By Luis Eduardo Quezada, Executive Director, Festival de Música de Cámara San Miguel de Allende A.C.
One of the oldest festivals in Mexico celebrates 44 seasons next August 2022, the San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival—formed by a board of illustrious characters, musicians, music lovers, philanthropists, expatriates and nationals whose mission is to bring chamber music and music education of the highest quality to San Miguel.
To learn about the history of this iconic festival we go back to the 1960s. In 1962, the National Institute of Fine Arts established its first headquarters outside Mexico City in the former convent of Las Monjas, by which time San Miguel could rightly boast of its two concert halls, a year-round cultural calendar that included symphony, chamber and recital concerts both classical and baroque, jazz and popular music concerts, dramatic theater and children’s theater productions, folkloric and modern dance recitals, as well as its already vibrant painting and sculpture community.
In the 1970s, San Miguel’s growing popularity as a cultural destination led several well-known American and Canadian music professionals to establish resorts locally.
It was the initiative of Leonard Brooks, Tom Sawyer, Carmen Masip, and volunteers Xavier Barbosa, Victor Sandoval, and Jules Roskin who formed an organizing committee and embarked on a musical adventure, arranged and presented on a small stage in a colonial town in central Mexico: the first San Miguel de Allende Chamber Music Festival held in June, 1979.
Could you imagine what would have become of this quaint and peculiar town without the musical component? Probably not since music is part of its identity and culture.
This year the festival returns to the Ángela Peralta Theater in August, and brings with it an extraordinary program with world-class artists including Antonhy McGill, Gryphon Trio, Orion Weiss, Parker Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, and Magos Herrera—in addition to the training activities for Mexican talents with Master Classes given by the concert artists themselves.
Dear reader, we can only invite you to discover it for yourself. Consult the following website: festivalsanmiguel.com and enjoy the gala, the concerts, and be part of the history of the Chamber Music Festival of San Miguel de Allende, organized with great care for you and for everyone.
Excerpts quoted from the
article: «A Short Story on the Founding of the Festival,» written by Ken Morrow.
Reviewed by: Helenmarie Concoran, President of the Board of Directors, Festival de Música de Cámara San Miguel de Allende A.C.
