Mar 12, 2012
Culiacan ~ Que Pasa !
I now understand why Colin says there is no time to sleep in Culiacan. During the Festival there is only time for music, talking, music, eating and music and more music!!!
We got less than five hours sleep Friday night and with tired eyes and bodies we took the girls for a walk through some of the gardens at the Botanical Park. We were all revived by this beautiful city. Culiacan is the capital of Sinaloa and not a tourist town but a city of government and education with 2 public universities and 6 private universities. Over lunch with a businessman at Los Arcos Restaurant we discussed that because Culiacan has a stable population with full employment, it has a good economy, the restaurants and shops are full of people. This is as opposed to Mazatlan that depends on tourism. Less tourism leads to poverty and eventually violence. Culiacanenses believe that Mazatlan is very dangerous which is opposite of what we Rvers read in the news. In fact the businessman, Octavio Lafarga, owner The Conquista pastry chain, who treated us to a lovely meal has had to close four of his shops in Mazatlan due to lack of business.
Normally the final concert of the Festival International de Guitarra is an artist performing with the symphony, the same one we attended here in Mazatalan in February, the Orquestra Sinfonica Sinaloa de las Artes under the direction of Maestro Gordon Campbell. The symphony however played Thursday evening leaving the final night open for David Russell, likely the top classical guitar artist in the world.
David Russell trained in London, now lives in Spain when not travelling the world. He and his wife Maria travel not just to perform but also to visit the various schools they have founded in India and Africa.
Of note is that Colin’s music instructor in Kelowna is Alan Rinehart, a very good friend of David Russell. In fact Colin’s special guitar is being stored over the winter in Alan’s humidity controlled music studio.
Needless to say the theatre Saturday night was full, everyone wanted to hear David Russell, his first performance in this part of Mexico. I was overwhelmed by the number of young audience members. From personal experience I would say that in Canada most of the audience would be middle aged to elderly, patrons of the arts. Of course there were those in the audience but the young people and their love for the guitar amazed me.
I have no words to describe the beauty of the sounds I heard that night. At one point I closed my eyes and just listened, spectacular. In another piece I would have sworn that I was listening to a harp. David made his instrument go through such ranges of sound, it was like magic. It is obvious he is one with his music and expresses what he is feeling from his soul. We were able to purchase a CD after the concert "Aire Latino' for which he won a Grammy in 2005 for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance.
A perfect ending to a week of music in Culiacan.
Maestro Heriberto Soberanes y David Russell. Heriberto has been involved in the Festival International de Guitarra for many many years. We thank him and his family for hosting us and the girls in their home.
A part of the Guitar Festival is an International Guitar Competition, open to all nationalities without age limit. There were 17 entries and these fellows were some of the finalists but alas not the winners of the competition. However I think they came away from their time in Culiacan much richer than when they had arrived. From the left is Franciel Monteira from Brazil who is going on to play a concert in Puebla this week, on my other side is David Calderon from Costa Rica who learned to speak English this week and on the right Javier Hernandez Tagle from Toluca, Mexico. All new wonderful friends who I plan to visit in the coming years.
After the concert we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate. So ends our time as part of the festival in Culiacan. It was so wonderful meeting everyone but Maria & David Russell have a special place in our hearts and we know we shall see them somewhere again in the future. Adios amigos!!
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Hola Amiga,
Thanks for sharing with all of us this great posts. It is very sad though to hear that our neighbors from Culiacan believe that Mazatlan is dangerous when I believe that el Governador is making his best to bring everything down to normal and get people to come visit our beatifulul Perla Del Pacifico, hopefully their view changes soon. Hugs 🙂
So wonderful that you got to spend that time at the festival and that the girls were feeling up to going with you.
glad to see the girlies are better and you had such a great time at the festival…super pictures!!!
Such a great time you are having, I think you will be glad to get back to Tres Amigos and relax.