School of Music presents musical salute to Mexico
In partnership with the Mexico Cónsul General Lic. Victor Manuel Trevino Escudero and Latino Perspectives magazine, the ASU School of Music presents ¡Un Saludo Musical a Mexico!
The Oct. 8 concert held at ASU Gammage features traditional mariachi music and classical compositions from world-renowned composers. The concert celebrates Mexico’s Bicentenario de la Independencia and 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.
The ASU Orchestra and Symphonic Chorale team up with special guests Jeff Nevin, mariachi expert and ASU alumnus, and his group, Mariachi Champaña Nevin. Nevin and his group perform Nevin’s concerto, Pasión Mexicana with the ASU Orchestra.
The ASU Symphonic Chorale joins the orchestra for a special performance of James DeMars’ cantata, Tito’s Say. DeMars is an ASU School of Music professor and an Arizona Governor’s Arts Award-winning composer. Latino Perspectives magazine called DeMars’ recent opera, Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Roses, “a milestone in the history of contemporary music.” Alberto Rios, a Latino Literary Hall of Fame award recipient and ASU Regents’ Professor of English, wrote the poem DeMars used for the text of his cantata.
Rounding out the concert event, the orchestra performs the seldom-heard masterpiece Sinfonia India, by Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, and American composer Aaron Copland’s, El Salon Mexico.
This special concert also includes local artisans presenting their crafts, and a special display of mariachi history, costumes and instruments.
Nevin directs a free, pre-concert workshop for local music teachers and college and high school students aspiring to perform mariachi music Oct. 7.
¡Un Saludo Musical a México! performance will be held from 7:30-9 p.m., Oct. 8, at ASU Gammage Auditorium. Gammage is located on Mill Avenue and Gammage Parkway in Tempe. Tickets are $8.50–$15.50. For tickets, call ASU Gammage at 480.965.3434, or visit http://www.asugammage.com/.
Neysa Grzywa, neysa.grzywa@asu.edu
(480) 727-6222
ASU School of Music