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jennifer rose

May 29, 2007, 9:29 PM

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San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival

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Dear Friend of the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival,

We are proud to celebrate our 29th year with a festival that runs from July 28 – August 11, 2007. The program is exciting again this year with a broad range of music: traditional, contemporary, native American, even spirituals. We have invited several of the groups that have given us so many great memories – the exciting opening last year by Turtle Island, the Four Seasons, Dvorak and Shubert nights of Tim Fain and the Rossetti String Quartet and La Catrina’s youthful exuberance and technical mastery at St. Paul’s. Four new groups join us this year – the Cassatt, Cypress and Brentano String Quartets and Imani Winds, who come to us from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. You can read more about our schedule at www.chambermusicfestival.com.

We are offering a season ticket of 11 concerts (for the price of 8, a great deal). There will also be a free concert in Bellas Artes, two concerts in alternative venues and one special surprise. We haven’t finalized the details, but these concerts will take place in beautiful, historic San Miguel spaces, such as small churches, special homes. Maybe even in World Heritage sites. Stop by the office and ask about them.

This year we are seeking your support more urgently than in the past. Like many arts organizations, ticket sales only cover 35-40% of our costs. The rest comes from government support, contributions from a corporate sponsor and donations from individuals. Unfortunately, the State of Guanajuato and City of San Miguel have reduced their financial support to us by more than $120,000 pesos. Their actions jeopardize our Student Program and the economic stability of the Festival itself. I hope you will give what you can to help. I have enclosed an informational sheet for your convenience.

From the beginning, our Student Program has been a core part of the Festival. In spite of our financial issues, we have taken steps to strengthen the student program by inviting a Quartet-in-Residence, the La Catrina String Quartet, and a special instructor in the Feldenkrais method. As usual, the performing artists will also give group master classes. Feldenkrais is a an educational system that uses movement and awareness as the primary vehicle for learning. It attracts the attention of those who want to improve their movement repertoire (as dancers, musicians, artists), reduce their pain or limitations in movement, or use the method as a way to improve their well-being and personal development. Our student classes are always open to the public for observation – please come by to watch.

As a special service to 2006 season ticket holders, we have reserved your same seats this year and will keep them until June 30. Tickets are on sale now, so please call us at 154-5141 or 154-8722 to pick them up. We hope to see you at the concerts, and don’t forget the free and student concerts.

Sincerely,

Edward Clancy
President

Attachments:

2007 cmf donation sheet.doc (31.5 KB)

jennifer rose

Jun 29, 2007, 3:15 PM

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THE TURTLES ARE COMING !

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THE TURTLES ARE COMING !
THE TURTLES ARE COMING !

By Ed Clancy

Do you remember the wild acclaim for the Turtle Island Quartet at last year’s Chamber Music Festival? The bitter disappointment they were “only” playing twice? The encore with Ying, “Because,” that was so sweet and melancholy it made you weep?

The Turtle Island Quartet is coming to San Miguel again to open the Chamber Music Festival, and this year they are playing John Coltrane. And not just any Coltrane, but A Love Supreme, his seminal album. The music of John Coltrane is wonderful--emotional, lush, deep, sometimes spiritual, always moving. And so it makes sense that the TIQ would pay tribute to him with their newest recording, A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane. This CD is vintage Turtle Island—it stays faithful to Coltrane’s original concepts, while putting the distinct TIQ signature on the tunes, exploring them for new dimensions and depth.

All right, I’ll say it: I love the Turtle Island Quartet and their music. They have wonderful improvisational, compositional, and arranging skills, and it amuses me that those skills were more prevalent in chamber music 200 years ago than they are today, that what was commonplace then is now considered edgy. I enjoy their fusion of the classical quartet aesthetic with contemporary American musical styles, the mixture of the classical form with jazz, the structured with the free. But mostly I love their groove. Because they are completely lost in the music, so am I.

Few question that A Love Supreme (Impulse! 1964) is Coltrane’s masterpiece. But according to Ashley Kahn of NPR’s Morning Edition, it is more than just a musical statement. "It's an unusually complete vision of one man's spirituality expressed through his art. Coltrane used the tools he had available and that he knew: a saxophone, a well-practiced quartet—even his own voice—to create music worthy of his creator, a piece Coltrane called his ‘humble offering to God.’ "

In a 1966 interview, Coltrane discussed religion and spirituality. "I've always felt that even though a man was not a Christian, he still has to know the truth some way or another. Or if he was a Christian, he could know the truth. The truth itself doesn't have any name on it to me. And each man has to find this for himself, I think."

So, Turtle Island’s challenge on this latest CD was to bring out Coltrane’s passion and energy, while working with much different instrumentation. Have they succeeded? Last year we experienced the results on pieces like “So What”--if you closed your eyes, you could almost hear the sax through Mads Tolling’s viola, and Mark Summer sounded like an entire rhythm section by himself. This year, you’ll be able to hear the TIQ’s entire CD over the two opening concerts, July 28 and 29, and judge for yourself.

And this CD has a lot more on it than just the four original “movements” of A Love Supreme. It includes the TIQ take on other songs written by, inspired by, popularized by, or dedicated to Coltrane. Coltrane played inimitable solos, and the TIQ takes full advantage of them on cuts “Round Midnight” and “My Favorite Things.” “La Danse du Bonheur” speaks to Coltrane’s influence in blending Indian music with jazz, and it is a fitting canvas for the TIQ, which frequently incorporates Indian music into their performances.

And then there is “Model Trane,” a string quartet’s interpretation of Coltrane’s original cut “Impressions,” which was in turn inspired by a Debussy theme. Where does the classical end and the jazz begin, and isn’t it interesting how they influence each other? Which is why the TIQ is opening at this year’s Festival. Jazz fans will find new areas to explore in A Love Supreme, while the classical set may find a path to one of jazz’s most enduring achievements. The Turtle Island Quartet’s two concerts here promise to be magical evenings for everyone.

You can hear an NPR interview with the Turtle Island members talking about their New CD, A Love Supreme: The Legacy of John Coltrane, at the following site: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9694023.

Please remember that last year both Turtle Island Quartet concerts were completely sold out. Season tickets are available at the Chamber Music Festival office (in Bellas Artes, phone 154-8722), and tickets for individual concerts go on sale July 2. The entire festival schedule is available online at www.chambermusicfestival.com.

Ed Clancy is the President of the Consejo Ejecutivo of the San Miguel Chamber Music Festival.

NEOhio1

Jul 13, 2007, 5:09 AM

Post #3 of 3 (2150 views)

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Re: [jennifer rose] THE TURTLES ARE COMING !

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Frankly opening the forums up to solicitations and recitations about events in individual cities will bring an onslaught of "commercial-like" posts, its bad enough participation has fallen off significantly but fillers are asking for an open door to everybody's favorite whatever.....please reconsider what you post in your attempts to stimulate interest...a link, dates and two sentences about regional cultural activites, sure....but donation form letters...I know you are a moderator and all, but really....