre, Santiago de Chile and Buenos Aires
and Montevideo, but in Rio de Janeiro, Ouro Preto, Bahía, Salvador or Mariana too
(cities from Brazil) have musical archives from the colonial era which have been made
public during the last 30 years in the early music festivals.
The research about this music made by musicologists of different countries has given
the interpreters an endless source of repertoire which has, in it's turn, made us think
about which early music we are talking about. To us, the inhabitants of the New World,
there were no Middle Ages or Renaissance. Our musical centers fostered choirs and
ministril groups after the Council of Trent (1545-1563).
The music of the ancient American cultures, which would have been our early music,
from the Aztecs, Mayas, Chibchas, Collas and Incas was lost because it was never
written. Strictly speaking phrase, we didn’t have a Middle Age and we didn’t have a
Renaissance period. Just in the 17th century shared some aspects of the
Hispanoamerican culture: The modern modality, the mixed tonal-modal harmony,
polichorality, profane songs which were used in the theater and the domestic settings,
accompanied by harp or baroque guitar or viola da gamba, several type of villancicos
and dances like canarios, fandangos, boleras, muecas, cumbées y zarambeques .
The music from the 18th Century succumbed to the influences of the Italianization of
the Iberic Peninsula, but soon found its own voice. The profane and religious "cantadas"
(a kind of Villancico), were mixed with villancicos creating a hybrid genre; a domestic
music was developed in the books of ladies or women slaves as Guadalupe Mayner
from Mexico, María Antonia Palacios, from Santiago de Chile o Imelda Bungo from
Cusco.
Notes borrowed from the music of Gallant style were heard in the works by Ignacio
Jerusalem in México, José de Orejón y Aparicio in Lima, Mauricio Nunes García in Rio
de Jaineiro o Estaban Salas in La Habana.
The american natives took all the resources and techniques that were brought from
Europe. They assimilated the forms of musical expression taught by the missioners.
Some of them took the ways of the Renaissance polyphony (like in the missions of San
Juan Ixcoi, San Mateo Ixtatán y Santa Eulalia in Guatemala); others, (such as the
inhabitants of Chiquitania and San Ignacio de Moxos in the bolivian north east, or the
slaves of the Ouro Preto farms of Vila Rica in Brazil), were cultivating the baroque
style of the 18th century.
That is our early music. It’s what has been given to known in the festivals that have
taken place in Latin America since around the 80s in the past century.
To us, it has been a hard task to totally rethink the concept of what we call early music
in Latin America. We call early music that is in the origin of America’s insertion in the
Western culture. That one was born between the moment of mixing and the hybridation
of our culture with those came from Europe and Africa. Its time’s border is marked by
our peoples’ independence from Hispanic domination and the birth of the independent
republics.
We have been discovering new composers:
Mexico: Hernando Franco, Francisco López y Capillas, Antonio de Salazar, Manuel de
Sumaya, Ignacio Jerusalem y Stella, Antonio Juanas, José Manuel Aldana
Puebla: Gaspar Fernández, Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, Matheo de Dallo y Lana,
Francisco de Atienza, Nicolás Ximénez de Cisneros, Manuel de Arenzana
Oaxaca: Juan Mathías, Matheo Vallados, Thomás Salgado, Juan Mathías de los Reyes
Durango: Santiago Billoni, Mariano Placeres, José Nieto
Morelia: José Gavino Leal, José Mariano Elízaga,
Guatemala: Manuel José de Quiroz, Rafael Antonio Castellanos
Bogotá: José Cascante, Juan de Herrera
Lima: Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco, Roque Ceruti, José de Orejón y Aparicio,
Charcas: Juan de Araujo, Roque Jacinto de Chavarría,
Chiquitos: Domenico Zipoli
Santiago de Cuba: Esteban Salas, Juan París
Río de Janeiro: José Mauricio Nunes Garcia
To rethink our early music has meant to make several tasks:
- We had to discover our own composers
- We had to research our archives and sources. Several codices (guitar, harpsichord,
polyphony, theater music) are being known and their natural space for performing has
been early music festivals.
