Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

You are involved with so many projects, including other chamber music festivals. Why did you agree to lead this one in San Antonio?

It’s a fair question! The founder of Cactus Pear, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio, is a good friend of mine, and I helped with the starting of Cactus Pear back in the day. This is our 28th season. I have been coming to San Antonio for all those years since the founding. I have played for fund-raising events with her, and, I also played with other San Antonio ensembles, like the Olmos.

In previous years the festival was held at Trinity Baptist Church. Why did you change venues?

It was a big change. That church was great for us. We were able to do all our rehearsals there, have our young artists program there, with plenty of space. We took over the place (chuckles). But at some point, we were politely asked to leave, and had to find a new venue. After a lot of looking around, our choice was the Diane Bennack Hall (on the campus of the University of the Incarnate Word) And it’s good to have all the concerts in one place. It will be my first time there. I never played the piano in that hall and I never even heard a concert in that hall. But it’s a nice hall, about 500 seats, so it’s just right in size. Trinity Church was really too big for us as a performing venue.

You named this year’s fest, “Spur of the Moment.” Could you explain the title?
It’s a nod to the San Antonio Spurs, of course, but there are two reasons. One thing that’s most attractive about live music is the spontaneity, which makes live music so very exciting. And some of the music involves elements of improvisation, like Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story” which will be performed on July 20.

As artistic director, you decided on the programming. It looks like a huge job, with so many musicians performing over two days. How do you go about it?
It takes a lot of thinking, a lot of listening to music and trying different ideas in your head, but in the end, I usually find some kind of corner-stone piece that I want to program and I work around that. For the first week, that corner-stone piece is Kevin Puts’ “Einstein on Mercer Street,” a 2002 work. Puts won the Pulitzer Prize about ten years ago, and recently had an opera that was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, called “The Hours.” It was an enormous success. The piece about Einstein is a cantata with unusual instrumentation. The corner-stone piece for week 2 is Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from “West Side Story.”

Tell us about the musicians, are they mostly San Antonio musicians?
It’s a mix. I like to support local musicians by giving them work.  So, we have a number of musicians from the Philharmonic. But we also have others who come from all over. Most are musicians that I have some personal connection with, but there are some who are new to me. Altogether, we’ll have 16 musicians. We house the out-of-town musicians with board members and other supporters.

Have you programmed some surprises?
There are some things that people won’t expect. I can’t talk about those because I want them to be a surprise. (laughs) People may be surprised by the two-piano works that will be part of the second week.
The festival has not done pieces that involve two pianos. Ever. Yet, that’s something that I love doing but it is logistically complicated. I think that will be a big surprise for a lot of people. Gershwin wrote “An American in Paris” for two pianos and orchestrated it later. I think the arrangement we’ll present for the dances from “West Side Story,” which includes two pianos and percussion, will please the audience. It’s crazy fun to watch, and crazy fun to listen to.

What instruments are represented?
Always the strings and always piano. This year we have trumpets. That’s a little unusual for chamber music.  And in the Young Artist Program, we have flute, trumpet and we have two singers. The singing is new. We never had singers before. But I have a serious background in singing, coaching and working with opera. It’s been a big part of my career, so I wanted to expand the program to include young singers. And we have two fantastic young singers this year.

Tell us a bit about the educational component to CPMF.
Yes, it’s called The Young Artists Program. We call then YAPS. They are teenagers, high school age. That program is run by our education director, Craig Sorgi. It’s a well-developed program, started by Stephanie. And our final concert of the season is a Young Artist Program on Sunday.

Are the audiences loyal, returning every year?
We have a lot of people who are very loyal. Our hope is that more people will come this year since everything is free. We discussed this for a long time and decided to make a push for it and see what happens. It makes it accessible for everybody. There’s no advertising like word-of-mouth. We depend on people who like us to spread the word.

But you never know what may happen. Last year one of the singers came down with COVID and I could not replace her. If something is to happen this year, I would certainly call the musicians from SA Phil that I personally know, to step in and help. Last year we had all these crazy things happen. For instance, one of our violinists was stung by a scorpion the day of the show. That could have been serious but, luckily, she was OK.

So, when it’s all over, what do you do to celebrate?
I go back home to California and sleep for a week. Then I’ll take a vacation.

Tell us what you do when you are not running a festival?
 I am on the faculty of the University of California Berkley; I teach piano and I am the principal vocal coach there. Many smart kids study there and they may be pursuing degrees in molecular biology or neuro science but they are often exceptional musicians, too. They don’t have the intention to pursue music professionally but they become devoted and accomplished amateurs.

Are you familiar with the chamber groups here in San Antonio?
I know people in several of them. I am interested in the AGARITA group. (After hearing that the AGARITA ensemble has a small recital space of their own and an art gallery downtown, Sykes got excited about the idea.) I would love to do that (have an art exhibit in the concert hall)
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To see CPMF full schedule visit www.cpmf.us