Santa Cruz Baroque Festival presents: Spanish Roots ~ Mexican Flowerings

Perhaps the most fertile region of multicultural fusion within Europe was Iberia, where prior to 1492, Spanish, Jewish and Arab culture collaborated, overlapped and even melted together over the centuries of Moorish occupation. Our program features the kaleidoscope of Spanish music that was exported to the Americas from the time of Columbus forward. Organ, harp, harpsichord and violin were among the instruments that crossed over, preserving Spanish culture while also moving in new directions. In the Baroque and Classic periods, charming art music using Spanish instruments was produced by composers of the Metropolitan Cathedral and the
cloistered young women of Colegio de San Miguel de Belem. Jalisco harp and Mariachi are spirited Mexican flowerings of the original Spanish roots.