Tucson Symphony honors Latino community with Mexican collaborations

The concert is a collaboration between the orchestra, consulate and the Tucson-Mexico Sister Cities and will feature vocal soloists, Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School and Compañía de Danza Folklórica Arizona.

“It’s good and exciting to start the season … with something so meaningful,” TSO Music Director and Conductor José Luis Gomez said. “It’s part of the new language we have with the orchestra. More than ever, I think arts organizations are going to have to find a way to have a positive impact on the community we are serving and in order to do that we have to look like the community we are serving.”

This is the orchestra’s second collaboration with the consulate and it is one of two concerts the orchestra is doing to commemorate National Hispanic Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15.

On Saturday, Sept. 17, the TSO is sharing the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall stage with Sergio Mendoza and his Orkesta Mendoza for “Orkesta Mendoza & the Magic of Mexico.”

Mexican Consul Rafael Barceló Durazo said the concert, which the consulate has hosted since 2013, has grown into a tradition in Tucson. Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra performed the first six concerts before TSO took over last year; the 2020 event was canceled due to the pandemic.

“It’s great for the community, particularly for Mexicans living in Tucson and also for Mexican-American families because this was a tradition they had in Mexico,” Barceló Durazo said.

Thursday’s concert will include a program of traditional Mexican music alongside Mexican classical music. It also includes a work composed by 16-year-old Sol Silvina from Hermosillo.

“To make this more festive, TSO will play together with Mariachi Aztlán de Pueblo High School, which is a gem that we have here,” Barceló Durazo said. “All the young bands of mariachi in Tucson, both in high school and middle school, are wonderful. I am amazed. But Mariachi Aztlán, oh my God, they are amazing.”

Thursday’s concert takes place on the eve of the actual Mexican Independence Day, which happened on Sept. 16, 1810. That’s when the parish priest of Dolores Hidalgo called on residents to take up arms against the governing New Spain. It took 11 years before the fighting ended with the Cordoba Treaties.

Gomez said the Mexican Independence Day concert sets the tone for the 2022-23 TSO season, which includes the inaugural ¡Celebración Latina!, a season-long series of concerts that celebrates Tucson’s Hispanic cultural heritage.

HSL Properties is sponsoring the series, which includes this weekend’s events as well as the cineconcert “Coco” on Oct. 29-30 and “Feliz Navidad” holiday concert, Dec. 17-18.

“The tone that this program (Mexican Independence Day concert) sets is the message that we want to carry on, which is connecting with everyone in the Tucson community,” said Gomez, who has led the orchestra since 2016 and signed an extension that will keep him here through 2027. “Everyone means the Mexican and Hispanic community, which is huge.”

Gomez said the orchestra’s collaboration with Orkesta Mendoza came about when the orchestra was flirting with ideas of incorporating a local band into a concert. 

“Sergio Mendoza is known everywhere in the world so we thought, why can’t we do something with them,” Gomez said. “To place it in the same week (as the Mexican Independence Day concert) is something that is special for all of us. We are trying to send a message to everyone in Tucson that we are here to embrace everything Tucson has to offer.”

Mendoza, in an email interview while the band was touring Europe late last month, said Devotchka composer and arranger Tom Hagerman did the arrangements for the TSO concert. 

“I can’t wait to see what his work will sound like with a 73-piece orchestra,” Mendoza said.

Mendoza has played with orchestras twice in his career — once with Calexico and the Louisville Symphony Orchestra and a second time with Devotchka and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra — but it will be a first with Orkesta Mendoza.

“Playing with TSO will be a wonderful experience. The opportunity to play with so many amazing Tucson classical musicians is unreal to us,” Mendoza said. “As a musician, the challenge for me is to keep trying different things. Discovering new music, new collaborations.”

Orkesta Mendoza will feature Salvador Duran, Johnny Contreras and Brian Lopez. Throughout the night, joining Mendoza and the band will be: James Peters on drums, Sean Rogers on bass, Gus Tomizuka on guitar, Miguel Melgoza on vocals and percussions, Jacob Valenzuela and Rick Peron on trumpet and Katherine Byrnes filling in backing vocals.