Viva la Musica Party
Viva la Musica will host its annual Membership Party for renewing members, new members and guests on Sunday, January 18, 4 p.m. at the home of Tony and Roseann Wilshere, on the lakefront at Rio Bravo 35, Ajijic. A champagne reception with canapes will be followed by a short concert by five Viva scholarship winners.
Each year Viva awards scholarships to the most promising young musicians from this area. Membership dues go directly to fund the scholarships for serious, talented students of classical music. A number of award recipients have gone on to become professional musicians and music teachers.
Viva has 175 members with a goal of having 200 members in 2015. One year memberships are 250 pesos for individuals, 450 for couples and 1,000 for patrons. Guests will be asked to pay 100 pesos to attend the party. Viva members are invited to attend the Annual General Meeting at 3 p.m., one hour before the party. For more information, call Rosemary Keeling at 766-1801.
Big Band
Chucho Lopez is bringing his world-class Big Band to lakeside. The renowned trumpet player’s orchestra will present a program of music paying tribute on Thursday, January 22 and Friday, January 23 to some of the world’s greatest musicians of the genre.
A Latin Grammy Award Winner, Lopez was born in Chapala in 1959 to a family that placed the importance of music above all else. Lopez was just 15 when he started on a professional career that allowed him to play with musicians including Henry Mancini, Tony Bennett, Barry White, Pérez Prado, and Vikki Carr. Now he is anxious to show his band members the Chapala plaza kiosk where he sang at age six.
Tickets at 550 pesos per person for these 6:15 p.m. performances in the Auditorio de la Ribera are available at the Lake Chapala Society, La Nueva Posada, Tony’s Restaurant Bar, El Arbol del Care, and the auditorium.
ASA Open Studios
The popular Fourth Annual Open Studios Tour featuring members of the Ajijic Society of the Arts (ASA) working as they welcome guests to area studios is slated for Saturday, February 7 and Sunday, February 8, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Guests who purchase the ASA Passport and Map for 50 pesos will be entitled to meet some 60 artists who are conveniently grouped into 20 studios from Riberas del Pilar to Rancho del Oro. As art lovers tour the studios and meet the artists they will browse a vast array of finished projects from cards, jewelry, sculpture, photography, textiles and paintings. In previous years participants have enjoyed getting to know the artists and having the opportunity to ask about their work and techniques.
Proceeds from the two-day event will benefit the artists of ASA and the Children’s Art Program of the Lake Chapala Society which received a check for 13,000 pesos after last year’s Open Studios tour. The 50-peso passports are being sold at the Lake Chapala Society and at Diane Pearl Colecciones.
Red Hot and Wild
Ajijic Cares is hosting Vince Martínez as he returns to Ajijic to headline the Red Hot and Wild evening on Saturday, February 28 at Arileo Restaurant, west of Ajijic. The cash bar will open at 5:30 p.m.
The event’s theme blends the color of the red HIV/AIDS awareness ribbon with the jazzy ambiance of a swanky New York-style supper club. Guadalajara’s contemporary jazz singer Marcela Mota will perform during dinner and Dallas-based Martínez, who has performed in Branson and Dallas, will headline the after-dinner show.
Tickets, at 500 pesos per person, includes the meal and gratuity, plus a substantial contribution to Vihas de Vida, the educational organization formed to bring awareness and compassion to those living with HIV/AIDS.
Evening attire is welcome or rock with red-themed attire. For tickets or more information call Bobby Lancaster at (376) 766-4267 or email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Antonio Lopez Vega
An exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Ajijic legacy artist Antonio Lopez Vega will open Sunday, January 18, in a 4 to 6 p.m. reception at Provecho, Bistro de Arte in San Miguel de Allende.
Lopez Vega began his studies in 1972 at San Miguel’s Instituto Allende, where he was dramatically influenced by Stirling Dickinson and James Pinto. He developed enormous interest in the prehispanic world while working on a project in Chichen Itza between 1981 and 1983.
In 1985, he was awarded the National Painting Salon’s most prestigious prize. That year his work was shown in “Espacio Violento,” a collective exhibition curated by Ruben Bautista Guardia in the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City. In 1986 his work was included in the exhibition, “Confrontatio 86” at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
Lopez Vega taught painting at Centro Cultural El Nigromante de Bellas Artes from 1985-2000. Siobhan Bryne and Lopez Vega started a “Estudiarte” at the Instituto Allende in 2003 with the help of Director Rodolfo Fernandez Martinez Harris. The program offers free art classes for talented children at the Instituto.