Festival Huellas in Patzcuaro, Michoacán

“Festival Huellas, Música Antigua y Tradicional” took place in Pátzcuaro (Los Once Patios, a five-minute walk from Hotel Mansión Iturbe) May 14-17.  It was the place to go to see and hear great music spanning the centuries.

May 16 was especially important for the writer of this article Andrew Carhartt.

 

Festival Huellas in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán

 

The exceptionally talented harpist, Bárbara Cerón from Mexico City  (www.barbaraceron.com), came to Pátzcuaro and gave a week-long harp workshop.  We three students – Ismael Guardado from Guadalajara, and Hector Gonzales and me, Andrew Carhartt, who live here in Pátzcuaro, attended the workshop, and performed with Ms. Cerón at Los Once Patios on May 16.  Ms. Cerón also performed solo, and along with other excellent musicians.

If you, as I, have never heard four harps “jamming,” it is an extraordinary sound, and a very exciting experience.  And what fun, when a handful of brave girls from the audience got up and danced Guacamaya!



Festival Huellas in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán

 

Look for “Festival Huellas, Música Antigua y Tradicional” around this time next year.  We may be back with even more harps!

Ms. Cerón brought a most interesting instrument – a chromatic harp – with her.  The chromatic harp has all the white and black notes (though not all octaves, of course) on the piano.  (A typical harp has only the white notes, and they have to be flattened or sharpened – either with pedals or levers – to access the black notes.)  The “white notes” of the chromatic harp are on one side extending down to the baseboard, and crisscross the “black notes” coming similarly from the other side.  According to Ms. Cerón, there are only two of these chromatic harps in all Mexico, and she has one of them.  Apparently, this instrument is more common in Spain than in Mexico.

 

Barbara Ceron -  Harpist

 

*We appreciate our friend Andrew Carhartt for writing this post for our Hotel Mansión Iturbe blog.

 

We invite you to check more post in our blog, where you will find information that will be useful for your next visit to Pátzcuaro.

 

Here are some post that we suggest you:

Discover the Cultural Heritage of Pátzcuaro

Doña Gertrudis Bocanegra – Heroine in the Independence of Mexico

The Legend of the Fuente del Torito in Patzcuaro (Fountain of the Little Bull)

 

Hotel Mansion Iturbe
Portal Morelos 59
Plaza Vasco de Quiroga
61600 Patzcuaro, Michoacan
México

For more information about our Hotel in Patzcuaro

Reservations online at Hotel Mansion Iturbe

Tels: +52 (434) 342 0368 / 342 3628

Fax: +52 (434) 342 3627

Toll Free fax number from USA & CANADA: 1 866 678 6102

 

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Sabre: ON 16297