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San Miguel's Unique Music Festival
 PVNN
One of the world's finest colonial cities nestles high in the Sierra Madre Mountains, its cobblestone streets leading to a main square filled with flowers and shadowed by the spires of a Gothic church built in 1683.
Around the edges of the square, patrons of open-air restaurants linger on patios sheltered by bright red umbrellas. The restaurant smells mingle with those from a nearby cooking school, where chefs trained around the world share their skills amid displays of handmade pottery from such master artisans as Gorky Gonzalez and Jesus Santos.
It is a special place, a World Heritage Site. And San Miguel de Allende's magic is heightened for two weeks every August by the sounds of world-renowned musicians. They perform in ancient churches with bright frescoes, a concert hall, a former monastery and other historic buildings.
During San Miguel's Chamber Music Festival, the music also spills into the streets, as artists who perform most of the year in such venues as New York's Carnegie Hall and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires bring their music to the masses. And every day, all over the city, you can catch free performances by Mexico's best young musicians, advanced students who compete for spots in master classes given by the visiting professionals.
Musicians who performing last year included the Jupiter String Quartet, fresh from an international tour; the Borromeo String Quartet, veterans of Italy's Spoleto Festival who average 100 concerts a year worldwide; and pianist Natasha Tarasova, who describes her music as a combination of blues, funk, classical and pop.
Tarasova, to me, is a symbol of the unpretentious nature of the San Miguel festival. Not a single one of the concerts I attended previously was accompanied by that stifled, haughty feel you sometimes get at classical performances. This event is more about the energy and beauty of music — all music. A mixture of styles is not frowned upon.
The 2008 concert at Rancho La Loma, a gorgeous property where equestrians from Mexico's championship team practice, was typical of the atmosphere that prevails at the festival. In an upscale carriage house lined with wine casks, a local mariachi band played during a gourmet lunch. When it was time for the main performers to take the stage, the leader of the Synergy Brass Quintet motioned for the mariachis to stay, and the quintet joined them for a rousing Mexican tune. Then the quintet led off with Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," segueing into some New Orleans blues.
"This festival is about bringing fusion in music and enriching Mexico with the music of the world," Synergy Brass Quintet leader Bobby Thorp said when I spoke to him afterward. Thorp told me it pains him that so many Mexican street musicians play every day yet have never stepped foot inside a concert hall.
There were carriage rides around the estate before the concert, and afterward we enjoyed a demonstration of dressage by a Mexican Olympic hopeful. Thorp, meanwhile, was chatting with the mariachis and arranging for them to attend that evening's concert in the city's opera house.
It's not too late to head off to this year's festival. Concert tickets, accommodations and flights remain plentiful, according to festival organizers, due in part to the economy and in part to the swine flu scare.
Other potential visitors may fear the heat of a Mexican August, but that too is a misperception. San Miguel sits 6,000 feet above sea level. Days tend to be pleasantly warm, and on an August evening you may even need a sweater.
Chances are that while you're here, another festival of a local variety will be taking place. Our first night in San Miguel, I dove from the bed to the floor when I heard what I thought were gunshots. They turned out to be fireworks marking the feast day of one of the many saints whose special days Mexicans routinely celebrate with pyrotechnics and street parties.
As I quickly learned, San Miguel is a safe place. So safe that I soon began thinking my teenage daughter should return with just a friend to study in one of the schools that teach Spanish to foreigners. There's no squalor, and the city is obviously prosperous, a prosperity no doubt abetted not only by tourists but by the 10,000 foreign visitors, most of them Americans and Europeans, who came and decided to stay.
If one concert a day or even every few days is your quota, not to worry. San Miguel's charms are legion. Handicrafts and specialty foods abound in shops and a large market. Historic buildings include the Parroquia, the church where heroes of the Mexican War of Independence are buried in a crypt beneath the main altar. An afternoon spent strolling does not feel wasted, and a short trip out of town to hot springs is always an option.
Come to the main square around lunchtime and you may spot the woman with the Texas-style beehive who dresses herself and her Chihuahua in matching outfits. The locals claim that she and her dog have 1,000 outfits each.
