08272016Sat
Last updateFri, 26 Aug 2016 12pm

‘Going away’ concert by Tapatio musician en route to Germany

Guadalajara double bassist Joshua Chevez is about to embark on the educational adventure of his dreams.

The three-time Viva la Musica scholarship winner will be the first Mexican to study for a master’s degree at one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Germany, the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden.

Chevez auditioned in May and was chosen for one of only two available double bass places out of 12 applicants.  

Chevez, 26, started his formal musical education at the “late” age of 18.  A year earlier he had started to teach himself to play the electric bass guitar.  On his application form to enter the University of Guadalajara music school, he wrote “electric bass” as his preferred instrument.

When told that the school didn’t teach the electric bass, but only the double bass, he wrote that down, although he had never seen or heard the instrument before.

Chevez has a love of early music or “musica antigua” and is even thinking of taking a second masters in this field in Spain after finishing his two years of study in Dresden.

Chevez has been spending some of his last weeks in Mexico in Ajijic.  He gave a concert at the Ajijic Cultural Center on July 24 and will perform September 8, 7 p.m. at a “going away concert” in the home of Hans Peter and Gabriela Aull in La Floresta, sponsored by Viva la Musica.

Chevez will be accompanied by Rodrigo Leal (another former Viva scholarship recipient) on the piano.  Audience is limited to 30 and the cost, which includes a glass of champagne, is 300 pesos.  Tickets will be sold at the Lake Chapala Society (LCS) on Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon. 

The program for this special performance includes Romanza Ottocentesia (Sauro Piana), Liebeslied (Frietz Kreisler), Sonata #2 in A minor (Johannes Mattias Sperger), Prayer (Ernest Block) and Sonata #2in  E minor (Adolf Misek).

Suzanne Salimbene

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