The Alamo Baroque Festival is a Tricentennial event centered around St. Mark's Episcopal Church downtown and runs through through Saturday afternoon.
“The passion behind this festival is education,” organist and choirmaster Joseph Causby said.
While the festival is built around a series of daily baroque performances at the church, it’s also working with the Children's Chorus of San Antonio and the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio, Causby said.
“We are also going into elementary schools and doing little pop-up concerts for the kids to expose them to this music," he said.
Violinist and co-director Maggie Faultless will also provide individual lessons for students of all ages.
“Some of those are closed lessons and others are parts of big master class series," said Faultless, who’s from England.
Faultless said Baroque music has an advantage over most classical music when trying to reach young people.
"There is something very straightforward about the way the music is constructed. It's emotionally very clear. I think it's very approachable," she said.
Also performing will be members of the he San Antonio Symphony.
"It's great to be working alongside local professional players, who have very bravely got out their other instruments, put on gut strings, tuned down to Baroque pitch, which is a half tone lower," Faultless said.
Alamo Baroque Festival Schedule
Wednesday
- 10:30 a.m. — Public concert in front of the Alamo
- 1:30 p.m. — Performance at David Crockett Elementary
- 3-5 p.m. — Open baroque rehearsal: symphony musicians and students
- 7-9:30 p.m. — Open rehearsal: baroque and choir at St. Mark’s
Thursday
- 11 a.m. — Panel discussion at Trinity University
- 7-9:30 p.m. — Faculty concert at St. Mark’s (official Tricentennial event)
Saturday
- 3-4 p.m. — Concert finale (official Tricentennial event)
Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org
