In 2024, the premiere of an unpublished work by Revueltas and the Latin Grammys by Arturo Márquez stood out

Music had a great role in the cultural life of Mexico in 2024. From joining the global commemorations of the death centenary of Giacomo Puccini and the 200th anniversary of Anton Bruckner’s birth to the discovery, recovery and premiere of 25 works for piano, then unpublished, by Silvestre Revueltas, without overlooking controversial moments such as the month that the National Conservatory was on strike due to student protests.

A very generous year for Sonoran Arturo Márquez, the Mexican composer with the greatest international recognition today, who in November won two Latin Grammy awards, in the categories of Best Album and Best Classical Music Composition by Fandango for violin and orchestraperformed by the American violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and directed by the Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel.

In the last week of October, the author of the Danzón 2 He received the Cervantina Prize at the 52nd International Cervantino Festival (FIC) for his successful career and the promotion of new national composers through the award that bears his name, held annually by the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico (SACM) and the National Institute of Fine Arts and Literature (Inbal).

Another who was delighted was the Veracruz tenor Javier Camarena, one of the most acclaimed exponents on the world opera level, as he celebrated 20 years of career and did so with an intense agenda at the close of the 2023-2024 season, the same as in the opening of 2024-2025, during which he debuted at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in September; starred in October The wayward oneby Verdi, at the Dallas Opera, alongside his compatriots the director Iván López-Reynoso and the baritone Alfredo Daza. He still has a commitment next February to participate in the premiere of Romeo and Julietby Gounod, at the San Carlos Theater in Naples.

The list of celebrations is joined by the Sinaloan director Enrique Patrón de Rueda, recognized for his operatic work, who in November celebrated 45 years of experience at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center with the performance of the Requiem of Mozart and Verdi, at the head of the Philharmonic of the Arts.

In terms of institutions, the 140 years of the Orquesta Típica de la Ciudad de México (OTCM), the oldest active musical group in the country and Latin America, stand out, and which reached this anniversary – whose celebrations began in July and had as strong a concert in September at the Palace of Fine Arts – with the concern of being seen as an invaluable historical, cultural and artistic heritage, an institution of the countryaccording to what its director, Alberto Torres Xolocotzi, told this newspaper.

Of the international artists who visited the country, the Arditti Quartet stands out, which in June commemorated its 50 years in these lands with three concerts: one at the Esperanza Iris City Theater and the remaining two next to the Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Mexico at the Ollin Yoliztli Cultural Center.

Among the changes in musical institutions are the arrival in November of María Teresa Navarro Agraz to the Directorate of the UNAM Faculty of Music for the period 2024-2028 and in February of José Julio Díaz Infante to the General Directorate of Music of UNAM. the highest house of studies.

With the new federal administration, in October the appointment of Marcelo Lombardero as head of the National Opera Company and the departure of soprano María Katzarava was announced amid controversy over whether she had finished her career or had been fired.

The one who did resign from the direction of the National Conservatory of Music on October 21 was the pianist Silvia Navarrete, a position for which she was elected in 2023 and whose term would end in 2027, claiming that she did so in order to safeguard her ethical and professional integrity against unsustainable and fraudulent accusationsafter students from that institution stopped work for a month from the end of September.

The protesters demanded, among other points, transparency in the institution’s income and in the selection of director; updating of study plans; review of teacher recruitment; purchase and repair of musical instruments, in addition to the review and repair of the damage that the property suffered since 2017. The strike was lifted at the beginning of November and on the 19th of that month, Gladys Zamora Pineda was presented as interim director.

In August, Inbal reported the discovery and recovery of 25 piano works written by Silvestre Revueltas in his early youth, whose world premiere took place on the 25th of that month at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The discovery and subsequent work were carried out by musicologists from the Carlos Chávez National Center for Musical Research, Documentation and Information (Cenidim), as part of a long-term project undertaken a couple of years ago with the support of researcher Eugenia Revueltas, daughter of the legendary Durango musician, whose 125th anniversary of his birth was celebrated in 2024.

According to specialists, this set of pieces debunks myths surrounding the life and work of one of the most important and famous composers in Mexico, while opening new paths in the history of national music and culture.

Another event was the project Ponce 243: complete work forpiano, through which the 243 piano works known to date by Manuel M. Ponce, several unpublished, were played for the first time. This tribute took place between July and September, with 17 recitals in Mexico and the United States.

The national musical environment was darkened this year with the deaths of the pianist and composer Olivia Revueltas, a pioneer of jazz in Mexico, on August 2, at the age of 73, and of Andrés Vega, guardian of son Jarocho, on May 9, at 93 years old.