The sweet sound of stability

Last night I went to a choir and orchestra concert (Concierto en Homenaje a La Paz, Coro y Orquesta de Camara de la Universidad Mayor de San Andres). The director was a young man Maestro Eric Castro Murillo, whom I had seen two days ago at the cultural discussion group. Thanks to Professor Neenan and his Caltech Mu27 class I began to take notes of the concert:

1. Canto a Don Pedro Domingo Murillo
2. Homenaje a Astor Piazzola: This tribute would have made Señor Piazzola shiver from the lack of intonation. The libertango had a cool cello introduction as well as the Buenos Aires Hora Cero. The Meditango had horrible intonation and in the finale there was actual unresovled dissonance written into the music that just seemed like a continuation of the previous parts.
3. Musica de la Chiquitania: These were various pieces of spanish influence in the baroque mestizo style. The intonation throughout these pieces improved with their best piece being...
4. Musica Sacra by Haendel: The audience ate it up when they played Aleluya. (It was great to hear them singing "foreber")
5. Himno a La Paz (we stood up for this one)

I had arived early and sat in the front row not knowing that when the show actually started (45 min after the original time) that the front row would be filled with important people. For example, the director of the Amigos de la Vida foundation and the director of the Bicentennial planning committee.

Overall, the concert reminded me of my middle school orchestra even though they were a University orcherstra. They didn't have their music ready and were shuffleing to find it while on stage. They were practicing and talking while they waited for the many people that arrived late. It was very disorganized, which made me feel less bad for showing up in jeans and a t-shirt (hey, i'm traveling by backpack). What was funny was all the honking from the street below each time in the silence before the conductor began the pieces. The concert made me realized that I was being very critical because this is an area in which I am familiar. But then the words from Maestro Eric after the program enlightened me of the situation.

The choir was founded in 1973 and sang to the campesinos and the workers in the mines. Then for twenty years it was dormant because of the political chaos. It wasn't until 1993 that it picked up again. Therefore the program is relatively new which accounts for most of my criticizm. The most important part now is that even thought the intonation is slightly off, this is now a stable program that fuels the spirits of the people with music.