- We had to write our own musical history
- We had to rebuild our instruments (more than 70 historic organs of Oaxaca or the ones
that can be found in the road that goes from Sicuani to Cusco, in the south of Peru, but
also to preserve the curtals and marine trumpets of Chiquitos and the bogotan harp of
the 18th century).
The festivals
One of the first attempts to spread the historic repertoire of America was “Panorama de
la música virreinal” organized by National Center for Musical Research, Documentation
and Information of National Institute of Fine Arts of Mexico. A series of six concerts
took place at the end of 1980’s which included music from the 16th to the 19th
centuries. The music that was known until that time was shown: from Mexico, Puebla,
Lima and Cusco cathedrals; the first polyphonic music printed in the New World (the
famous Hanac Pachap of 1631); the seventeenth century villancicos from the Holy
Trinity convent from Puebla; the music of Guatemala missions and one mass by Jose
Joaquin Emerico Lobo de Mezquita from Brasil. They weren't what today would be
called historically informed interpretation, but it was a wake up call to a repertoire that
was beginning to be discovered.
Festival “La música del pasado de América”.
The Camerata Barroca de Caracas group, founded and directed by Isabel Palacios, a
venezuelan singer and conductor, organized in 1990 the first “Festival la música del
pasado de América”. It had some specific aspects: for example, the music published in
the first American music anthologies (those of the musicologists Robert Stevenson from
USA and Samuel Claro Valdés from Chile) and the music discovered in Ouro Preto de
Vila Rica by German musicologist Francisco Curt Lange, the founder of Inter American
Institute of Musicology in Montevideo, were interpreted. In that occasion, the festival
paid homage to Curt Lange for his long track record in musicological research. The
second festival invited to American musicologist Robert Stevenson who made a lot of
researchs in Latin America and published many scores from 16th to 19th centuries
preserved in many historical centers. One of the main moments was the performance of
several scenes of La púrpura de la rosa by Tomás de Torrejón y Velasco (1701) There
were some concerts with Latin American groups and ensembles and took place the first
congress of musicology where were joined many musicologists from America and
Spain and Portugal. In 1994 was realized the third festival and the important Chilean
musicologist Samuel Claro Valdés was honored for his contributions to rescue the
music from colonial period in South America. Realized in 1997, the fourth festival
received Spanish musicologist José Lopez-Calo, and were invited ensembles from
México, Guatemala and Spain. The choir of Gregorian chant conducted by Ismael
Fernández de la Cuesta gave a brilliant concert with a program based in Spanish
tradition of plainchant including Toledian and Sevillian chant. Only 9 years later, in
2006, the Camerata Barroca de Caracas could organize the fifth festival. In this edition
participated American ensembles like Ars Longa from Cuba, Klepsidra from Brazil,
Syntagma Musicum from Chile, Capilla Virreinal de la Nueva España from Mexico and
La Folía from Spain. The Festival of the Music of the America’s Past had an important
role in developing of Early Music in South America because joined in Caracas many
groups, ensembles, soloists, musicologists and put in concert many scores from Latin
America. The experience of Isabel Palacios was decisive for developing the historically
informed interpretation in the New World.
International Festival of brasilian colonial music and early music from Juiz de
Fora.
It was founded in 1990 by Pro musica de Juiz de Fora, a civil association founded in
1972 to promote a diversity of concerts and festivals. The main contribution has been
the international projection of the brasilian colonial music.
The preservation and the restoration of musical patrimony of colonial Brazil in an avant
garde position given by using baroque instruments for revealing this colonial heritage
has given to Festival do Juiz de For a national and international acknowledgement
followed by numerous awards. Extend spaces to colonial brasilian music and to
brasilian musical movement is one of the goals that this festival achieved. The
education of audiences could be considered too, in the same sense that now there is a
staff of high level teachers –brasilian or foreigners– teaching in each edition of this
festival. Each year, this event is taken place in the second half of July and offers a
media of three concerts per day, all of them free, allowing the access at the concerts to
many people.