My favorite attraction: the Aurora Factory. The former textile mill opened in 1902 at a time when architects put more beauty into factories than they do today into so-called mansions and major office buildings. These days, the structure with arched porticos houses 60 shops, many of them antiques stores and art galleries.
A local tour guide I hired said that when the factory closed just a few years ago, everyone left crying. "Everyone's grandfather and great-grandfather worked here," he said. "The factory operated around the clock and made the best material in Mexico."
As an aside, he asked that I speak kindly of the festival. "It keeps our student program alive," he said, noting that the proceeds from concerts sponsor the students who study with the professional performers. "It is a unique opportunity for us to support classical music in Mexico."
After mooning over the wares in furniture shops and leather goods stores, I found wonderful bargains on silver-framed sketches in an antiques store. I noticed a doorway at the back of the shop covered by a blanket and in my nosy way inquired what was behind it.
A treasure trove, it turned out, of works by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. It was such an amazing cache that I wondered whether it could be real. It became clear that shop owner Diego Fernandez was convinced of its authenticity when, upon hearing that I had once lived in Detroit, he eagerly requested that I put him in touch with the art museum there, which is famed for its major Rivera fresco.
Fernandez then lovingly showed me some of what he said were 1,200 Rivera and Kahlo pieces he had acquired, even though it was clear that I'm not the caliber of shopper to be acquiring a Rivera or a Kahlo.
I was enchanted. With the shop. With Kahlo and Rivera. With Fernandez. With the festival. With the city at large.
I regret that this August, I will not be in San Miguel. But I shall return.
• • •
WHERE TO STAY: The city offers a huge selection of inns, hotels, luxurious suites and B&Bs. I visited nearly two dozen properties in various price ranges and didn"t see any that were run-down or unpleasant. One of my favorites is Las Terrazas San Miguel (Santo Domingo 3, 707-534-1833, www.terrazassanmiguel.com; from $125 double a night), set within a walled compound that stretches up a hill in downtown San Miguel. The owners, an American couple, deliver gourmet breakfasts to the private apartments, which come with their own entrance and terrace. For old-world luxury, Casa Misha (Chiquitos 15, Centro, 212-372-0274, www.casamisha.com) is a refurbished mansion featuring grand common rooms, seven guest rooms, an apartment, gardens and rooftop terraces. Doubles from $250 a night.
WHERE TO EAT: Dining choices span the globe. Among the choices: Nirvana (Mesones 101) for Mexican-European fusion food, including watermelon gazpacho and tuna in soy vinaigrette, with entrees costing $10 to $18; Cha-Cha-Cha (28 de Abril Norte 37; $5.50-$8) for good Mexican, including chicken in a huazontle sauce; and Bella Italia (Hernandez Macias 59; $10-$25), with a daily risotto and spinach-filled ravioli. For fabulous desserts, stop by El Petit Four (Mesones 99-1); the assorted cookies, croissants and, of course, petit fours, cost 75 cents to $4. The pizza and Mexican dishes at Mama Mia (Umaran 8) are just okay, but it"s a good place to catch salsa and Latin jazz.
FESTIVAL INFORMATION: The music festival runs in August. Individual tickets for professional performances range from $19 to $33. For a calendar and ticket reservations: 011-52-415-154-8722, www.festivalsanmiguel.com.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS: Take Mexican cooking classes in a beautiful atmosphere at Sazon (Correo 22, 011-52-415-154-7671, www.sazon.com; about $44). Tour the city"s architectural treasures with Leyendas y Mitos (011-52-442-212-4565, www.leyendasymitosdequeretaro.com; $11). When shopping for leather, jewelry, antiques and handicrafts, stop by La Buhardilla Arte y Antiguedades (Amazonas 422). Don"t miss Aurora Factory (Calzada de la Aurora), a former mill that is now an arts center showcasing contemporary arts and crafts, antiques and furniture.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Tourism Office of San Miguel de Allende, www.turismosanmiguel.com.mx. |
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