Xalapa has a symphony

Last night I went to the symphony in Xalapa - they have a wonderful group. We heard three performances. The first was from Silvestre Revueltas(something called Alcancias) - pretty modern for my tastes. The second was Mozart (the Linz symphony Kirckle 427). The third was the Alpine Symphony from Richard Strauss. The orchestra is very good - made up primarily of people from the public university. They do a lot of performances each year. The hall has great acostics. So for a city about the size of Sacramento - this is was a real find. They also have an active opera and theater community - another demonstration of the benefits of having a university (in this case many) in your town.

I went with a friend who I first met in Mexico and is involved in the arts - I first met him because he was saving and recording music from the Mexican Baroque period - he had a flair both to find the music (with the help of a guy named Thomas Stanford) and then to record it. It is a period of Mexican history that should receive more notice. But he is currently working in the gulf region on a series of arts related projects. He is thinking about doing a cultural festival of the arts for the Gulf - from Texas down to Vera Cruz - with all the different kinds of art represented there it would be an ambitious project but one that could contribute to the region.