He’s been celebrated all year because it’s the 250th anniversary of his birth. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is especially celebrated in June because it’s time for the 18th annual Mainly Mozart Festival, which opened last weekend with a series of concerts by the Grammy-nominated Cuarteto Latinoamericano.Before discussing that recital and the rest of the Mainly Mozart Festival, however, Village News wants to make the public aware of the big, free, outdoor Mozart celebration starting at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 3, at the County Administration Building, 1600 Pacific Highway. There are five stages. Jeff Nevin’s Virtuoso Mariachi leads off with traditional Mexican music as well as Mozart and other classical composers. Among the other groups are Westwind Brass, Icarus Puppet Company, Moderns for Mozart, and Splash Paint in Motion. Visitors will find food, mask making, puppet making and strolling performers as well. At 4 p.m., Cuarteto Latinoamericano plays Mexican waltzes for a company of 32 dancers under the direction of Jean Isaacs.Friday, May 27, Cuarteto Latinoamericano inaugurated the 2006 Mainly Mozart Festival with “Aroma foliado,” a work by contemporary Mexican composer Gabriela Ortiz commissioned by Frederica and James Rosenfield. Other works performed were Mozart’s String Quartet in D, K.575, and Antonin Dvorak’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 51.Performed in one movement, Ortiz’s work takes inspiration and fragments of melody from the Mozart quartet that preceded it. It is playful, accessible, percussive, syncopated and lively, with some extraordinarily beautiful cello passages accompanied by harmonics in the higher strings.The Cuarteto was best heard in the Dvorak, which closed the program and seems to suit their temperament much better than Mozart. One felt from the opening that one would die of romantic delight, so rife were the glorious melodies and harmony. The group comprises brothers Saul Bitran and Aron Bitran, violins; Javier Montiel, viola; and the third brother, Alvaro Bitran, cello. They are great favorites from Mainly Mozart in Mazatlan as well as numerous San Diego appearances with the organization.
Mainly Mozart was founded in 1988 by Artistic Director David Atherton and Executive Director Nancy Laturno Bojanic. Acclaimed internationally, Atherton was music director of the San Diego Symphony from 1980-1987. The idea of the summer festival is to assemble and present first-chair musicians from prominent symphonic and chamber music organizations in concert, en masse as the Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, which performs under Atherton’s baton, and in various thrilling combinations for recitals. Andres Cárdenas, concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony, returns as concertmaster, sharing duties with William Preucil, concertmaster of The Cleveland Orchestra. Returning as well are Timothy Day, flute; Laura Griffiths, oboe; Jon Kimura Parker, piano; and Ronald Thomas, cello
Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel
“Virtuoso Variations ” Mozart and Chopin”
2 p.m. Sunday, June 4, El Cortez

“Mozart and Friends”
8 p.m. Sunday, June 4
The Neurosciences Institute

“Mozart and Gershwin”
7:30 p.m. Monday, June 5
Lyceum Theatre, Horton Plaza

Andres Cárdenas, violin and viola,
and Anton Nel, piano
Mozart, Brahms, Lutoslawski and Beethoven
8 p.m. Wednesday, June 7
The Neurosciences Institute

Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra
All-Mozart program, Atherton conducting
Soloists Nel, Parker, Cárdenas
8 p.m. Saturday, June 10
Sala sinfónica de Copley
750 B St., San Diego

Also 2 p.m. Sunday, June 11
Centro de las Artes de California
340 N. Escondido Blvd.

Music for Two Pianos
Nel, Parker, John Cox, horn; Ronald Thomas and Christopher French, cellos
Music by Mozart, Schumann and Rachmaninoff
8 p.m. Sunday, June 11
The Neurosciences Institute

Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra
David Atherton, conductor
Michael Collins, basset clarinet
All-Mozart program
8 p.m. Saturday, June 17
Sala sinfónica de Copley

Cárdenas, Timothy Day, flute; Laura Griffiths, oboe; Michael Collins, clarinet; Valentin Martchev, bassoon; Gregory Hustis, horn; Marc Shapiro, piano
Music of Rossini, Mozart, and Thuille
8 p.m. Sunday, June 18
The Neurosciences Institute

Preucil; David Wilson-Johnson,
bass-baritone; Shapiro
Mozart Sonata for Piano and Violin in C Major, K.296, and Schubert’s “Winterreise”
8 p.m. Wednesday, June 21
The Neurosciences Institute

Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra
David Atherton, conductor
Susanna Phillips, soprano; Alison Tupay, mezzo-soprano; Mark Tevis, tenor; David Wilson-Johnson, bass-baritone; Los Angeles Master Chorale
Mozart’s Mass in C, K.317 (“Coronation”)
Requiem in D Minor, K.626
8 p.m. Saturday, June 24
Sala sinfónica de Copley
For additional programming information and to purchase tickets, go to www.mozart2006celebration.com or call (619) 239-0100. n.