The trio will be one of 11 international groups featured at the 30th anniversary production of the summer music festival in San Miguel de Allende (July 31-August 17).

Recognized as the second most important cultural festival in Mexico after the Cervantino, the summer festival has adopted the theme “Enter the Conversation,” said board president Barbara Porter to recognize that “the worldwide conversation taking place among performers and audience members can be passionate at times as an expansion of traditionally accepted themes in chamber music are explored by the best musicians. 

“The Festival de Musica de Camara also ‘entered this conversation.’ Our previous president, Ed Clancy, was passionate in bringing in groups that represented the ‘leading edge and transition’ in chamber music.  While he left the board in December, 2007, his leadership in that direction can be seen in the Ahn Trio’s two-night appearance this year. 

“Our effort has been to build a 2008 season that would be a step forward for the festival.  One of our criteria was to extend the music which we present both back in time from Haydn into the Baroque and pre-Baroque or Early Music periods as well as forward into the 21st century, including both modern and contemporary composers, such as those played by the Ahn Trio.”

Also providing a new experience for many audience members will be the Synergy Brass Quintet, which claims to perform more concerts than anyone in classical music today, averaging nearly 300 engagements per year. Critics have acclaimed the quintet for “a veritable fireworks display of outstanding musical ability combined with superb showmanship”, “blazing precision [and] amazing technique” and “a magical approach ... unadulterated exuberance, and a rock star approach of performing.”  They will perform on August 6 and 8.

Also appearing will be more traditional string ensembles, such as the Ying Quartet, the Miami String Quartet and the La Catrina String Quartet.

Making its 11th festival appearance August 1 and 2, the Ying Quartet draws from a repertory of contemporary music, featuring works by American composers. They have appeared in major American cities and in Europe, Canada, Australia, Japan and Taiwan.

Appearing Aug. 14 and 16, the Miami String Quartet was praised in The New York Times as having “everything one wants in a quartet: a rich, precisely balanced sound, a broad coloristic palette, real unity of interpretive purpose and seemingly unflagging energy,”

Founded in 2001 and former students of the Miami group, the La Catrina String Quartet  has a triple mission: to work closely with living composers in order to promote the performance of new music, to promote Mexican and Latin-American art music and to perform the masterworks of the string quartet repertoire. They also are the festival’s artists-in-residence in charge of the student program.  They perform August 4 and 12 with soprano Carmen Eloísa Sánchez and August 17 with the Miami String Quartet and pianist Gustavo Rivero Weber.

The festival will open July 31 with a free concert featuring the Cuarteto Carlos Chavez of Mexico City and composer Jesús Echevarria. They will also will perform  August 10.  Other groups appearing will be the Arveiros Vocal Quartet from Mexico City,  August 3 and 5; the Quinteto de Alientos de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, August 7; and the Poulenc Trio, August 13 and 15.  For ticket information and other details, consult the festival’s website, chambermusicfestival.com