Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra [] One Night Only

Monday, May 30th @ 7pm

San Francisco Church

Purchase Tickets HERE

Ask any self-professed classical music expert to name the oldest continuously performing symphony orchestra in North America, and chances are you’ll get the wrong answer. The correct response is the Harvard-Radcliff Orchestra, founded in March 1808. Today, the HRO is a world-touring, widely acclaimed symphonic ensemble (“remarkable,” says a music critic for The Boston Globe). Its music director and principal conductor, Federico Cortese, rose to fame in 1998 when he stepped in as a last-minute replacement for the ailing Seiji Ozawa, to lead the Boston Symphony in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth.

The HRO is coming to San Miguel for a single performance at 7pm on Monday, May 30, at the San Francisco Church, on the corner of Calle San Francisco and Juárez, in Centro. The program will consist of two large-scale symphonic works, the Scottish Fantasy for violin and orchestra by Max Bruch, and the Symphony No. 4 in D minor by Robert Schumann. To round out its forces, the HRO will perform with members of the Eduardo Mata University Youth Orchestra (OJUEM) of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Colmena Universitaria (OSCU) of the University of Guanajuato.

The violin soloist for the Bruch, Kevin Miura, an 18-year-old from Irvine, California, was at 12 the silver medalist in the Menuhin International Violin Competition in London. The HRO is no stranger to prodigies on string instruments; cellist Yo-Yo Ma made his HRO debut at 15.

There are no reserved seats at the San Francisco Church, and there is a single ticket price, a 500 pesos donation to the organization hosting the concert, the Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende. Seating is limited and advance purchase is strongly recommended. It is a rare occurrence for a world-class 70-piece symphony orchestra to perform in San Miguel, and this event is likely to sell out.