¡Música del Corazón! will celebrate its 10th anniversary in November with a slate of favorite performers in the Nuevomexicano tradition. A pre-concert talk will feature scholars Carmella Scorcia Pacheco, Adolfo Estrada, and Enrique Lamadrid, a historian, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Spanish at The University of New Mexico.
The event will be held Sunday, Nov. 19, at 3 p.m. at the National Hispanic Cultural Center Albuquerque Journal Theatre. Admission is free but the NHCC requests all audience members obtain a free ticket before entering the theater. The event is presented by The University of New Mexico John Donald Robb Musical Trust and National Hispanic Cultural Center.
¡Música del Corazón! will host Nueva Luna, a conjunto with Lara Manzanares, Rob Martínez, and Felix "Gato" Peralta, with special guest Jordan Wax, founder of Lone Piñón. Lone Piñon is a New Mexican string band whose music celebrates the integrity and diversity of their region's cultural roots. With fiddles, upright bass, guitars, accordions, vihuela, and bilingual vocals, they play a wide spectrum of the traditional music that is at home in New Mexico.
Two emerging ensembles include a new mix of Jarocho musicians led by the renowned Laura Rebolloso, and UNM's Mariachi Lobo directed by UNM Mariachi Ensemble Director Robert Lucero Jr. with ethnomusicologist Adolfo Estrada.
At 2 p.m. in the theater lobby visitors can gather at the John Donald Robb information table and meet members of the Robb Trust Board.
At 2:45 p.m. the pre-concert talk will begin.
At 3 p.m. on the Albuquerque Journal Theatre stage:
- Nueva Luna will perform, followed by Laura Rebolloso and Friends.
- The Robb Award will be presented to John Truitt, music educator, composer, Flamenco guitarist, and woodwind specialist.
- The UNM Mariachi Lobo will perform.
- Other artists will be announced.
“Over the past decade, the Robb Trust has marveled at the persistence and genius of traditional music as it recalls the past, adapts, to the present, and shapes the future,” said Thomas Goodrich from the Robb Trust. “¡Música del Corazón! explores foundational genres of the romancero and cancionero, from medieval ballads to revolutionary corridos, baroque and contemporary fandangos. ¡Música del Corazón! remembers the hybrid music of Indo-Hispano rituals and that of Sephardic, Moorish, and Christian spiritualities and revel in the beloved musical ‘stepchildren’ of New Mexico – Flamenco, Mariachi, Jarocho, and Afro-Caribeño. ¡Música del Corazón! honors musical families and revivals facilitated by teachers and scholars and have invited musical groups of every size. It will be hard to sit still as we indulge ourselves, as we stand up for dance, the embodiment of music in all its forms.”
Poster art: La Fiesta de la Abundancia del Brillante by Jim Vogel ©2023 used with permission of the artist.