LA FONTEGARA

(MEXICO)

Instrumental ensemble dedicated to the performance of Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo music (c. 1450-c. 1770)

on replicas of original instruments.

PERFORMERS:

María Díez-Canedo, recorder and flute

Eunice Padilla, harpsichord

Eloy Cruz, Baroque guitar and archlute

Friday, November 20, 2009 & 7:00 pm
Location: Mexican Cultural Institute
2829 16th Street, NW | Washington, D.C.
R.S.V.P. icmdc@instituteofmexicodc.org | Free entrance

Street parking available after 6:30 pm

Saturday, November 21, 2009 & 6:00 pm
Location: Kennedy Center - Millennium Stage
2700 F Street, NW | Washington, D.C. 20566
Free entrance | Directions and parking

La Fontegara
Mexico

La Fontegara is an instrumental ensemble dedicated to the performance of Renaissance, Baroque and Roccoco music (c. 1450-c. 1770) on replicas of original instruments.
The ensemble was formed in 1988 after individual studies in Mexico, Chicago, Boston, and The Hague. They have performed extensively in Mexico City and have participated in the most important festivals in the country, such as Festival Internacional Cervantino, Encuentro Internacional de Música Antigua CENART, Festival del Centro Histórico, Festival Cultural Sinaloa, and others.

Their appearances outside of Mexico include concerts in Spain, Germany (Regensburg EM Festival), Venezuela, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Guatemala and in numerous festivals and concert series throughout the United States: Musicians of the Old Post Road Concert series in the Boston area, Houston Harpsichord Society, San Antonio Early Music Festival, "Musicians and Music of Mexico" -Los Angeles, and San Antonio-, Manitou Early Music Festival, MI, Museum Concerts of Rhode Island, Arcadia Players -Amherst, Northampton, Springfield-,  Miami Tropical Baroque, New York Early Music Series, etc. With the Compañía Musical de las Americas directed by Josep Cabré, La Fontegara participated in a tour through Guatemala, Colombia and Dominican Republic.

On different occasions, the ensemble has invited internationally renowned artists to perform special repertoires, Lydia H. Knutson, soprano, Manfredo Kraemer, Richard Luby, Emilio Moreno, Robert Mealy, Sandi Schwarz, baroque violin, Josep Cabré, baritone, Marilyn Boenau, basoon, and others.

The members of La Fontegara are fulltime professors at the Escuela Nacional de Música of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; they've been invited to teach courses at the Universidad de Costa Rica, Chapel Hill, NC, Miami University and Interlochen. 

In 1990 La Fontegara released its recording Suites y Sonatas; they have participated in numerous recordings of Mexican Baroque Music with groups Angelicum de Puebla and Capilla Virreinal. They have recorded CDs Sonatas Novohispanas I and II (Urtext Digital Classics), Resonancia I and II and Galant with an attitude, in collaboration with Musicians of the Old Post Road (Meridian Records, England). This CD was chosen as CD of the month in Musik Actuell, Germany, and got 5 stars in the BBC Magazine.

They have received twice a Grant for Artistic Groups from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes and the Rockefeller-Bancomer Fideicomiso for Mexico/USA Culture grant for a collaboration project.

La Fontegara   
María Diez-Canedo,recorder and flute
Eunice Padilla, harpsichord
Eloy Cruz, Baroque guitar and archlute

Press
"scintillating performances full of sentiment and character..."
(for CD Galant with an attitude, 5 stars) 
                                             -The BBC Magazine, England

The Mexico City ensemble La Fontegara emerges as an important new force in Baroque performance. They do everything right, and the result is a collection of music that's highly listenable even for those with no particular interest in the growing field of recordings of music of the Spanish Western hemisphere. Instrumentation isn't specified in the manuscripts, and La Fontegara does a good job of realizing the music in ways that make sense to modern listeners but also give a sense of the historical issues. The basic group, varied occasionally in order to show some of the possibilities, is flute, gamba, and keyboard or lute. María Díez-Canedo is a top-notch Baroque flutist and recorder player who is unafraid to add a gutsy Spanish touch to the recorder's sonic vocabulary in Santiago de Murcia's vigorous dance pieces. These works are colorful and lots of fun, and the group fares equally well with the virtuosic challenges of Locatelli's sonata.
                                                                                          -James Manheim,  All Music Guide

"Their performance, always so intelligent, refined, expressive, has opened the ears and minds of numerous listeners to the beauties of early music."
                                                                                           - Aurelio Tello

"With the American soprano Heather Knutson. . . one of the best performances of the Festival Internacional Cervantino, 1990."
                                                                                           -Juan Arturo Brennan

"The playing was agile, buoyant and congenial throughout the program.  The troupe had a particularly keen way of moderating its style to suit the style of the music."
                                                                                            -Mike Greenberg, San Antonio Express-News

Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9dY8bPDmtU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VGIuZA65jU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpMm41TuzEY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OmzMHF_ZFY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-ulSboIQOE

www.orpheelesartistes.org