Gozitan conductor Colin Attard was recently in Mexico conducting the Orquestra Sinfonica del Estado de Mexico for the final concert of the season – which was also celebrating the OSEM’s 45th anniversary. The concert was held at the Sala Felipe Villanueva in Toluca. After the concert, Mro Attard was interviewed by the Portal Diario del Estado de México.
The concert opened with Gaetano Donizetti’s rarely performed and very bouncy overture from the opera Roberto Devereux. This was followed by Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G featuring top Mexican artist and one of the leading contemporary pianists, Guadalupe Parrondo.
The second part of the concert was intentionally reserved for lighter musical stuff – music by Johann Strauss. The four excerpts were the overture from Die Zigeunerbaron and the waltzes Rosen aus dem Süden, Kaiser and An der schönen blauen Donau.
Among other events, Mro Attard had the opportunity to attend a Christmas concert at Toluca’s cathedral given by the Coro y Orquesta Sinfonica Bicentenario of the Esperanza Azteca. The latter is a social programme for underprivileged boys and girls, aged five to 17.
About 16,000 young people, together with 1,300 teachers, develop important values through music, such as discipline, the pursuit of excellence and teamwork. As a result, these youngsters significantly improve their self-esteem, additionally inspiring their families and communities – surely a valid way to strengthen the social fabric. Esperanza Azteca has over 80 orchestras and choirs in some 80 Mexican states and is also present in El Salvador and the US.
Mro Attard also visited the Conservatorio de Musica del Estado de Mexico, accompanied by two OSEM violinists who are members of the teaching faculty of the conservatoire. During the visit, he briefly attended the conservatoire’s 25th anniversary ceremony, presided over by the Governor of the state of Mexico, the secretary for culture and the conservatoire’s director general.
Mro Attard is the founder director of the Gaulitanus Choir and artistic director of Gaulitana: A Festival of Music, as well as resident musical director of Teatru tal-Opra Aurora and its parent organisation, the Leone Philharmonic Society.