The Festival of Juiz de Fora provoked a deep change in national cultural scene with the
production of CDs, books and DVDs, revealing examples of compositions from 17th and
18th centuries –some of them in contemporary world premier– and giving to very
diverse audience a kind of cultural product that could be considered for professional or
academics only.
To mining town Juiz de Fora, the Festival accomplish the mission assumed for ProMusica to go deep into the work of education of young generations of local musicians,
because to Brasil this a good discussion forum with participation of the best players of
several instruments in specialized and important themes as brasilian colonial music or
early music. Brasilian composers as Jose Joaquim Emerico Lobo de Mezquita, José
Mauricio Nunes, Manoel Dias de Oliveira, Joaquim de Paula Souza, Ignacio Parreiras
da Neves, Francisco Gomes da Rocha, Teodoro Cyro da Souza, Joao de Deus de Castro
Lobo have been known in the concerts of the festival and their music has been
registered in the 23 cds produced after the concerts. After 24 years, the festival has
created its own baroque orchestra and baroque choir called Coral Colonial do Festival
conducted by Mario Roberto Assef.
Festival “Misiones de Chiquitos”
In 1996 was organized the First Festival of the Renaissance and Baroque American
Music “Misiones de Chiquitos”. This project was a private initiative realized by APAC
(Asoc. Pro Arte y Cultura in spanish) in Santa Cruz de la Sierra city, in the East from
Bolivia, founded in 18th century very closed to jesuitic reductions in the Amazon forest
in 1691.
The ancient Jesuit mission of Chiquitos in the province of Santa Cruz and those of
Moxos in Beni are one of the principal riches of Bolivia’s regional and national cultural
heritage. While the churches in these towns were being restored with financial
assistance from the Catholic Church in the late 1990s, a trove of sacred music was
found—5,500 pages in Chiquitos and 7,000 pages in Moxos—written as much by the
European missionaries as by the people native to the region. Composed in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, local musicians interpreted this music daily until
the middle of the nineteenth century or even the first half of 20th century.
Because of the unusually harmonious coexistence of the missionaries with the local
people, the missionary period resulted in immense collaboration. Apart from the era’s
musical legacy the towns also boast architectural and other cultural riches, prompting
UNESCO to declare six of the towns—San Xavier, Concepción, Santa Ana, San Rafael,
San Miguel, and San José de Chiquitos—World Heritage Sites. Unlike other former
Jesuit mission towns in Bolivia that no longer exist, these six towns have survived and
flourished over time, retaining their customs, celebrations, ceremonies, style of dress,
and tradition of instrument-making.
APAC established the International Festival of American Renaissance and Baroque
Music in these towns in 1996 to preserve and diffuse this cultural heritage. In this year
will be realized the tenth edition of the festival. It does not take place only in these
areas, however: there are also concerts in other missionary towns in the provinces of
Santa Cruz and Beni, spanning a distance of more than 3,000 kilometers in total. The
majority of the concerts are free and the festivals create significant work opportunities
where they occur. Other festivals were organized in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006,
2008, 2010 y 2012.
The festival is unique because it celebrates a vibrant and dynamic cultural heritage in
the towns where it originated and is still maintained. For the musicians, the festival
allows them to step back through history to a time brimming with historical and cultural
significance. Oftentimes the music they perform was composed or arranged by natives
of the area, for whom this music plays a fundamental role in their cultural identification.
Each festival is accompanied by a scientific conference, the International Symposium of
Musicology (ECSIM), in which historians, researchers, and musicologists discuss topics
relevant to early music. APAC’s Publishing Fund disseminates everything presented
throughout the ECSIM. Each Symposium has been coordinated by a Latin American
musicologist: Carlos Seoane, from Bolivia, en 1996; Bernardo Illari, from Argentina, in
1998 y 2000; Victor Rondón, from Chile, en 2002 y 2004 and I had been the organizar
from 2006 until the present. It is necessary to say that each Symposium has been
thematic. Some of the themes of musicological discussion were: Misional music exists?;
presence of women, children and negros in the colonial music; dance and music in
Iberoamerican territories; the travel of music and musicians in colonial period, among
others.
