TIJUANA – Horacio Franco looks like a pop star: Fitted clothes, tattoos, pointy shoes and hair styled like James Dean. But when he starts to play the recorder he becomes more like a gypsy playing the hits from the 18th century.
"You play an instrument that's been used for a long time, but it's still an instrument that is evolving, offering enormous possibilities in ancestral music as well as with a more popular language, that could include contemporary music, electric," he said.
Making classical or concert music be as accessible as a Beatles song has been a goal of this Mexican musician. He certainly has the credentials for that effort.
Franco starred in Mexico's famed Palacio de Bellas Artes at age 13 interpreting Vivaldi's "Concerto in A Minor" for the recorder. Then it was on Amsterdam Conservatory, where he graduated 33 years ago as a soloist cum laude.
He's driven to improve the art and culture in Mexico as a member of what he calls a small army whose goal is to challenge the "junk" offered by Mexican television and radio networks and their "overwhelming" influence and offer an alternative to what should be seen and heard by its people.
Franco, 43, performed Thursday night with the Baja California Orchestra at the Center Cultural Tijuana, in a concert titled "Ancient Music for all Times." On Friday, he will be at the Centro de las Artes de Mexicali and Saturday at Ensenada's Teatro de la Ciudad.
Thursday's recital included an adaptation he wrote for "Concerto for the Flute of the Cantata No. 35" by Bach; three pieces of "Dumbarton Oaks" by Stravinsky; and "Gli Uccelli (The Birds)" by Ottorino Respigui; and an adaptation for the recorder of "Fantasía para un gentilhombre" by Joaquín Rodrigo.
On Wednesday night, Franco gave a workshop and played a few pieces for around 100 music students and parents in the rehearsal hall at the Center for the Musical Arts, on the city's east side.
He recalled that when he was 11 years old he discovered what would become the passion in his life when he heard a classmate play a sonata by Mozart on the piano.
His family's working-class income
in Mexico City was not enough to buy a piano, but he began to experiment with various sounds on the Yamaha plastic flute he took to school in and soon everything changed.
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He began a journey that continues today and that's taken him around the world with his 60 recorders, of diverse sizes and made of varying materials, to play in concerts in the Americas, Europe and Asia.
He's won prestigious awards, such as the Mozart Medal (1995, Austria-Mexico), 2002 Early Music Award (2003, United States); Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (1989, Mexico), among others.
"Music is the most essential of all of the arts because we have it even in our consciousness, starting in the womb we listen to the heartbeat of our mother, that is the music of life," he told the students and parents. "That's why we can all communicate and be moved by music."
omar.millan@sandiegored.com
[sidebar]More information
Information about the Baja California Orchestra and Horacio Franco is found at www.obc.org.mx.[/sidebar]
