The program will feature classical pianist Ana Cervantes and the early music ensemble Los Tiempos Pasados, directed by Armando López Valdivia. Part of the festivities will include a student art exhibition at the University of Guanajuato curated by UTD Associate Professor John Pomara, winner of one of the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art's 2005 Legend Awards.

ANA CERVANTES, pianist … soloist and collaborative artist of Mexican father and Nebraskan mother, Cervantes gives evidence in every performance of her special ability to serve as an interlocutor between cultures. She has been praised as a “physical, emotional pianist … with extraordinary touch” (Newark Star-Ledger) and as an artist of “intelligence, conviction, memorably flawless performance” (Classical New Jersey Society Journal). In 1999, Cervantes was given the prestigious Fulbright-García Robles award, with the project of developing repertoire of Mexican contemporary music for performance in the United States. In June of 2002, Cervantes was awarded an Individual Artist grant from the Bossak-Heilbrun Foundation “in order to further develop repertoire to be used in performance venues in Washington, D.C., other cities throughout the U.S., and Mexico.”

Los Tiempos Pasados

Musicians: Armando López Valdivia (director), Beatriz Eleanor López Wunsch, Karla López Wunsch, Rafael Cuen Garibi, Jose Luis Ramírez Santoyo, Jose E. Vidaurri Arechiga, Rodrigo Nefthali Lópes, María Guadalupe Wunsch C.

In 1972, the early music ensemble Los Tiempos Pasados, directed by Armando López Valdivia, began its adventure of recreating the art of early music for modern audiences. The group, whose name translates literally as "ages past," acts as a cultural ambassador of the University of Guanajuato through the School of Music and the Cultural Extension program's Early Music Workshop. The richness of the ensemble's arrangements is the result of an eclectic mix of early and modern instruments, including the transverse flute with its multiphonics and the Arab oud, and the creativity which these instruments inspire. No two concerts are ever alike; the performances draw on the fertile ground of early and modern Eastern music, transformed by the creative interpretations of the musicians who have at their disposal more than three hundred instruments from various latitudes and periods. The ensemble, founded by Scott C. Shwartz and Armando López Valdivia, has performed in many different venues both in Mexico and abroad. In Mexico, Los Tiempos Pasados has appeared in some of the country's most important events, including the International Cervantino Festival, Festival Cervantes en Todas Partes and Jornadas de Música Antigua; abroad, the group has participated in early music festivals and other international festivals in the United States, Colombia and Puerto Rico.

Highly versatile, Los Tiempos Pasados has played with a number of important artists including Munir Bashir (Iraq), Hamza el Din (Egypt), Dante Andreo (Argentina), Donald Joice (USA), Ars Nova (Mexico), Scott C. Schwartz (USA), Gerard Edery (Morocco), Camerata Hungarica (Hungary), Groupe Vocal Gregor (Spain), Enric Madriguera (USA), Pilar Rioja (Mexico), Nati Mistral (Spain) and the Terra Nova Consort (Oregon, USA). Also worthy of mention is the ensemble's collaboration with important theater director and playwright Juan Ibáñez, performing original music for the plays: Siempre es Hoy, Divinas Palabras, Mezcla and Espectáculos de Poesía Contemporánea y Música Antigua. The group has also performed in the White House, at the 1981 Cancun Summit, in Mexico's Presidential mansion Los Pinos, and for an assortment of foreign ministers, presidents, kings and other important world figures.
Los Tiempos Pasados has recorded six albums, testimony to a thirty-two year musical adventure and to the more than three generations of musicians who have contributed their talent and imagination along the way.