Is its one of the most original projects concerning the American Early music. The works
composed by Domenico Zipoli, an Italian organist who moved in 1717 to Cordoba,
Argentina, and by other anonymous composers allow us to see how the baroque style
was extended to different places in the world and how it is alive at present moments.
Festival Esteban Salas, de La Habana
This festival, organized from 2000 year, have contributed to visualization of Early
Music from Cuba, considering that the oldest Cuban composer is Esteban Salas, the
chapel master of Santiago de Cuba’s cathedral in the last years of 18th century. He died
in 1805. An approach to this musician was given by the writer Alejo Carpentier in his
novel El reino de este mundo (The kingdom of this world). The festival is called
Esteban Salas to pay a homage to this extraordinary Cuban composer and musician. The
program of festival includes concerts, master classes, workshops and plastic exhibits.
Usually, is February when the festival takes a place using several historical buildings of
Historic Down Town from La Habana Vieja like the ancient church of San Francisco de
Paula, the Minor Basilica from San Francisco de Asis convent, the San Geronimo
University College from La Habana, the Hispanic-American Culture Center and
lutherie’s workshop from La Habana Vieja.
The Ars Longa Ensemble, the most famous Early Music Ensemble from Cuba, with two
decades of history is the group who receive to the guests in this encounter. It was thanks
to this festival that Cuba gained a relevant place in Latin America breaking the imported
paradigm about what Early Music is.
European and Latin American groups have had active presence in this festival. Among
them the Elyma Ensemble conducted by Gabriel Garrido, and the singer Josep Cabre,
who was an effective teacher for Cuban musicians. Besides, the Esteban Salas festival
have invited important Latin American musicologists, like Argentinian Bernardo Illari
or Omar Morales Abril from Guatemala for giving lectures and courses and training in
performing of Early Music.
Festival Internacional de Música Antigua de la PUCP
The Pontifical Catholic University of Peru organizes from 11 years ago an annual
festival of Early Music supported by the Catholic University and the Peruvian and
North American Cultural Institute. This festival is devoted to European and American
Renaissance and Baroque Music and frequently has been invited Peruvian and foreigner
ensembles and soloists. Each festival is accompanied by performing clinics, master
classes and workshops about various features: performing, ornamentation, tuning, etc. A
main aspect is concerning this festival: the interpretation of the music that was
composed and performed in Peru between 16th and 18th centuries. Music from Zuola
codex, –a collection of theatrical songs from 17th century– or Martinez Compañón
codex –an encyclopedia of acknowledges about Trujillo del Perú–, or pieces proceeding
from musical books for baroque guitar –like the Book of Mathías Maestro from 1786–,
are frequently played and sung in this festival. Of course, the historical music from
cathedrals and churches is included. A great number of pieces that are performed in
festival of PUCP are played after several centuries and other pieces are listened for first
time in Peru. In this festival have participated local ensembles like Artifex, the
Madrigalists Choir of the PUCP, Ensamble Appunto, Ensamble Barroco from Arequipa
conducted by the extraordinary flutist Alejandra Lopera, and Arion Consort. Among the
foreigner groups that have visited Lima we can mention As Flautas from Brasil, La
Folía from España, La Ritirata from España, Les Carillons from Chile, Ensamble
Castalia from México. La púrpura de la rosa by Torrejón y Velasco and Venid, venid
deidades by Esteban Ponce de León, two operas composed in Peru, one of them in 1701
and another second in 1747, were presented joining singers and instrumentalists from
several countries. Besides the European Renaissance and Baroque music, this festival
has presented musical pieces from México, Peru, Santa Fe de Bogotá and La Plata
viceroyalties.
Festival de Costa Rica
Since its first edition in the 2006 year, the International Festival of Early Music from
Costa Rica offers the opportunity to discover the wide and varied repertoire from
Renaissance and Baroque centuries, but with instruments built according to ancient
models. This way, it allows us to get closer to a sound not well known to this Central
American country. It is directed by an organizing committee integrated by Maria Clara
Vargas Cullel, the lute player Tania Vicente and the luthier Juan Carlos Soto.
