Once upon a time there was a group of people who lived in a small city in the middle of Mexico, and they loved chamber music. They invited their friends,  musicians known the world over, to come to town to play and teach students. 

 

Year after year, for over forty years, the most famous classical musicians in the world travelled to the town. People loved to hear their music and came from afar. Their master classes prepared generations of classical musicians in Mexico.

 

 Scores of people and businesses and governments donated their time and talent and treasure to keep the music playing year after year. The town was known for its music throughout all of Mexico and the world. 

 

Then a terrible plague hit the world. People were frightened to gather together. Musicians could not perform in person and were in dire straits. Those who had been so generous in the past felt the need to feed people or care for their health, rather than support music.  

 

  But there was a miracle, a new way of connecting, the internet and all struggled to use that to keep the music playing, all the while longing for what used to be. 

 

After two years of darkness, fear began to subside for some, but not all. Things had changed, the city was different, the government was different, peoples’ lives had been changed, some new people came to the city and others left, theaters closed. 

 

Brave groups took the risk of presenting live performance and some people again felt the joy of being together and feeling the power of music. But they did not come in the numbers necessary, and they did not give their time, talent or treasure as they had in the past. 

 

Then…..

 

Only you can write the end of this story. 

 

This year is a critical year for the San Miguel Chamber Music Festival. Do we want to keep the music playing? To bring the highest quality music to San Miguel? To influence the next generation of Mexican classical musicians? Or not?