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Friday, August 3, 2012

Atenas Music Concert

Last Sunday, were were invited by our neighbors Mike and Alina to a music and choir concert put on by the Atenas School of Music (Escuela de Musica de Atenas). Alina sings in the choir.

The Atenas School of Music is next to the bus depot (the one where the buses park and have repairs done, not where we board the buses to Alajuela, San Jose, etc.). It's set back a bit from the road and the building is owned by the municipality.

The program included student soloists and the music school choir. The Director and tenor was Ono Mora Norori, who is currently pursuing his music career with an emphasis on teaching. His voice is amazing - so strong and powerful.

Unfortunately, the Cuban percussionist, Saidel Dominguez, was unable to attend as scheduled.

The program began with seven soloists and then the choir sang. My favorite was "Luna de Xelaju", a very popular Guatemalan waltz. They also sang the Japanese traditional "Sakura", a song about cherry blossoms.

All the singers were accompanied by the Russian pianist, Alissa Gorodenski.

You know, for such a small town, Atenas has some amazing talent. Some of the singers were young and had been singing since they were kids, some were older and getting back to singing. All were very good.

After the concert, food prepared by the local women and volunteers was available for purchase - the proceeds going to pay the pianist. There were different yummy desserts (thanks for the cake, Mike!), tortillas stuffed with cheese, and sodas and iced tea.

We enjoyed the concert very much and look forward to the next one.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hope that we can attend a similar concert with refreshments when we visit.

Diana Miskell said...

We'll do our best to find fiestas, etc.