The Costa Rica Festival is organized by Ganassi, group founded by Tania Vicente. This
festival, in few times, has become a reference point in the Caribbean area. All the guests
give conferences, master classes and concerts. This way, the teachings and interchange
of ideas between the participants promote the conceptual growth about Early Music and
generate connections between performers and Luthiers
The Costa Rica Festival was created, in words of Maria Clara Vargas, to join efforts
between musicians who are devoted this specialty and for offering to the audiences the
possibility to hear concerts played with instruments built according ancient models,
looking for a different sonority. Besides, she says that it’s possible in this time because
it is only now when there are luthiers and players interested in historical instruments in
her country. This festival has promoted the creation of Early Music Ensembles in Costa
Rica like Conjunto Garçimuñoz, Syntagma Musicum and Phoenix Quartet. The Spanish
harpsichordist Luisa Morales, who organizes FIMTE (International Festival of Music
for Keyboard in Spain), the Duo Galante (flute and harpsichord) from Veracruz,
Mexico, and the flutist Eva Amsler from Switzerland are some artists that have been
invited to visit San José, the capital city of Costa Rica. The influence of this festival has
started to feel in the neighbor countries.
Los Fundadores, San Luis Potosí.
This festival was created in 1998 to celebrate the Spanish foundation of the San Luis
Potosí city on November 3 of 1592. Then, many soloist, choirs, ensembles of Early
Music and researchers of medieval, renaissance, baroque, Mexican colonial, Arabic, and
Andaluzian music were joined. In the last year was organized the 16th edition. San Luis
Potosi city has a lot of very beautiful baroque spaces to receive musicians and singers:
El Carmen and San Francisco, San Miguelito and San Sebastián churches, the
extraordinary Capilla de Aránzazu, and, of course, the San Luis cathedral. Out of the
concerts, some activities that the festival offers are lectures, theatrical representations,
tourist tours, with the end to let know to people who are interested in history and
colonial architecture many features of Potosinian culture.
In this festival have participated all Early Music Mexican groups and ensembles like
Horacio Franco and his Capella Cervantina, Ensamble Barroco, La Fontegara, Los
Tiempos Pasados from Guanajuato La Décima Musa ensemble and Capilla Virreinal de
la Nueva España among others. Sometimes was invited the Cantus Group from Bogotá.
In the last years, this festival has been very important for local musical life, and it has
been promoting the participation of potosinian ensembles or soloists: Danserye, the
Ensamble Vita Nuova, the singer Liliana del Conde, the ensemble Codex Festivus and
Ensamble Cantiga Armónica. Many people asists to the concerts and each year they are
waiting with enthusiasm the realization of this festival. The existence of an audience
formed in hearing early music is one of the most important goals of potosinian festival.
Querétaro Festival de Música Antigua
This festival is realized from 1999 in several theaters and churches from Santiago de
Querétaro city. The main objective is the diffusion and promotion of Early Music,
putting the emphasis in the music produced in Mexico between 16th and 18th centuries
through concerts and lectures. The festival extends his activities to other cities in the
Sierra Gorda region where existed mission centers: Landa de Matamoros, Tilaco,
Conca, Tancoyol y Jalpan cities.
In this sense, Gregorian chants and Latin American viceroyal music are integrated in a
singular atmosphere where the sounds of Middle Age, Renaissance and Baroque are
mixed with American sensibility. The concerts become a special experience by the
places they are presented: historical buildings from baroque time like the Queretaro
Museum of Art, the Real Colegio de Santa Rosa de Viterbo, and Teatro de la República.
Queretaro Early Music Festival is organized by Queretian for Culture and Arts Institute.
The repercussion in the Mexican musical life has been very important and many groups
are looking forever to get an invitation. Among other artists devoted to Early Music in
Mexico have visited Queretaro the flutist Horacio Franco with the harpsichordist
Santiago Álvarez, the soprano Lourdez Ambriz, the Melos Gloriæ choir, wich give
concerts of Gregorian Chant an sacred polyphony, the harpsichordist resident in
Querétaro Gastón Lafourcade, the mexican harpsichordist Claudine Gómez-Vuistaz and
the Baroque Orchestra “La Parténope” founded by French flutist resident in México
Vincent Touzet It is one of the classical spaces where the tradition of Western Culture is
viewed with a global vision and where are included the music from Europe and
America.
