Música Alrededor La Navidad

We had 3 musical events within the week of Christmas.

A bronze ensemble that practices in the cultural center once a week, gave an impromptu performance on December 23 right before the "Concierto de Gala por la Navidad" in the Cathedral. The members of the bronze ensemble also played in the Christmas Concert of the Cathedral as they are all members of the Cusco Symphonic Orchestra. Many thanks to the bronze ensemble and their coordinator Luis Martinez.

On December 29 we had a concert by a group of students also studying by the Suzuki method but in a workshop independent of the Qantu Association that had earlier in November-December had graduation concerts in the house. For me, the highlight of the event was the short presentation given by the "Ritornello" string quartet after the student concert.

On December 30, the Ritornello" string quartet gave a full length concert. It was magnificent... and the sound of the quartet in the main room of this 16th century was just do beautiful. Thanks to Sandra Tello the representative for the quartet and to the members of the quartet.

Concierto Barroco y La Mujer Crucificada

Lucho Ramirez, a performer as well as director in theater, presented his one man production of Concierto Barroco December 4-5 and narrated La Mujer Crucificada (The Crucified Woman) and other perverse stories December 18-19. It was very impressive watching both his performance of Concierto Barroco and listening to his narrations.

Here is the propaganda for the performance, the picture carries more a sense of the bizarre than I can put into words.

And here is Lucho during his performance of 'Concierto Barroco'. The only props were a bottle of wine on the table, a glass (of course) and a CD player which provided part of the background 'concierto' during part of the performance.

Qantu Asociación - Suzuki Music Concerts

The Qantu music association affiliated with Suzuki Music of Peru had concerts and graduation ceremonies in several different events. Our daughter graduated from book 1 of violin during the November 13 graduation from books 1 to 3 for violin. There were separate events during November and into December for violin books 4-7, flutes, guitar and piano. The concerts were delightful and by books 4-7, the music is very refined and sophisticated reaching professional quality. The Qantu program in Cusco draws students from all walks of life and is not at all a program for the elite!

Playing together as part of the graduation concert for books 1-3 of violin.

The teachers have an international composition: Flor Canelo (back left) is the director and comes from Perú. Allyson (front left) comes from Canada, Fernando (back 3rd from right) comes from Perú, Amy and Angela (back right) come from the US.

For that matter, while the majority of students in Qantu come from Perú, there is a sprinkling of students from the US and France as well.