Belated 4th of July Symphony

American Symphony Music in Cuenca Ecuador

As we have noted before, the symphonies in Cuenca are always free, and in this case, jointly sponsored by the US Consulate and the Ministry of Culture .  Tonight was a special  performance of “Portrait of Lincoln”  celebrating 240 years of independence in the United States, featuring all American composers and music, with the Cuenca Symphony directed by American conductor Jeffrey Sean Dokken, from West Virginia.  Music was from composers Aaron Copland, George Whitefield Chadwick, and ending with John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” march.

The program opened with the US Consulate General Patricia Fietz speaking, in both English and Spanish, about the ties between Ecuador and the US.  She said this same program was given earlier in both Guayaquil (where the US Consulate is located) and Loja, and they decided to also bring it here to Cuenca.  Also featured was the renown solo violinist from Guayaquil, Jorge Saade.

After the concert, we walked home, and passed by the gallery of Miguel Illescas (located on Calle Larga close to the Pumapungo Theater), and in our opinion the finest gallery in Cuenca.  Miguel is a locally well known metal sculptor,  and when we saw that he was open, we decided to drop in to see what was new.  To our surprise, he was having an ad hoc reception for the symphony guests in his gallery, since the conductor had stopped in earlier that evening prior to the performance. Later, a number of attendees from the symphony, orchestra members, the Consulate General, all stopped in for some wine and h’ordeuvres.  We continue to drool over his works.  As usual, we saw several more we would love to have, and came home looking for places to put them. To top off the evening, we explored a new sushi restaurant enroute home. Such is our life in Cuenca, which provides continuing surprises for us.

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