LSCAS News:SANTA FE ― The Lensic and the Spanish Colonial Arts Society proudly present Nuestra Música, an evening of remembering the traditional music of New Mexico, Friday, April 15 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center (211 West San Francisco, Santa Fe).
The evening begins at 7 p.m., and tickets are $10/free for seniors (reservations required by calling 505.988.1234).
The only annual concert in New Mexico that features the Hispano folk music of the state, Nuestra Música’s 2016 line-up includes favorites Roberto Mondragon y Amigos, Frank McCulloch y Sus Amigos, Cipriano Vigil y La Familia Vigil, Brenda Romero with David F Garcia, El Trio Jalapeño con Antonio Apodaca, and—new to the concert this year —singer Consuelo Luz accompanied by Joaquín Gallegos. The performance is curated by aural historian and author Jack Loeffler, his daughter, Celestia, and folklorist and musicologist Dr. Enrique Lamadrid. Nuestra Música is presented in collaboration with the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
Roberto Mondragon y Amigos
Roberto Mondragon, whose repertoire includes ballads that reflect the breadth and soul of Hispano culture in New Mexico, is a recipient of both the New Mexico Hispano Music Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the New Mexico Music Commission Hispano Lifetime Achievement Award. Born in the community of Anton Chico, Roberto later moved to Albuquerque, where his early musical influences were his father and uncle. A former New Mexico lieutenant governor, Roberto will be accompanied on stage by a group of his close friends who are traditional New Mexican músicos.
Frank McCulloch y Sus Amigos
A 2001 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, Frank McCulloch is a well-known New Mexican landscape artist and musician who has performed New Mexican folksongs since childhood. Born in Gallup to Irish and Hispanic parents, McCulloch began playing regional folk music in the 1950s and was later recorded by the distinguished musician and collector John Donald Robb. McCulloch’s group has been playing together for 13 years, and includes Melody Mock on violin and Luis Campos on guitar.
Cipriano Vigil y La Familia Vigil
Born in Chamisal (northeast of Española), Cipriano Vigil is one of the greatest folk musicians to emerge from New Mexico. As a child he was influenced by older musicians who would perform at dances, weddings, and fiestas in nearby communities. As an adult, he plays more than 50 instruments. A 1994 recipient of the Governors Awards for Excellence in the Arts, Vigil authored the book “New Mexican Folk Music/Cancionero del Folklor Nuevo Mexicano,” which contains many of the songs in his immense repertoire. Vigil will be joined onstage by his son, daughter, and grandchildren.
Brenda Romero with David F. Garcia
David F. Garcia is an accomplished musician, composer, and star student of Cipriano Vigil. Known for his soaring tenor vocals, and beautiful violin accompaniment of the Alcalde Matachines, Garcia is an emerging scholar of Nuevo Mexicano music in the doctoral program in Anthropology at University of Texas – Austin.
Brenda Romero is an ethnomusicologist who specializes in New Mexican musical history and culture. Romero’s doctoral dissertation focused on the Matachines music and dance in New Mexico Pueblo and Hispano settings. When the long-time fiddler for the Jemez Pueblo Matachines passed away, Romero filled in for nine years, eventually coaching a successor.
El Trio Jalapeño con Antonia Apodaca
A 1992 recipient of the New Mexico Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, Antonia Apodaca is one of New Mexico’s most beloved folk musicians. She was born in Rociada 92 years ago, and still sings, dances, and plays her accordion and guitar as beautifully as she did 50 years ago. This year she will be accompanied by David Garcia and Bernie Jaramillo. They will perform songs from Antonia’s vast repertoire that have been in her family for generations.
Consuelo Luz y Joaquín Gallegos
Years ago, as a Spanish singer living in the mountains of northern New Mexico, Consuelo Luz was approached by Rabbi Chavah Carp to sing ancient Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) prayer songs at religious and social gatherings. She has been collecting and singing these songs ever since, culminating in the international release of my Sephardic/World Music CD DEZEO. Luz draws inspiration from her own Spanish Basque, Sephardic and Mapuche Indian ancestral background, and her music has been featured in prestigious compilations such as Buddha Bar 2, Putumayo’s Jewish Odyssey, and Tulku.
Luz will be accompanied by musician Joaquín Gallegos, a Santa Fesano who has studied guitar since age nine. Though Gallegos is known as an award winning flamenco guitarist, his versatility is highlighted when performing Judeo-Spanish Sephardic music with Luz.
About the Curators
Enrique Lamadrid is a nationally recognized folklorist and musicologist. A professor of Spanish and the former director of Chicano Hispano Mexicano Studies at the University of New Mexico, Dr. Lamadrid is the author of the award-winning book “Hermanitos Comanchito,” published by UNM Press. His essays appear in the celebrated book of photographs by Miguel Gandert, “Nuevo Mexico Profundo.” Lamadrid has served as a field worker and presenter for the Smithsonian Institution’s Festivals of American Folk Life and has done extensive work for both the Museum of New Mexico and National Hispanic Cultural Center. He was head of the design team for the Camino Real International Heritage Center in San Antonio, New Mexico.
Jack Loeffler is an aural historian, radio producer, and author who has devoted his adult life to the preservation of indigenous and traditional cultures and environments of the Southwest and Mexico. He is the recipient of a 2008 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the 2009 Edgar Lee Hewett Award for Outstanding Public Service from the New Mexico Historical Society. Loeffler has conducted field recordings west of the 100th meridian since 1964, founding the Peregrine Arts Sound Archive in 1967 to be the repository for his professional work. His archive now holds thousands of hours of recordings of interviews, music and natural habitat, and contains well over 3,000 songs of indigenous and traditional peoples. Loeffler has produced over 300 documentary programs for radio, plus scores of soundtracks, albums of music from diverse genres, films, videos, folk music festivals, museum sound collages, and books. He and Enrique Lamadrid have collaborated on many diverse projects over the past thirty years.
Born and raised in Santa Fe, Celestia Loeffler recognizes the magic of the region. She has dedicated her life to the art of cultural and environmental preservation, crafting a unique career as a producer, archivist, wordsmith, model, and yoga instructor. Her first book, “Thinking like a Watershed,” which she co-authored and edited with her father, Jack Loeffler, was released in 2012 by the University of New Mexico Press.
The Lensic Performing Arts Center: Celebrating 15 Years in 2016
The nonprofit Lensic Performing Arts Center owns and maintains a landmark historic theater in the heart of Santa Fe, is the hub for year-round performing arts and culture, and serves the community through affordable programming and groundbreaking educational programs that touch the lives of more than 10,000 students each year. The Lensic Performing Arts Center celebrates its 15th anniversary in 2016. For more information about our presentations and programs, see here.