Ciclo Internacional de Música Antigua en el Cenart. CNA
When the National Center for the Arts was created en 1994, one of the goals was to put
to Mexico in contact with important or notable figures of international Early Music
establishment. The International Cicle of Early Music from CENART has its origin in
1996, along of the month of May. The space for concerts is the Blas Galindo Hall, one
of the best places for music in Mexico. Without discussion, this is one of the most
relevant events in Latin America, carefully planned, and great artists have been in there:
Jordi Savall, the argentinian violinist Manfredo Kramer; the organist Cristina García
Banegas from Uruguay; Pentaterra Vocal Quintet and Capella Mediterránea from Suiza;
In Surghjenti from Francia; La Colombina Quartet; Le Mercure from Polonia; the
Clerambault ensemble, where musicians from México-Francia play together; the group
Louis Louis from USA; Sergio Graciano y Eloy Cruz, lute duet from MéxicoArgentina; Latin American groups like Musica ficta from Colombia, Ensemble Louis
Berger from Argentina, Catholic University Early Music Group from Peru; and
Mexican ensembles like Sturm und drang group, Camerata de la Nueva España from
Guanajuato; Capella Guanajuatensis from the same city; La Mar Enfortuna, La
Fontegara, Capilla Virreinal de la Nueva España, Concierto Barroco, Capella
Cervantina conducted by Horacio Franco, and La Décima Musa. Probably, it’s one of
the most important festivals in LA by its international projection and because it is
organized by one of the most representative cultural institutions of Mexico. Obviously,
all type of early music is presented in this festival, from Middle Age to late Baroque
including the music composed in American territories during the colonial period.
Festival de Música Antigua de Tepotzotlán
It is presented from 2000 year in Museo Nacional del Virreinato, connected the baroque
church of San Francisco Javier. It’s forming part of the projection of social activities of
the museum. As always from foundation, it has been a thematic festival under the
guardianship of a musicologist. This festival is accompanied for a discussion about
some theme ad hoc to festival’s spirit. Some of them were: missional music in the
Americas; profane music from American viceroyalties; a homage to Spanish music
from Cervantes time; the Spanish medieval heritage; the music from polyphony books
from 16th to 18th centuries that belong to museum. The last festival (2013) was devoted
to Hague manuscript, a collection of violin pieces proceeding from Chalco, a close town
to Mexico. It contains Spanish and Mexican dances, fragments of French and British
opera, a short selection of violin pieces of several origins and flute pieces composed by
Pietro Locatellio and Spanish composer Luis Misón. In this festival has been invited
many of Mexican Early Music ensembles like Tiranni Splendori, Proyecto Area,
Harmonia Ensamble, Concentus Antiqua Musica from Puebla, La Fontegara, Concierto
Barroco, Schola Cantorum children choir, Capilla Virreinal de la Nueva España and
Melos Gloriæ choir. In 2010 year, the last concert was dedicated to academics whose
were taken part in Hispanic Baroque congress supported by University of Western
Ontario from Canadá. The concerts are realized in the historical church of San
Francisco Javier, one of the most extraordinary specimen of the baroque architecture
from New Spain viceroyalty.
Música Barroca de San Miguel Allende
The Baroque Music Festival from San Miguel de Allende is a non-profit organization
which partners with the classical chamber music group, the Camerata Ventapane of
Houston, Texas, to present an annual International Baroque Music Festival in San
Miguel de Allende, Mexico.
The backgrounds of Festival Directors range from music to medicine, to people who
work in engineering and marketing. Directors are required to attend regular meetings
four times a year (one of which is a full day retreat). Directors must also follow up on
committee assignments consistently and be available to members of the organization’s
administrative staff for assistance by phone or email. Furthermore, Directors must
attend BMF events and serve for a minimum 2 years term.
