Guitar Concert: “The Little Orchestra”
With Miguel Omaña, musician with national awards
Works by Giuliani, Tárrega, Agustín Barrios Mangoré, Antonio Lauro, Manuel M Ponce, Antonio José

” Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent ”
Victor Hugo

During the countless days in a life of many decades, there have been myriad occasions to attend musical events and celebrations. However, on rare occasions, these brilliant words of Hugo find their direct and dynamic illustration with an exceptional performance which becomes seared in memory : a solo concert of classical guitar at San Miguel de Allende’s Bellas Artes by Miguel Angel Omana-Guzman, a recent graduate of Mexico’s prized National Conservatory of Music in the capital city.

The repertory that felicitous day ” under the trees ” was most challenging, running the gamut from the 17th to the 20th centuries, and including works from Bach, Guiliani, Legnani and Villa-Lobos, not forgetting a passage through the Gran Jota Aragonesa. Yet, like a worthy son of Orpheus, Miguel Angel was able to evoke and recreate, with seamless mastery of execution, the full sound tapestry of human expression from the most subtle and intangible élans simulating birds in flight, through the war-like approach of cavalry on the hoof, and down to the tectonic grumbling of a reawoken volcano — the Ursprung of a darkened soul.

The four elements of ancient cultures were there — earth, air, fire and water — along with the three spheres recognized by pre-Hispanic civilization : the Heavens, home to the Eagle, the Earth, where the Jaguar is king, and the Depths, home to the Snake. Primordial shadows flickering over the strings of the collective soul
of all who that day were inspired by Omana-Guzman under the attentive trees of Bellas Artes.

Roger-Daniel Bensky
Professor Emeritus of French and Performing Arts
Georgetown University