Santa Fe warms up for high season with winter arts festival
Feb. 9—Winter Art + Sol-stice
Organizers have the "art" element of the winter festival Art + Sol under control. Whether the sol makes its scheduled appearance is up to Mother Nature.
The festival, aimed at highlighting activities available in Santa Fe during a traditionally quieter month when fewer visitors are in town, has expanded to 11 days this year; last year's inaugural event was nine days. It's organized by Emma Scherer, executive director of the Santa Fe Symphony and Chorus. Hilary Palanza, the founder and CEO of the International Museum of Dance, joined this year as lead partner.
Following is this year's Art + Sol lineup. To learn more and buy tickets, visit artsolsantafe.org.
Welcome reception
Each ticket includes hors d'oeuvres and one drink.
* 5:30 p.m. Friday, February 9
* $25, Bishop's Lodge
Chatter North: Muhly & Janáček
The Albuquerque-based performance series Chatter, which expanded to Santa Fe in 2023, prides itself on adventurous programming. Its Art + Sol offering certainly fits the bill.
New York contemporary composer Nico Muhly's three drone-based EPs — Drones & Piano, Drones & Viola, and Drones & Violin — feature melodies played over repeated sounds created by a piano or a violin. Six people are set to take on the work Saturday, February 10: David Felberg and Elizabeth Young, violin; Laura Steiner, viola; Amy Huzjak, cello; Luke Gullickson, piano; and Megan Baldrige, spoken word.
The EPs were released in 2011. The second work in Saturday's show, Leoš Janáček's String Quartet no. 2 "Intimate Letters," features the same performers and dates to January 1928. It was based on a series of letters the Czech composer wrote to his far-younger muse, Kamila Stösslová.
* 10:30 a.m. Saturday, February 10
* $5-$17, Center for Contemporary Arts
+ + ILLUMINATE + +
The stage at the International Museum of Dance will be a kaleidoscope of moving colors and shapes as a trio of fashion-aware performers helps raise money for the 4KINSHIP Indigenous Futures Fund.
They are Lucaa, a two-spirit Afro-Indigenous musician and artist; James Jones, a powwow and hoop dancer; and ShanDien Sonwai LaRance, who began hoop dancing at age 8 and lives in the Ohkay Owingeh area.
The fund's goal is to empower "emerging Indigenous artists by providing them with opportunities for growth and collaboration." 4KINSHIP is a Diné-owned sustainable fashion clothing store on Canyon Road.
* 6 p.m. Saturday, February 10
* $45-$500, Center for Contemporary Arts
Chiaroscuro: Brentano Quartet
The first quartet performance of Mozart's Quartet in D Major, K. 499, is dated December 25, 1787 — but don't go mistaking it for Christmas music.
The soaring piece, created by the composer when he was about 21 years old, is the first of three featured in Chiaroscuro, presented by Santa Fe Pro Musica. The others are Shostakovich's Quartet No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 110, which was dedicated to the victims of war and fascism, and Mendelssohn's Quartet in D Major, Op. 44, No. 1.
Brentano Quartet is in its 30th year of performing; it was founded at The Juilliard School in 1992 and made its debut in New York City in 1994.
* 3 p.m. Sunday, February 11
* $24-$94, St. Francis Auditorium
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
Aspen Santa Fe Ballet's all-male comic drag ballet troupe Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo is marking its 50th season.
The New York City-based parody group says it has performed in 43 countries and 667 cities. Three nights after its stop in Santa Fe, it will perform in Aspen, Colorado — both under the auspices of Aspen Santa Fe Ballet.
* 7:30 p.m. Monday, February 12
* $36-$114, Lensic Performing Arts Center
Santa Fe Playhouse season preview
The Sneak Peek preview will include performances from some of the Santa Fe Playhouse's upcoming productions, and participants may meet cast and crew members.
This year's lineup at the Playhouse is Or, and Born with Teeth, both written by Liz Duffy Adams, March 6-31; What the Constitution Means to Me by Heidi Schreck, May 9 through June 2; Sunday in the Park with George by James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim, June 27 through July 28; the workshop Pueblo Revolt by Dillon Chitto, August 15-18; the annual Melodrama, August 29 to September 15; Cebollas by Leonard Madrid, October 17 to November 10; and You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown by Clark Gesner, Michael Mayer, and Andrew Lippa, December 5-29.
* 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 13
* Free, Santa Fe Playhouse
A Love Supreme
Art + Sol veteran John Trentacosta will play drums during a performance of music by jazz legend John Coltrane. It's described as a retrospective from Coltrane's earliest work through A Love Supreme, a pinnacle of American music released in 1965, just two years before his death from liver cancer at age 40.
Trentacosta is joined by fellow Santa Fe Music Collective Legacy Band members Alex Murzyn, saxophone; Bob Fox, piano; Russ Scanlon, guitar; and Terry Burns, bass guitar.
* 7 p.m. February 16
* $30-$35, SITE Santa Fe
Education showcase
Dancers and musicians from youth arts organizations are featured in the education showcase, hosted by the Santa Fe Woman's Club and organized by the New Mexico School for the Arts and the Santa Fe Youth Symphony Association.
* 10 a.m. February 17
* Free, Santa Fe Woman's Ciub
Late Night Radio @ Meow Wolf
Denver-based Alex Medellin says he performs under the name Late Night Radio because at 3 a.m., DJs can play whatever they want on the radio.
Fortunately for concert-goers, he'll be performing a bit earlier than that at Meow Wolf. The electronic music maker most recently released the album Pocket Full of Dreams in October 2023. He dropped his first full-length, Vinyl Restoration, Vol. 1, in May 2012.
* 8 p.m. February 17
* $22.50, Meow Wolf Santa Fe
American Classics
As evidenced by the presence of John Coltrane's A Love Supreme elsewhere in the Art + Sol lineup, "American classics" could refer to a wide range of works.
In this case, the works in question are Gala Flagello's Vitality for Orchestra; Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, Op. 14, featuring violinist Alexi Kenney; Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, featuring the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus; and Aaron Copland's Four Dance Episodes from Rodeo.
One of these artists is not like the others: Barber's work dates to 1939, Copland's to 1942, and Bernstein's to 1965. Barber lived until 1981, and Copland and Bernstein to 1990. That's four years before Flagello was born. She wrote Vitality for Orchestra in 2022.
* 4 p.m. February 18, with a free preview talk at 3 p.m.
* $25-$92, Lensic Performing Arts Center
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Changes at the top
Last year's Art + Sol festival was organized by Emma Scherer, executive director of the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra; Amy Iwano, then-executive director of Performance Santa Fe; and Andréa Cassutt, then-executive director of Santa Fe Pro Musica. Scherer is involved again this year, while Iwano and Cassutt both have departed. Cassutt left her job in May 2023, and Iwano did the same in December.
