Santa Fe Arts Journal

Creative Coverage of Santa Fe's Arts Communities

Unusual Soundscapes The Kronos Quartet plays new music from its Fifty for the Future project

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Seven pieces from the Kronos Quartet’s Fifty for the Future project are on the ensemble’s April 21 program presented at the Lensic Performing Arts Center by Performance Santa Fe.

Fifty for the Future, a commissioning project started in 2015 that will eventually consist of 50 new works presented over a five year period of time, reflects a wide variety of string quartet music written by living composers. Many of the works utilize unusual performance techniques and explore new soundscapes.

The Santa Fe program contains works by composers from around the world including Tanya Tagaq, Islam Chipsy, Raven Chacon and Yevgeniy Sharlat. [Read More…]

Piazzolla and Nuevo Tango The Austin Piazzolla Quintet performs traditional and new tango music at GIG

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Violinist James Anderson fell in love with the music of Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) during studies at the University of Northern Colorado.

“His sounds are the perfect blend of everything,” says Anderson, who grew up playing classical, jazz, bluegrass and rock music.

“When I formed the Austin Piazzolla Quintet in 2009, I looked for musicians to join me who also love his music.”

GIG Performance Space hosts a performance by the Austin Piazzolla Quintet on April 21. [Read More…]

The Apple Hill String Quartet, on Tour Serenata of Santa Fe presents this quartet on a mission

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Two 20th century works by living composers and a string quartet by Haydn are on the program presented by the Apple Hill String Quartet during Serenata of Santa Fe’s March 25 concert at First Presbyterian Church.

Joan Tower’s 1988 piece “Island Prelude,” Celso Garrido-Lecca’s “String Quartet No. 2” and Haydn’s “String Quartet Op. 20, No. 2” are performed by violinists Elise Kuder and Colleen Jennings, violist Mike Kelley and cellist Rupert Thompson. Serenata of Santa Fe’s artistic director Pamela Epple plays the oboe in “Island Prelude.”

“Pamela is a great oboist, and we’ve known her for years,” explains Thompson. [Read More…]

Democracy, Politics and Demographics, Through Words R. Luke DuBois displays political projects at SITE Santa Fe

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R. Luke DuBois is particularly excited about his show “A More Perfect Union” at SITE Santa Fe because it’s the first time he’s been able to exhibit work from all his political projects in the same show and see the evolution of these projects that were created from 2008 through 2017.

DuBois’ “Hindsight is Always 20/20,” 41 framed letterpress prints on Somerset paper, is central to the exhibit, which runs through April 4. These prints contain the top 66 words used most frequently in the first 41 presidents’ State of the Union addresses set up in the format of the Snellen eye chart.

“The State of the Union is an evolving body of rhetoric,” DuBois says. “I think a lot about language and ways in which language is used in our culture. A lot of what each president says is pretty different from the others. Reading their words is a real history lesson.” [Read More…]

The Magnificent J.S. Bach The New Mexico Bach Society presents its annual concert of Bach's works

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When Franz Vote and Linda Marianiello retired to Santa Fe in 2009, they thought they would be leaving their careers in music behind. Instead, the married couple is on stage and performing through their organization the New Mexico Performing Arts Society.

The New Mexico Bach Society, which is part of the New Mexico Performing Arts Society, presents its annual concert of works by J.S. Bach on March 10 in Los Alamos, March 11 in Santa Fe and March 25 in Albuquerque.

“I always dreamed of living in Santa Fe,” explains Vote, a conductor who has been on the podium in many European opera houses and at the Metropolitan Opera at the invitation of conductor and pianist James Levine. “My grandfather was a forest ranger in the Pecos in 1902. As a child, I remember coming to Santa Fe when the plaza was all dirt and there weren’t any sidewalks.” [Read More…]