23th Cactus Pear Fest Starts This Weekend
By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor –
If it’s July, it’s time for the Cactus Pear Music Festival in San Antonio. As always, the 2019 edition, “Romancing the Notes,” offers chamber music treats in four main-stage programs, in four cities, featuring 16 highly accomplished artists. But the big news this year is that founder and artistic director Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio is planning to step down from her position in 2021, and she is currently working with two potential successors – Scott Cuellar and Ryo Yanagitani – who will serve as artistic directors for the second week of the fest this year and in 2020, respectively. Eventually, one of them will replace Sant’Ambrogio as the new artistic leader.
The former concertmaster for the San Antonio Symphony and now a professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, Sant’Ambrogio sounds almost surprised by the success of her project. “When I started planning CPMF’s first season in 1996, I wasn’t even sure we’d make it to season two,” she said in a press statement. “But with the help of amazing board members and two incredible executive directors throughout two decades, Cactus Pear has grown beyond my wildest dreams.”
She also expressed confidence in both Cuellar and Yanagitani. “They are both stellar musicians, compassionate individuals and visionary artists.”
Both are indeed distinguished pianists who have won multiple medals and awards, including the gold medal at the San Antonio International Piano Competition (in different years), and both have performed throughout the United States and abroad, garnering glowing reviews. Both will appear as guest artists at the Cactus Pear fest, Cuellar this year, and Yanagitani next year.
As in the past, this summer’s concerts take place in different venues in San Antonio, Wimberly, Boerne and New Braunfels, but the San Antonio concerts have moved closer to downtown to the Trinity Baptist Church, 319 E. Mulberry Ave. First up is “Into the Twilight,” June 12 at 7 p.m. The program includes compositions by Schubert, Strauss, Harbison and Fauré. That will be followed the next day by “Baying at the Moon” featuring Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata,” and pieces by Shostakovich, Reynolds and Jean Francaix.
The other two San Antonio concerts take place next weekend, July 19th (“Goethe Have Music”) and 20th (“Romancing the Notes.”) The latter is a special event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing, and it features the world premiere of “Small Step, Giant Leap: A Lunar Fantasy” by contemporary composer Judith Lynn Stillman. It will be performed by the seven Young Artists Program fellows, who call themselves Opuntia Opus 7. Space illustrator and designer Pat Rawlings will be present and some of his illustrations will be displayed in the church’s lobby. You can even win one of them through the CPMF’s fundraising auction.
“Into the Twilight” repeats July 14 at 3 p.m. and “Goethe Have Music” repeats July 21, at 7 p.m., both in Boerne at First United Methodist Church. “Romancing the Notes” takes the stage in New Braunfels July 18 at 7 p.m. at the McKenna Event Center.
In addition, two free “Casual Classix” concerts are scheduled in San Antonio, one at the Sheraton Gunter Hotel’s Bar 414, and the other at the Summer Moon Coffee Bar, 3233 N. St. Mary’s St. For more information go to www.cpmf.us; tickets Eventbrite, $28, $100 for four