| | |  Vallarta Living 
In Appreciation of La Biblioteca Los Mangos' 14th Anniversary Celebrations
 Cecile Scriban - PVNN
December 08, 2010
| | The opening of Los Mangos' 14th anniversary celebrations featured the Concierto de Otoño, its yearly youth classical concert on Thursday, November 18, 2010. | |
This year, Los Mangos' 14th anniversary celebrations theme centered on music education for our youths. The Opening featured the Concierto de Otoño, its yearly youth classical concert on Thursday November 18 and concluded with a 40-member Guadalajara Youth orchestra in a "Homenaje a José Pablo Moncayo" at Teatro Vallarta on Sunday November 21, 2010.
Under the gracious auspices of the Biblioteca, the youth classical concert kicked off "en punto" at 6:00 pm at the Sala Carlos Munguia, and sincere thanks to the Director, Ricardo Murrieta for putting together such a fine and varied program of instrumental piano and guitar music!
After a brief word from our regular MC, highlighting the crucial role of music in education and the significant benefits derived in all levels, personal, social, communal... the concert commenced with focused young pianists from teachers of the Library and private music studios - Heriberto Hernandez, Alexandro Villareal and Adrian Beltran, who played their hearts out with pieces ranging from Schumann's Little Melody, Claude Daquin's Le Coucou, Clementi's Sonatina in C, Beethoven's Ecossaise in G major, to J.S. Bach's Prelude #1, Mozart's Sonata in C major and Chopin's Vals Op.28 #2 and 9, Schubert's Momento Musical, Manuel Maria Ponce's Intermezzo and finishing off with the virtuosic C.P.E. Bach's Solfegietto.
On guitar too, with teachers, Gabriel Ruiz, Salvador Contreras and Jose Luis Ornelas, lyrical pieces such as Francisco Tárrega's Lagrima and other works, even Eric Clapton's Lagrima del Cielo were beautifully performed by the Escobar Guardado ensemble, a young family of three! You should have seen too the under 10-year-old duo with their teacher totally absorbed in the Felix Mendelssohn's Herbstlied and De Call's Minuet!
Such was this year's wonderful musical harvest. The quality and varied repertoire, plus the assuring poise of the players were so well noted by the hall full of delighted spectators that the President of the Board of Directors of La Biblioteca Los Mangos, Maria José Zorilla, lavished praises to these young musicians while handing out acknowledgement certificates and free tickets even to the closing Moncayo concert event at the Teatro Vallarta. Every student looked as though they won a lottery ticket!
Continuing its generous cultural sponsorship since the summer, Via Cultural again invited this striking orchestra of 40 youths from Guadalajara, who transported us right from the outset with Juan Pablo Moncayo's ballet suite La Tierra de Temporal with its sweeping melodious post impressionist theme and vivid orchestral colour.
Moncayo himself, a pianist, conductor and composer, studied at one time at the Berkshire Institute of Massachusetts (Tanglewood Music Center today), was influenced by Aaron Copland among others and is today one of the more prominent Mexican nationalist composers internationally known for his cheerful and rousing Huapango, a symphonic fantasy inspired by folkloric melodies "in its purest forms," rhythms and instrumentations from the regions of Alvarado in Vera Cruz. For more on J.P Moncayo check the entries for Moncayo and his biographer Dr. Armando Torres Chibrás on Wikipedia.
And so, with another encore of this beloved work, the matinee concert came to an exuberant end... but not before drawing on the numerous evocative, even nostalgic musical strains from transcriptions of Moncayo's original premiered scores by Miguel Almaguer, himself a young composer/conductor and member of the Guadalajara Youth Orchestra.
Fine renditions were achieved in the orchestrated works such as the delightful Sinfonietta and the ambitious Homenaje a Cervantes for two oboes and string orchestra. There was also an idyllic chamber work - the hauntingly beautiful and technical Amatzinac for flute and string quartet which was effortlessly performed by the elegant flautist and conducted with much aplomb by the Zimbabwe-born guest maestro Graham Lea-Cox, an Oxford graduate and to date working with leading orchestras of Europe and the US.
Our sincere appreciation and thanks thus to both the Biblioteca and Via Cultural for their joint efforts in emphasizing music education and music making among our youths more than ever this year!
In fact, in this era of mounting crises and challenges, but also of growing civic awareness, should our next endeavour, here in our Vallartan community with an ever widening income disparity, be to not only encourage music education for the exploding young population, but also adopt the social rescue model pioneered by the famed Venezuelan musician and economist Dr. José Antonio Abreu – and make this phenomenal music pedagogy approach accessible to the otherwise deprived young people of our society?
Known worldwide as "El Sistema," Dr. Abreu's inspiring vision is to teach music to children from all layers of society – but especially the underprivileged, desolate and dysfunctional – free of charge and with free musical instruments, integrating them into playing as a harmonious team in ensembles and orchestras (replicating a mini- society!)
The beneficial effects of this enlightened program are so impressive that El Sistema has now been copied in more than 30 countries, including the United States, saving thousands of depressed children from lives of crime, addiction and poverty, creating thousands of first class musicians, helping scores of musical stars appear on the best stages of the world (including the renowned Gustavo Dudamel, now the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic) – and at the same time transforming them into sensitive, responsible and vibrantly productive contributing citizens.
Inspiring for sure... but maybe about time for our increasingly fragmented community to benefit from an El Sistema initiative here in Vallarta as well... one that's proven to "build not just musicians, but also (full integrated )human beings" yes, in addition to the other numerous existing benevolent initiatives. (See Wikipedia for more about El Sistema.)
In the long run, it is our community that will rejoice the more so living in such a desirable environment with as rich and varied a musical culture as our culinary, and arts scene... Couldn't be easier to imagine what a truly sought-after destination this fast expanding Vallarta can be, this special Mexican Riviera gem with more than sun 'n sea to offer!
Many thanks again to you all, loyal audience, and...
Merry Christmas and a Very Happy 2011!
Cecile Scriban |
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