Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

Some familiar faces will return to San Antonio during the 2023-24 season but there will be several San Antonio premieres as well. What the music audiences will be hearing includes classical piano, klezmer, rock, operatic singing, folkloric traditions of Hungarian Gypsies, and more.

So how do they put the season together we asked Suhail Arastu, Advancement Director at MBAW.

“The season is chosen by our artistic director Anya Grokovski and our artistic coordinator Elena Portnaya,” he said. “This season, just after the celebration of our 25th-year jubilee last year, is very multicultural, with a great variety of styles, from classical to jazz to folkloric music and classical songs for the holidays. So, it’s a very nice variety throughout.”

The season will open with “Golden Touch” showcasing the brilliance of pianist Jiale Li, from China, who was last here in 2020 when he became the Gold Medalist of the inaugural Gurwitz International Piano Competition, organized by MBAW. This time, he will get things started with virtuosic Romantic masterworks by the likes of Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff.

Other artists who are “returning” to San Antonio are the duo from Belgium, violinist Jolente de Maeyer and Nikolaas Kende, whose first participation in an MBAW’s season was virtual, with them playing in their Belgian home with their baby nearby.

“That was not just a concert,” noted Arastu. “We had a conversation with them about what was going on. They put cameras outside of their window and people were out there banging pots and pans in honor of health workers. And we could even hear their baby crying at some point.”

Moments like that remain part of the recent COVID-19 pandemic history. This time around, the couple will hopefully arrive in the Alamo City without complications, to join U.S. tenor, Eric Taylor of the Houston Grand Opera, in the holiday concert on Dec. 10. The group will deliver musical “Holiday Gifts.”

“You know what’s interesting – I spend a lot of time with the artists – they are not just here for one night and then they go to next city on their tour,” remarked Arastu. “Our artists get a real experience of the city and our people. Many of the artists participate in community engagement, and perform for our member concerts.” (The latter raise funds to support the public concerts which are free and open to all.)

Through many conversations with the various artists over the years, Arastu has often heard their comments about MBAW’s approach to designing concerts. They often remark that many places which invite them to perform usually select certain popular pieces of their repertoire, but not here. Here, the organizers pick unusual program selections “that we normally don’t get asked to play, and then they turn things upside down and ask us to play it in a different style. And then, they add some performers whom we never met and are expected to play with.”

“That’s what makes Musical Bridges unique, I think,” said Arastu. San Antonio makes it very challenging for the artists but also very unique. Sometimes we commission new works, sometimes we have very unusual pairings, indeed.”

All concerts take place at the San Fernando Cathedral. In fact, the entire project was born after the former San Fernando rector, Father David Garcia, went to Europe and saw how Europeans use some of their many churches as concert halls on certain days. In Russia, too, churches were often activated as performance spaces with great acoustics.

Have they ever considered doing concerts in other churches in the city, closer to where people live? We wondered.

“It’s interesting that you asked me that question,” noted Arastu, “because we did have a partnership with Boerne Public Library and we had concerts there for a season. It’s an option.”
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Here’s what’s coming up:
 Sept. 24, 2023: GOLDEN TOUCH: Pianist and Gold Medalist of the Gurwitz 2020 International Piano Competition, Jiale Li will play Romantic works of Chopin, Liszt and Rachmaninoff.

Oct.29: MOSTLY KOSHER: the concert is described as “global food fight” of jazz, Latin, rock and folk. Acclaimed klezmer/rock band Mostly Kosher radically reconstructs Judaic and American music through klezmer beats and Yiddish refrains.

Dec. 10: HOLIDAY GIFTS: Featured composers are Kreisler, Schubert and Strauss with Belgian violin-piano duo Jolente de Meyer and Nikolaas Kende, along with U.S. star tenor Eric Taylor of the Houston Grand Opera.

April 24, 2024: ROMANI RHAPSODY: Hungarian violinist, classical master, composer and jazz improviser Roby Lakatos & His Ensemble. They fuse contemporary, classical and jazz elements with Gypsy folklore.

MAY 12, 2024: AIRE: The queen of Latin jazz, Magos Herrera, will perform highlights from her new album “Aire” featuring original music from the Latin American songbook. She will share the stage with her jazz trio, Vinicius Gomes, Sam Minaie and Alex Kautz.

For free tickets visit: www.mbaw.org/sfc