General Director (Mexico) is: Rodrigo Antonio Treviño Lozano
General Director (U.S.) is: Henry Kirby
Executive Director: Stephanie Juanita Hough Lanier
Artistic Director: Barrett Sills
It is dedicated to increasing the quantity and quality of cultural activities in San Miguel,
while building partnerships between Business and the Arts through a cohesive set of
programs that promote music appreciation, build business leadership in support of the
Arts, and facilitate growth in cultural tourism based in the Arts.
It was founded in 2007 when was celebrated the first version.
The first Baroque Music Festival in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico began
with the vision of Festival Directors Henry Kirby and Rodrigo Antonio Treviño
Lozano, to bring together musicians from the U.S. and Mexico in a baroque city and to
introduce the magic of the baroque era via the music played in venues chosen for their
beauty and acoustics. The First Baroque Music Festival was collaboration between San
Miguel El Grande ProMusica and the Houston Camerata Ventapane, the vision was
realized thanks to the creative energy of its Artistic Director, the renowned cellist
Barrett Sills. The Festival elaborated a musical theme “Go for Baroque” based on the
geographical development of the music in Germany, France, and Italy.
In its second year, the Festival formalized the practice of providing chamber music
offerings to two other cities in Mexico in addition to the concerts in San Miguel de
Allende. The theme for the Festival was “Baroque & Beyond”, an exploration of
compositions written for the string family of instruments and the dance that was popular
at the time.
By 2009 the Baroque Music Festival had grown so much that the Directors decided to
make it a permanent institution with its own independent legal structure and finances.
Continuing its collaboration with Camerata Ventapane, but now under the auspices of
Festival de Musica de San Miguel de Allende, A.C., the Festival expanded its network
and began extending invitations for concert & musician exchanges to a variety of other
institutions throughout Mexico. A Master Class was added for the benefit of young
musicians. The “Surrounded by Baroque” theme musically focused around the great
masters of the Baroque era: J. S. Bach and G. F. Haendel, and the music that served as
example and inspiration to these composers.
In celebration of the Bicentennial of the Mexican Independence and the centennial of
the Mexican Revolution, the Festival presented 400 years of music and culture in New
Spain & Mexico. The variety of programs and styles required a doubling of the number
of musicians invited in previous years and includes baroque choral elements. Three
musicologists were recruited to help develop programs of high quality but mostly
unknown music written by Mexican composers from the 16th to the 20th centuries. The
final concert contrasted great choral works by the Mexican composer Manuel de
Sumaya (who lived between 1680 and 1755) with the masterpiece of his European
counterpart Johann Sebastian Bach: “Magnificat”.
In its fifth consecutive year (2011) it has taken on the presentation of the opera 'Dido
and Aeneas' by Henry Purcell. For the first time in San Miguel, was celebrated the
drama of this masterpiece in a fully staged version in the Obraje Theater. We are
thrilled to have the opera production team lead by Fernando Trevino, Monica Belinda
and Tara Faircloth, people joined from Mexico and US, plus the participation of
renowned musicologist and conductor Matthew Dirst leading the music forces.
The theme of 2012 year's festival, "Voices of the Baroque", embraced earlier forms of
vocal artistry in the 'Mostly Monteverdi' concert. The full spectrum of instrumental
voices, was showcased in 'Music in the Age of Magnificence' featuring a select group of
virtuoso artists. Performances by young Israeli harpsichordist, Michael Tsalka, playing
the monumental Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach, and the musical forces of Capilla
Virreinal de la Nueva España singing a Vespers Office from Chiquitos rounded-off the
exciting line-up of sensational concerts.
Some of them receive supports of the governments and other from private sponsors, and
in some cases by both parties.
Why I have mentioned these festivals? The main reason is why they have created an
own space to the historical music from Latin America and they have been contributing
for developing the Early Music in this territory. At present, the historical music from
Mexico, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia, Bolivia, Cuba, Chile or Brazil forms part of the
musical establishment in that continent. The classical point of view about the Early
Music has been reviewed and changed to extend the concept to other sounds typologies.
In the globalization era, the opportunity to know other musical experiences is opened.