
Costa Rica’s Saxophone Festival is an event that jazz and saxophone fans will not want to miss. From Monday, March 11, to Saturday, March 16, the San Jose area of Costa Rica will be engulfed in jazz concerts and classical music, with noted masters of the saxophone melodically seducing the masses.
Costa Rica’s Sax Fest will bring together musicians from Latin America and Europe and will be held at such venues as the University of Costa Rica, the National Institute of Music, the National Theatre and the Espressivo, located in Curridabat.
The National Symphony Orchestra will be making a surprising, yet welcomed, performance during Costa Rica’s Sax Fest. In the past, the NSO has not participated in such festivities, and this year’s participation marks a turning point for the festival.
According to the Sax Fest producer, the presence of the group signifies an important event in the framework of the festival: “The path of Sax Fest is rewarded with a visit from the Symphony. For us, it is recognition of the hard work that we’ve done.”
For the symphony the joy is the same: “The Sax Fest has been gaining a lot of strength. The festival will be very important way of projecting the orchestra before a large number of visitors,” said Guillermo Madriz, director of the National Music Center, an institution belonging to the NSO.
The schedule of events has more than 30 different activities for people to attend. Listed below are only a few of the many highlights of the didactic musical event.
Monday 11: Saxophone Ensemble of San Jose Municipal Band, directed by Elmer Richmond, and Urban Sax, at 6 p.m. in the artist’s studio, in Tres Rios.
Tuesday 12: Concert at noon in the National Theatre; participating will be Sonsax and saxes from Honduras. At 8 p.m., Concert Music for Saxophone and Piano, also at the National Theatre.
Wednesday 13: The activities begin at 10:30 a.m. with a master class with Claude Delagne, professor at the National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris; this will be in room 107 of the UCR. In the afternoon, there will be a class with Cesar Lopez, former member of Irakere. This will be in the auditorium of the School of Music of UCR. At 8 p.m., there will be the jazz concert at the Teatro Espressivo, Momentum Pinares Mall.
Thursday 14: Sunset concert, 5 p.m., at the National Theatre in Costa Rica; Saxophone Ensemble directed by Ivan Arguedas and soloists from Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. In the evening, 8 p.m., in the same venue there will be the presentation of the Concert Band of San Jose with five guests.
Friday 15: A class taught by saxophone quartet Master Roberto Benitez, at 11:15 a.m., at the National Institute of Music, in Moravia. At 8 p.m. in the National Theater there will be a concert with the National Symphony Orchestra and saxophonists Javier Valerio (Costa Rica), Cesar Lopez (Cuba) and Miguel Villafruela (Chile-Cuba).
Saturday 16: Outdoor Concert in the Park Area. New Wood involved, Aldo Salvent (Cuba, Costa Rica), Checko D’Avila (Costa Rica), Alexis Quiroz (Chile), Manuel Gonzalez (Argentina), Alejandro Chiabrando (Argentina) and Crispin Fernandez (Dominican Republic). Admission is free.
Note: For reservations and ticket information you can call the following numbers 2221-5341 (at the National Theatre) and 2271-0905 (Theatre Espressivo).