September 15th was Independence Day in Costa Rica. As part of the celebration this year, Chimirol had its annual town festival. Most every town in Costa Rica has an annual festival or some sort. In the past, the Chimirol festival was held in February, the middle of summer, so as to minimize the effects of rain. This year was the first time the Chimirol Festival, Civicas Festivas, was held in September.
The festival start on Monday, September 13th and ran for 7 days with various activities throughout the week including the usual bingo, desfile de faroles (see blog entry from Sept 2009 for more information), dances, karaoke, food, and the community horseback ride.
This year there were 2 very special events. On Monday and Tuesday, the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum) from San Jose brought a traveling exhibition to Chimirol. It was very informative and well attended.
On Thursday night the Music School in San Isidro bought their Youth Symphony to Chimirol. The symphony consisted of approximately 40 children ranging in age from 7 to 17 years old. This is the first time a symphony concert has been held in Chimirol. The concert took place in the covered open gymnasium at the grade school. Despite the rain falling, it was standing room only. I think that every one that lives in Chimirol attended.
The first half of the concert was the full symphony playing classical numbers as well as show tunes and movie themes such as the theme from the Godfather. The second half of the concert was a smaller group of older students as a jazz ensemble playing traditional Costa Rica songs, salsa, cumbia and latin jazz selections.
It was a magical night sitting in country side with the rainforest and Rio Chirripo just steps away listening to a symphony concert. Everyone seemed to have a great time and was talking about the the Music School coming back next year.
I have included a few photos of the concert. These photos were taken by Hai Zhang from New York. Hai has returned to Monte Azul this week for the 2nd part of his Artist in Residence. He is here continuing work on a long-term project with Monte Azul.
Excellent looking place and loving the blog. Cant wait to get down to check this place out and hopefully start sending some clients your way. Keep the blogs coming we are reading them...
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