Festival News

We are delighted to announce that acclaimed Jazz guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli will join us on July 12th for our 51st Season Gala in a jazzy, art deco evening at La Fonda on the Plaza.

As part of a recent Fun Friday field trip and program fundraiser, the Capital High Treble Choir performed at Santa Fe’s DeVargas Mall as part of the DeVargas Holiday Stroll. Students sang songs of the season and enjoyed celebrating with enthusiastic mall audiences! Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival especially celebrates our Dream Big Private Lesson Program vocal students (L-R) Josselyn Sabillon, Aaron Hernandez, Maya Aldosari, and Yasmin Muñoz Hernandez! The choir is directed by Alicia Dickinson.

Two Nina Otero Community School students made New Mexico American Choral Directors Association All-State Mixed Choir and the North Central New Mexico Music Educators Association Honor Choir Honor this year and performed solo in the recent NOCS holiday concert. They’ve been working with our Dream Big Teaching Artist Travis Bregier since Fall 2023 to work on the audition.

On May 10, the Festival presented its end-of-year Dream Big Private Lesson Program Student Recital at Capital High School. The recital featured works for solo soprano, baritone, violin, flute, and oboe as well as percussion trio.

This past summer, at our 49th Season Gala Celebration, we presented our latest music education video, which you can now view here! The video spotlights our longtime Strings in Our Schools program, which offers group violin lessons—taught by violinist and educator Hilary Schacht—to students at Ramirez Thomas, Sweeney, Pecos, and Tesuque elementary schools.

On April 18, 2023, three students in our music education programs received the 2022 Nacha Mendez Music Scholarship for New Mexican Girls of Color, and on May 9, they were honored at a private reception at SITE Santa Fe.