Featuring a slew of top-notch national and international musicians, the ninth International Baroque Musical Festival kicks off Oct. 28 and will run through Nov. 8. A few extension concerts will travel to Cartago, east of the capital, and Sarapiquí in north-central Costa Rica, though most events will take place in the southwestern Central Valley town of Santa Ana.
Baroque music is a form of European classical music in widespread use from about 1600 to 1750. It is known for different voices and instruments echoing each other in various pitches, and includes composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel.
Admission to the festival’s concerts is free. Santa Ana’s Municipal School of Integrated Arts (EMAI), along with French cultural organization Alliance Française and some private businesses, are funding the event.
EMAI’s youth orchestra will kick off the festival’s inaugural concert at Santa Ana’s ParochialChurch, followed by the school’s adult orchestra and choir. EMAI will be marking its 10th anniversary as an organization, while last year Santa Ana turned 100 during the festival.
Among the festival’s international guests, U.S. trumpeter Fred Sautter and violinist Anthony Vivas of the Simón Bolívar Symphony of Venezuela will play together Nov. 4 at the church in Santa Ana. Sautter will also accompany Costa Rican sopranos Alejandra Ulate and Susana Velasco and the EMAI orchestra at a Nov. 7 extension concert at the Centro Neotrópico Sarapiquí museum auditorium in Puerto Viejo de Sarapiquí.
For a complete concert schedule, see the Calendar on pages W14 and W15 or go to festivalbarroco.blogspot.com.
