02172015Tue
Last updateMon, 16 Feb 2015 1pm

Ribera Arts Review – January 3, 2015

Film Festival

The 6th Annual Ajijic Jewish Film Festival takes over the movie screen at Cinemas del Lago in Bugambilias Mall at 1:30 p.m. every Sunday during January and February. 

The committee screened over 50 films to create an exciting playlist that will take attendees from 1948 Palestine to the West Bank today, by way of Poland, Tel Aviv and Mexico City in the 1960s, on to wartime Paris, modern Brooklyn and finally back to the West Bank. 

The film program includes Oscar and Golden Globes nominees, awards of the Israeli Film Academy, Mexican Ariel winners, special awards from Cannes and Sundance and some films that are too new for awards nods. 

The festival is sponsored by the Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation with net proceeds benefiting Lakeside charities. Tickets (available at the movie ticket booth) for each film are 50 pesos.

The January schedule is:

Sunday, January 4: “Above and Beyond.” (United States, 2014) The first major feature-length documentary about the foreign airmen in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Sunday, January 11: “Omar.” (Palestine, 2013) A young Palestinian freedom fighter agrees to work as an informant after he’s tricked into an admission of guilt by association in the wake of an Israeli soldier’s killing.

Sunday, January 18: “Ida.” (Poland, 2012) Anna, a young novitiate nun in 1960s Poland, is on the verge of taking her vows when she discovers a dark family secret dating back to the years of the Nazi occupation.

Sunday, January 25: “Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi.” (Israel, 2003) A new math teacher and new school principal discover a 16-year-old underachiever who is failing classes is really a genius.

Patsy Cline

Tickets are still available for the upcoming performances of “Always … Patsy Cline” presented by My, My, How Nice! Productions at the new Bravo! Theatre (the old Sol y Luna) at Rio Bravo 10.

The show opened on January 1, with repeat presentations set for January 2, 3, 8, 9 and 10, at 7:30 p.m.; and January 4 and 11, at 3 p.m.

Tickets at 250 pesos are available from Diane Pearl Colecciones, Mia’s Boutique and by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

ASA

Hershel Clepper will present a program and demonstration of wood carving and finishing during the Monday, January 5, 10 a.m. meeting of the Ajijic Arts Society (ASA) at La Bodega Restaurant. 

‘Nice & Easy’

“Nice and Easy,” Mac Morison’s new show slated Wednesday, January 7, 7 p.m. and Thursday, January 8, 3 p.m., is  filled with music, romance, laughter, plus a special lead-in by the Dancing Macettes. 

Tickets for the show – to be held at Club Exotica on the Ajijic Plaza – are available at Diane Pearl Colecciones and Mia’s Boutique. Morison will be singing favorite solo standards, and duets with guest vocalist Judy Hendrick and the multi-talented Patrick DuMouchel.  West Coast stand-up comedienne Laura Hayden will do a guest spot during the show. 

Baroque Trio

Aficionados of early music are in for a treat on Thursday, January 15 when the Baroque Flute Trio performs works by Bach, Telemann and Marcello in Chapala´s Old Train Station. The 7 p.m. concert will feature Hans Peter Aull on harpsichord, Eduardo Arambula on recorder and Areli Medeles on cello.

Aull, a music professor, organist and director of an early music ensemble, has given harpsichord concerts in Germany, France and Ecuador, as well as cities throughout Mexico.

Arambula, the founding director of the medieval and renaissance music group Ars Antigua, has given concerts in Mexico, the United States, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, France and Switzerland. 

Cellist Areli Medeles began her music studies with her father Victor Manuel Medeles, the composer and founder of the CREM music school in Ajijic. Since graduating from the University of Guadalajara in music and performance, she has played first cello in the Orquesta Monumental Panamericana and has been a soloist with the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra. For the past five years Medeles has been on the faculty of CREM, teaching cello to local students.

Tickets for the concert are 200 pesos and may be purchased at Diane Pearl Colecciones and the LCS box office on Thursdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to noon.  Also at the door before the concert.  All seating is open.

Viva Trip

Viva la Musica will provide a bus to the inaugural concert of 2015 given by the Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara. 

The “Brilliance of Brahms” program on Friday, January 16 will feature acclaimed Mexican pianist Jorge Federico Osorio playing Brahms’ “Piano Concerto No.2.” 

The Los Angeles Times described Osorio as “one of the more elegant and accomplished pianists on the planet.” JPO Musical Director Marco Parisotto will also conduct the orchestra playing “Symphony in D” by Cesar Franck.

The Viva bus will depart at 4:30 p.m. from in front of Ajijic´s Farmacia Guadalajara and include a stop for dinner in Guadalajara before the 8:30 p.m. concert. Tickets are 300 pesos for Viva members and 400 pesos for non-members, available at the Lake Chapala Society (LCS) box office Thursdays and Fridays, from 10 a.m. to noon. Call Marshall Krantz at 766-2834 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

Jeff Straker

According to reviewers, Canadian Jeff Straker’s music is extremely entertaining, but the entertainer’s genre is difficult to categorize. Lakesiders can determine if he plays blues or pop, cabaret or folk following the singer’s performances on February 12 and 13 at the Auditorio de la Ribera.  The February 13 concert also features the talented youngsters of the CREM Choir and Symphony Orchestra, who will join Straker for a unique night of music to benefit the Niños Incapacitados charity.

Live at the Met

Viva la Musica is selling tickets for Saturday bus trips to “The Met: Live in HD” simulcasts at the Teatro Diana in Guadalajara. The 2015 schedule is:

January, 17: “The Merry Widow.”

February 7: “Tales of Hoffmann.”

February 14: “Iolanta and Bluebird’s Castle.”

March 14: “Lady of The Lake.”

April 25: “Cavalleria Rusticana” and “Pagliacci.”

Tickets for the bus and the opera are 300 pesos for Viva members and 400 pesos for non-members, available at LCS on Thursdays and Fridays, from 10 a.m. to noon. Call Marshall Krantz at 766-2834 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

Paco Padilla

Renowned folk singer Paco Padilla presents a concert to benefit the Lakeside School for Special Children on Saturday, January 24 at La Bodega in Ajijic. The event has been arranged by school principal Imelda Camacho and her staff. Tickets for the dinner/show are 350 pesos. For more information, contact Maritza Freyslinger at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . 

Sculptors confab

Four accomplished sculptors will showcase their talents during the January 5-18 Lake Chapala Festival of Arts and Culture. The Encuentro de Escultores features artists Dolores Ortíz, David Agredano, Estanislao Contreras and Estela Hidalgo who will set up an open air studio at the waterfront Malecón to carve large scale stone sculptures. The event will be inaugurated on Monday, January 5, 6 p.m., at the Zalate de Felisa outside the Beer Garden Restaurant with live music performed by Ensamble Latino.