Tucson Symphony Orchestra returns to headline the Consulate of Mexico in Tucson’s annual Mexican Independence Day concert and “El Grito” on Friday, Sept. 15, anchoring the start of the monthlong second annual ¡Viva Tucson! Hispanic Heritage Month.
TSO Conductor José Luis Gomez will lead the orchestra in a concert of works by Mexican composers including Blas Galindo’s “Sones de Mariachi” and Juan Pablo Contreras’s “MeChicano,” which the TSO co-commissioned and performed last November.
Before the concert at the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave., Visit Tucson, which is hosting Hispanic Heritage Month with Pima County, will hold a Mexican fiesta at 5 p.m. at the Tucson Convention Center, next to the Music Hall.
From Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, ¡Viva Tucson! will shine a bright light on Tucson’s vibrant Hispanic heritage and culture with a series of events. In addition to the concert and fiesta on Friday, the county will light up the Historic Courthouse dome downtown in red and green for the opening weekend.
Other events include live music every Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and a cooking demonstration with celebrity chef Maria Mazon (Boca by Maria Mazon) at 1 p.m. Sept. 22. Those events are at the Historic Pima County Courtyard, 115 N. Church Ave. Admission to both events is free and the live concerts with a rotating lineup of artists will continue every Friday through next May.
You can also check out Presidio San Agustin del Tucson Museum‘s Mexican Independence Day festivities on Saturday, Sept. 16, at 196 N. Court Ave.
From 4:30 to 7:30 p.m., you can catch Ballet Folklorico by Danzacultura Mexicana, mariachi performances by Mariachi Los Diablitos del Sunnyside High School, El Grito delivered by a representative from the Mexican Consulate, and a lecture on “Mexican Tucson” by historian and Presidio museum board member Mauro Trejo.
This is the third year that the TSO has performed the Mexican Independence Day Concert, an annual event that the Consulate of Mexico in Tucson has hosted for nine years. But for the first time, the concert will move from its home at the Fox Tucson Theatre to the Music Hall, a move that Gomez said was necessary because the Fox was too small to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend. Tickets are free, although they have to be reserved in advance through the consulate, and every year hundreds of people are left out when the nearly 1,200-seat Fox sells out.
The Music Hall can hold twice that number, with 2,289 seats.
This year’s concert will feature Mexican baritone Octavio Moreno performing boleros with Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School. He also will perform selections from Bizet’s famous opera “Carmen” and Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville.”
Compañía de Danza Folklórica Arizona also will perform during the concert, which includes a selection of Venezuelan songs that the TSO will perform with the Pueblo mariachi group.
“Each year I kind of envision different aspects of what can be the celebration,” said the Venezuela-born Gomez. “After the pandemic (in 2021), it was symphonic music with Mariachi Aztlán at the end. The next year, we had two singers. There is a huge tradition in Mexico for singers and vocalists. They have this great and beautiful talent and repertoire.”
Gomez said he hopes the orchestra’s participation in the Mexican Independence Day concert sets the tone “that this orchestra is for everybody in the community,” he said.
“That this orchestra speaks different languages and that sentiment is here to stay,” Gomez added. “We want to be the orchestra of Tucson that looks like, smells like and breathes like the community of Tucson. This concert is for everybody.”
Friday’s concert kicks off the TSO’s 2023-24 season and is part of its ¡Celebración Latina! series that Gomez launched last season. The series, sprinkled throughout the orchestra’s Classical, MasterWorks and Pops concerts, focuses on Latino composers and artists including a special concert with Tucson indie rockers Calexico in January.
This year, the orchestra added two artists in residence — Cuban-American violinist Ilmar Gavilán and Puerto Rican violist Jaime Amado — who will perform a recital in late October and a MasterWorks concert in early November.
On Sept. 22, the TSO returns to Music Hall for “Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures At An Exhibition,’” featuring guest pianist Zee Zee. It will be the first of the orchestra’s new Classics With A Twist format where the orchestra performs for an hour with no intermission and commentary from the stage. The idea is to break down the formality of symphony concerts in the hopes of attracting new audiences.
Classics With A Twist will be performed on Friday nights for the Mussorgsky concert; in November when Keitaro Harada guest conducts “Ravel And Dvořák” with guest pianist David Fung; and in January when the University of Arizona School of Dance joins the orchestra for “Ravel’s Boléro.” For tickets and a full schedule, visit tucsonsymphony.org.
For info on other events, go to visit tucson.org/viva and tucsonpresidio.com.
Watch now: For the second year, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra is collaborating with the Mexican Consulate of Tucson to present the annual Mexican Independence Day concert.
